Man excoriates me over comparison of Trump to Hitler. But Trump's running mate said it first.

Todd from Ohio was horrified by my "offensive" language, even though it was J.D. Vance, his own senator, who called Trump "America's Hitler" (Audio embedded.)

This was one of the most bizarre calls to my SiriusXM radio program in a while.

I was discussing Trump’s choice of former venture capitalist Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate and how, before this opportunist backed by tech billionaires like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk became MAGA on steroids, he’d defined himself in 2016 as a “never Trumper” and actually called Trump “America’s Hitler.”

First, I explained how Trump is in the mold of many authoritarians and fascists from the past and present, from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini to Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin, drawing upon the book by New York University scholar and expert on authoritarianism, Ruth Ben-Ghiat: “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present.” (And many of you I know subscribe to Ruth’s great newsletter here, Lucid.)

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Todd from Cleveland had called in at that point, completely beside himself and saying I should “be ashamed” of myself and should not have a microphone.

He first explained that he was an “unaffiliated” voter and said, “I don’t have a political party.” And he explained that someone told him that if you don’t have a political party and have SiriusXM, you should listen to “Progress,” my channel.

Now, I don’t know if the person who told him that was trolling him or if they or he genuinely confused “Progress” with “Potus,” which positions itself as non-partisan, but this was pretty laughable. SiriusXM Progress, after all, is definitely “affiliated”—with democracy and against MAGA.

Todd seemed to think I was horribly tarring MAGA by talking about the “MAGA bomber,” Cesar Sayoc, a Trump supporter and domestic terrorist—found by the FBI in his van covered in Trump iconography—who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sending pipe bombs in the mail in 2018 to the Clintons, former President Obama, then former Vice President Biden, and then Senator Kamala Harris, among other Democratic political figures, all in the name of Trump and MAGA.

That was MAGA terrorism—and Trump, by the way, never condemned these assassination attempts, unlike President Biden and every Democratic elected official who condemned the assassination attempt against Trump last weekend.

Todd, astonishingly, hadn’t seemed to have heard of the MAGA bomber and thought that by mentioning Clinton, I was dredging something up from the Clinton years that had nothing to do with Trump.

He was also shocked and infuriated at my using Hitler’s name so much, calling it “offensive.” As I tried to explain to him that J.D. Vance, his own senator, used the term “America’s Hitler,” he continually accused me of talking over him. Then, in a cowardly fashion, he told me I needed help and hung up.

Admittedly, I then got pretty worked up about the call and Todd’s ignorance and accusations.

Listen in, and let me know your thoughts!