It Is Impossible to Distrust the Media Enough (Part 642)
Is President Trump one of his history’s greatest mass murderers, like Mao Zedong?
CNN recently ran a piece comparing Donald Trump to Mao, and the MAGA movement to the Red Guards, terrorist enforcers of the infamous Cultural Revolution. But this was not an original thought by CNN. The network, with its correspondents and other talking heads, was simply jumping on board the ancient régime media bandwagon, proving once again that Trump Derangement Syndrome causes “progressives” to lose all ability to reason and think critically.
CNN’s video is below, but here are some key points from its argument.
CNN began by noting that “There are fundamental differences between these two leaders [Trump and Mao], but . . .” [wait for what comes after the ‘but’] “some observers say the parallels are strong.” CNN then drew it parallels for us:
First CNN’s Fareed Zakaria set the stage by assuring us that “America seems to be copying the worst aspects of China’s history.” In the video that is immediately followed by images of the Chinese military, marching in lockstep” and of President Trump praising the U.S. military: “They fight, fight, fight, and they win, win, win!” You see, he’s just like them.
CNN continued:
CNN: “Mao started his revolution by organizing farmers and blue-collar workers.”
But . . . Trump: “Trump rallied the vote of America’s class.”
That is sort of like saying ‘Mao had two legs. Trump has two legs. Therefore, Trump is like Mao.’ But one of the differences in their organizational approaches was that for Mao, there had to be ‘struggle sessions’ that were essential to organizing the workers. See?
“Mao had a deep contempt for intellectual elites and bureaucratic institutions and mobilize red guards to purge intellectuals, senior officials, and scientists.”
So, what about Trump? “Trump has attacked universities, law firms, and the press, and upended the federal bureaucracy, dismantling agencies and slashing civil service jobs.”
The Red Guards “purged.” That sounds kinda strict, but relatively bloodless. Trump and DOGE, on the other hand, “attacked” and “slashed.”
“As the republic’s founding father Mao was regarded the Red Son of China.”
But, . . . but Trump: “A Chinese netizen1 writes on and the US Embassy WeChat post, the American people also have their own son. Others point out signs of a Mao-like personality cult in Washington.”
For the full flavor take 3 minutes to watch the whole thing.
This was not a one-off by CNN. Consistent with its desire to expand the meme, it has circulated several variations of its story on multiple platforms, including YouTube, CNN Newsroom, Tik Tok, X, and has published written transcripts of its broadcasts. Here is just one example:
“It is what he would like to be, who he sees himself as.” Trump is just like Mao Zedong, Kim Jong Un, Saddam Hussein, and other dictators. They “put themselves on a pedestal” and Trump “sees himself that way.” So, you see, Trump is not that much different than the monsters who have cemented their place in history by torturing innocents, gassing and starving babies to death, and murdering millions.
This is CNN.
It’s a media meme! “Trump is Mao and MAGA is the Red Guards.”
Other media outlets also have come to the belated realization that the “Trump is Hitler” and “MAGA is Nazi” memes are worn out. So maybe a different approach is called for? But, consistent with the Resistance’s underlying philosophy, no approach can be tolerated that treats Trump as an acceptable human being. He must be treated as a monster because his policies cannot and must not be tolerated. So maybe some comparison with some of his histories, other monsters, such as Mao Zedong, will work. Yes Mao. Unlike “Trump is Hitler” that is a fresh theme, and it just might work. So, you’re seeing the beta version of the meme as it’s being tested.
According to Foreign Policy, the New York Times, The Guardian and other leftist media have been banging this drum for a while:
As liberal critics of the Trump presidency have scrambled for traction since January, one historical analogy seems ubiquitous: “If you want a model for what’s happening to America,” economist Paul Krugman wrote in April, “think of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.” From the New York Times to the Guardian to a slew of Substacks, commentators have presented Donald Trump as the U.S. incarnation of the Great Helmsman.
Like Mao Zedong, these pundits say, Trump is mobilizing an insurrectionary base to destroy bureaucratic and cultural elites, has created a cult of personality in which the leader’s will overrides all else, and is brutally intolerant of his ideological enemies.
