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Trump twists history of Churchill and FDR to cover up pandemic denialism - CNNPolitics
Winston Churchill did not minimize the threat for the sake of peace and calm but took his place as a great leader by telling his people the simple truth. Following the disaster of Dunkirk he spoke to the British people:
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
At his Michigan rally, Trump jumped on the metaphor, comparing himself to the wartime prime minister. "We have to be calm. We don't want to be crazed lunatics. ... When Hitler was bombing London, Churchill, a great leader, would oftentimes go to a roof in London and speak. And he always spoke with calmness," Trump said, mangling the history of Churchill's late night trips to view the raids with his separate radio addresses to the British people.
The comparison doesn't hold up since Churchill left his country in no doubt of the challenge ahead when he became prime minister in 1940, warning of an "ordeal of the most grievous kind" and adding, "We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering." Trump never came close to a similar steeling of national resolve at the start of the pandemic. His choice to look away from the threat and hope it would just pass actually has more in common with another British Prime Minister of the era, Neville Chamberlain, who elected not to confront the rising Nazi menace in 1938 in appeasement policies that many historians believe squandered a chance to stop Adolf Hitler before he reached a point of maximum danger.
Winston Churchill did not minimize the threat for the sake of peace and calm but took his place as a great leader by telling his people the simple truth. Following the disaster of Dunkirk he spoke to the British people:
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
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