Washington – Trump’s ‘America First’ Echoes Old Isolationist Rallying Cry

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    FILE - A crowd of over 4,000 people filled the Gospel Tabernacle in Fort Wayne, Ind., to hear Col. Charles Lindbergh, seen on the speaker's stand in the center, address a rally of the America First Committee on October 3, 1941. (AP Photo)Washington – Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump boils down his foreign policy agenda to two words: “America First.”

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    For students of U.S. history, that slogan harkens back to the tumultuous presidential election of 1940, when hundreds of thousands of Americans joined the anti-war America First Committee. That isolationist group’s primary goal was to keep the United States from joining Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany, which by then had overrun nearly all of Europe. But the committee is also remembered for the unvarnished anti-Semitism of some of its most prominent members and praise for the economic policies of Adolf Hitler.

    Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not respond to messages this week seeking comment about the America First slogan.

    The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization, sent Trump a letter two months ago urging him to refrain from using “America First.” The group also took $56,000 that Trump and his family foundation had donated to it over the years and redirected the money to new anti-bias and anti-bullying education programs.

    “For many Americans, the term ‘America First’ will always be associated with and tainted by this history,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the group’s chief executive. “In a political season that already has prompted a national conversation about civility and tolerance, choosing a call to action historically associated with incivility and intolerance seems ill-advised.”

    The group received no response to its letter, but Trump has continued to use the slogan, including in a new speech Tuesday.

    ‘AMERICA FIRST’ FORMED

    The America First Committee was founded in spring 1940 at Yale University by students that included future U.S. president Gerald Ford and future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. Future President John F. Kennedy contributed $100. Within months, France had capitulated to the Germans and England appeared on the verge of collapse. The committee was soon the largest anti-war organization in U.S. history, with more than 800,000 dues-paying members.

    As the committee grew, it attracted celebrities, politicians and business leaders opposed President Franklin Roosevelt’s lend-lease aid to the British. Among them was the admired aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was the first man to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean more than a decade earlier.

    FRIENDS IN BERLIN

    Lindbergh, whose family was of Germanic heritage, made multiple high-profile visits to the Fatherland, including to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as a special guest of Field Marshal Hermann Goering, head of the German air force. Lindbergh grew to admire Hitler’s revitalization of the German economy at a time the United States was still mired in the Great Depression. He also marveled at the advanced fighters and bombers of the Luftwaffe.

    Upon his return to the United States, Lindbergh spoke favorably of the Nazis and published widely read opinion pieces saying the German military conquest of Europe was inevitable and that America should stay out of the war. He joined the executive committee of America First and became the public face of the group, traveling the country to speak at massive anti-war rallies.

    ISOLATIONISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM

    America First championed the belief that two vast oceans would insulate the United States from foreign invasion. The group also opposed the acceptance of shiploads of Jewish refugees then-fleeing Nazi persecution. In addition to Lindbergh, the executive committee of America First included the automaker Henry Ford, who had paid to publish a series of anti-Semitic pamphlets called The International Jew, and Avery Brundage, the former U.S. Olympic Committee chairman who had barred two American Jewish runners from competing at the Berlin Olympics.

    Lindbergh espoused anti-Semitic views in his speeches, including a September 1941 America First rally in Des Moines, Iowa.

    “The British and the Jewish races, for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in the war,” he said. “Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”

    Within days of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. America First quickly disbanded.

    TRUMP’S ‘AMERICA FIRST’

    During his first major foreign policy speech in April, Trump said “America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.”

    He has repeatedly used the slogan on the campaign trail, including in a speech this week.

    “We are going to put America First, and we are going to Make America Great Again,” Trump said last week in another speech. “We need to reform our economic system so that, once again, we can all succeed together, and America can become rich again. That’s what we mean by America First.”

    Trump has proposed building a “big, beautiful wall” along the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out Latino immigrants and opposes the admittance of Muslim war refugees from Syria. He has also called for “tearing up” international trade deals.