“One historical analogy seems ubiquitous” — The President is the “incarnation” of Chairman Mao. Jump on the bandwagon, boys, everybody’s saying it. All the elites, that is.
The Times also has compared Elon Musk’s and DOGE’s efforts to increase government efficiency and cut costs, to the Red Guards bloody rampages:
“The young associates Elon Musk has dispatched to restructure the U.S. government evoke memories for some Chinese of the Red Guards, who were mobilized by Mao Zedong to dismantle the bureaucratic system during the height of the Cultural Revolution.”
The Washington Monthly joined the chorus on April 22, and threw in bonus comparisons with Marie Antoinette and Liz Truss (who survived as Britian’s prime minister for 44 days) with “Is Donald Trump Channeling Liz Truss and Chairman Mao?”
Less than three months into his second term, Donald Trump conjures up the image of a three-headed hydra graced with the faces of Liz Truss, Britain’s failed prime minister; Chairman Mao Zedong, China’s despot ruler; and Marie Antoinette, the 18th-century queen who told the French to eat cake. Meanwhile, Gladiator, Director Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning tale of a debauched and self-venerating emperor remains the movie for our times.
That last sentence appears just to have been tossed in at the last minute for unclear reasons. Nevertheless, the linchpin for the Washington Monthly’s comparison with reckless and failed leaders is that the
Trump-imposed tariffs and executive orders have triggered a global stock market meltdown. Despite a pause in the fall, there appears to be no end to the recklessness and uncertainty the 47th president has unleashed.
“No end”? That prediction hasn’t turned out so well, has it? And what a magician is Trump! Even without ending his “recklessness and uncertainty,” he has NATO chiefs eating out of his hand and has simultaneously brokered peace agreements between Pakistan and India and Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and all this just after he brought Iran to heel with a single targeted strike instead of the predicted World War III.
Look closely; you see Trump doing his best Mao impersonation. The Chinese Communist Party Chair was never content merely to win power. He followed his Marxist takeover with ever more radical attempts to remake Chinese society, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Like Mao, Trump upends the U.S. economy through diktats.
. . . .
For the record, the Great Leap Forward was a bust. Mao’s attempt to transform China’s agrarian economy into a manufacturing-based one ended badly, as did the bloody Cultural Revolution’s efforts to purge intellectuals and bolster China’s failed collective farming. Right now, projected U.S. economic growth is close to nil. Economists say a recession is likely and certain if Trump continues his tariff crusade.
Stock market meltdown. Nil economic growth. Recession. No end in sight. Huh? That was being written while the stock market was at its near lowest on April 21. Here is how the S&P 500 has performed since that writing:
Continuing:
Like the late chairman, Trump also mounts a relentless culture war. The press, elite universities, and law firms are no longer safe. He brazenly flexes the coercive power of government to make his enemies bend the knee. The Leviathan runs amok.
According to The Conversation, which bills itself as the home of “academic rigor, journalistic flair,” Trump is like Mao and the Red Guards, whose “brutal onslaught” resulted in the closure of its universities, because he is attempting to “dismantle” the university system in this country. These are not serious people, but I will give them “journalistic flair” credit for “[t]he Leviathan runs amok.”
These people prove every day that Trump was right when he labeled them “Enemy of the people.”
“Netizen” is widely used in China (at the government’s instigation) to describe “Chinese citizens aged 6 years and above who have used the internet within the last six months” or who “use the internet for one hour or more per week.”
It's disturbing to watch the Left's accelerating descent into psychosis. There's not a day that goes by that some actor, journalist, or politician doesn't make yet another unhinged assertion completely disconnected from reality.
Equally disturbing is the thought that in their frenzy to demonize people like us - turn us into untermenschen - they're building a case for themselves to do to us what the pictures in your article illustrate.
At the age of 22, I could not have imagined nor dreamed the behavior of the Left as expressed by Blue. Today I am no longer surprised - which is itself troubling. I am also annoyed by the dumbing down of society that confronts me daily.