Der Spiegel Backs a Coup, Alleging, It’s All Trump’s Fault and He Threatens Fascism

June 7, 2020 (EIRNS)—Germany’s Der Spiegel, the largest circulation weekly magazine in Europe, posted a picture of Donald Trump on the cover of the issue posted June 6, with Trump holding a burning match, while behind him a city is on fire. The title: “Der Feuerteufel—Ein Präsident setzt sein Land in Brand” (“The Pyromaniac—A President Sets His Land on Fire”).

The lead article, “Democracy on the Defensive in Trump’s America,” is an unrestrained attack on Trump as an authoritarian threatening the destruction of democracy in America. While not using the term “fascism,” it quotes Prof. Rosa Brooks from Georgetown University warning that Trump may orchestrate a “Reichstag Fire” incident, and Spiegel then references Hitler’s “Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State” which used the 1933 Reichstag fire to impose the Nazi dictatorship.

The German weekly rants about Trump: “Instead of offering leadership, President Donald Trump is exacerbating divisions and showing authoritarian tendencies.... He was unable to find the courage or desire to give a consoling speech following the horrific slaying of George Floyd.” Trump, of course, gave several such speeches, and spoke to Floyd’s family.

Spiegel continues, reporting on Brooks:

“The current chaos on the streets of America isn’t just the product of the country’s economic and societal tensions. The President himself has repeatedly exacerbated those conflicts with his rhetoric. Trump, it seems, needs the chaos. He feeds off it.... He harbors deep admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and once voiced his support for the violent crushing of the pro-democracy protests on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, saying it was a sign of strength.”

Spiegel takes delight in the fact that its favorite regime-change generals, John Allen and James Mattis, have publicly blamed Trump for the chaos.

Spiegel cites Brooks’ warning, who is forming a group of Democrats to prepare the Biden campaign for the alleged potential that Trump is trying to fix the election, and that he will not accept defeat. She maintains that he would have “no qualms about ignoring the will of the people. It’s not even clear that the Supreme Court would accept a suit against a President who refuses to vacate the White House. And even then, what if Trump simply disregards a Supreme Court ruling? The Secret Service would have to escort the President out of the Oval Office. But the Secret Service reports to the Department of Homeland Security,” [sic—the Secret Service is a division of the Treasury Department], which she worries would follow Trump’s orders.

Spiegel admits that the “color revolution” may not be working, since many Americans are angry “about the looting, which has been especially serious in New York, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis, all of which are run by Democratic mayors.... The nation is watching footage on its screens of burnt-out police cars and shattered storefronts, of an America in chaos.”