    ECHOES OF THE PAST

    Historians told The Associated Press there are some ideological parallels between Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail and the positions taken 75 years ago by members of the American First Committee. Then as now, an economic downturn fanned popular resentment toward immigration, especially by those who were not perceived as traditional Americans.

    “Building a wall is about the illusion that there can be a physical safeguard to prevent intrusion from alien forces,” said Bruce Miroff, a professor who teaches on American politics and the presidency at the State University of New York at Albany. “America First was tapping into suspicion of an ominous other who threatened the American way of life. At that time, it was about Jews. With Trump, it’s Muslims and fear of terrorism.”


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    22 Comments
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    7 years ago

    There is vast difference. Trump doesn’t mean it on the sense of always ignoring world’s tragedies. He just that we have to stop this obsession of moral responsibilities that we must engage in despite the costs associated with it. So for example, its very sad that Mexicans live in poverty crime ridden neighboorhoods down in Mexico. But its not a tragedy that warrants use to absorb 11 million of them at all costs. Or take Russia. Its wrong for Putin to enter Ukraine. But he is not committing genocide nor is he sending millions of its citizens to the siberian golug as slave laborers. I think that’s a very big difference. But as usual the AP has to take a story and twist it to the other extreme.

    yonasonw
    Member
    yonasonw
    7 years ago

    I rest my case.

    Do you Trump supporters really believe that his America First rhetoric won’t boomerang into opposition to military aid to Israel, or that Yidden, especially frum Yidden, as an “identifiable” minority with an alleged “allegiance” to a “foreign power,” won’t get sucked into the populist rage Trump is enabling? Or do you not even think about it?

    Look at what’s happening in the UK as we speak.

    hashomer
    hashomer
    7 years ago

    Hmm…Herr Trump using proto-nazi slogans and dog whistle attacks that only trailer park guys and frum supporters can hear? I can’t believe it…

    SandmanNY
    SandmanNY
    7 years ago

    There is a sociological principle that “correlation doesn’t imply causation.” The fact that the term “America First” correlates to a previous isolationist movement doesn’t cause the same result here. Our country, our identity, our values, our way of life – all have been eroded by the globalist liberal left (of which “Billary” is a charter member). They are far more dangerous than any Nazis. The Nazis at least were visible. These people operate in the shadows while pretending they are with us and for us. As to Israel losing military aid from the US, that would be a good thing. If you really understand the strings attached and the conditions for it, it’s no great thing. And $3B these days just “ain’t what it used to be”. Israel can make that trading in the markets.

    qazxc
    qazxc
    7 years ago

    All too often “America First” has meant “Jews Last”

    7 years ago

    The article is part of the media’s attempt to bury Trump; the article did not state that after Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh and his ilk were ostracized, and his movement was essentially destroyed. The America First movement which Trump is championing has to do with trade imbalance, as well as balancing our budget, and not footing the bill for other countries. Someone on this site wrote about Trump going after the Yidden, if he is elected. It does not bode well for us, that many in the liberal media who have openly opposed Trump are Jews. He will remember that once he assumes office. Regarding Hilary, she is no friend of ours, either. Although she and her spouse have denied it, they have both used anti-semitic language privately, and even openly to Jews whom they did not like. Hilary called Paul Fray (who had Jewish lineage, but was not Jewish), a f—— Jew B—–d in front of scores of witnesses. She has also used that slur against other Jews. Heaven help us all, if she is elected!

    gimmeabreak
    gimmeabreak
    7 years ago

    All of you Yiddishe Trumperniks who think that his rhetoric is benign, or that “he doesn’t mean it” should read the article linked below VERY carefully, and pay particular attention to the response of the Donald and his campaign staff, which was silence.

    Trump-Inspired Anti-Semitism Prompts Fear, Police Reports…and a Gun Purchase http://www.wnyc.org/story/trump-inspired-anti-semitism-spikes-prompting-conservative-writer-protect-herself-gun/