At a climate-focused event in San Francisco on Monday, former Vice President Al Gore delivered a sharp rebuke of President Donald Trump’s administration, drawing comparisons to Nazi Germany and issuing warnings about the dangers of political manipulation and unchecked power.
Speaking at the opening of Climate Week in San Francisco, Gore accused the Trump administration of shaping a distorted version of reality to serve its agenda, likening the strategy to the tactics employed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime during the 1930s and 1940s.
“I understand very well why it is wrong to compare Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich to any other movement,” Gore said to a crowd of about 150 policymakers and climate activists gathered at a science museum near the city’s waterfront. “It was uniquely evil, full stop. I get it. But there are important lessons from the history of that emergent evil.”
Gore’s criticism comes amid a wave of similar condemnations from prominent Democratic figures who have recently taken aim at the Trump administration. In a recent speech, Barack Obama voiced his alarm over federal threats against universities for not disclosing student protesters’ identities, saying that Trump’s leadership has corroded core American values. Kamala Harris has accused the administration of acting beyond constitutional boundaries and fostering a climate of fear. Hillary Clinton, in a New York Times op-ed, accused Trump of “squandering America’s strength and threatening our national security,” adding to the chorus of Democratic voices opposing the current administration.
During his speech, Gore referenced post-World War II reflections by German philosophers on the Nazi regime’s rise to power.
“It was [Jürgen] Habermas’ mentor, Theodore Adorno, who wrote that the first step in that nation’s descent into hell was, and I quote, ‘the conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power,’” Gore said. “He described how the Nazis, and I quote again, ‘attacked the very heart of the distinction between true and false.’ End quote. The Trump administration is insisting on trying to create their own preferred version of reality.”
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Gore’s statements.
Gore, who received an Academy Award for his 2006 climate documentary An Inconvenient Truth, also took direct aim at several public claims made by Trump regarding climate science and energy. He cited them as examples of the administration’s rollback of environmental protections and policies enacted under previous Democratic leadership.
“They say the climate crisis is a hoax invented by the Chinese to destroy American manufacturing,” he said. “They say coal is clean. They say wind turbines cause cancer. They say sea-level rise just creates more beachfront property.”
In his 25-minute address, Gore also referenced figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope Francis while calling on the audience to continue the fight against climate change and resist authoritarianism.
“We’ve already seen, by the way, how populist authoritarian leaders have used migrants as scapegoats and have fanned the fires of xenophobia to fuel their own rise of power,” he said. “And power-seeking is what this is all about. Our constitution, written by our founders, is intended to protect us against a threat identical to Donald Trump,” he said, prompting applause from the audience.
Following Gore’s speech, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie addressed the gathering. Pelosi emphasized key climate measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act and praised Pope Francis for his environmental leadership. Lurie highlighted San Francisco’s achievements in sustainability, including investments in electric vehicle infrastructure and renewable energy initiatives.
{Matzav.com}