Have the Nazis Returned as MAGA? By Lawson Akhigbe

A Warning From History—But Today’s Crowd Has the Volume on Mute**

If the 20th century gifted humanity anything besides jazz, antibiotics, and the W221 S-Class, it was a very clear instruction manual titled “Don’t Do Fascism Again.”
Unfortunately, in 2025, it seems millions tore out the warning pages and kept only the pictures.

Because suddenly—suddenly!—a certain red-hatted movement has been stumbling around the political landscape with all the swagger of cosplayers who skim-read Mein Kampf and thought, “Needs more merch.”

Now, let’s be fair:
The MAGA crowd isn’t the Third Reich. They don’t have the discipline.
Hitler’s lot had trains that ran on time.
MAGA can’t organise an inauguration without a man in a buffalo costume storming a federal building.

But the rhymes of history? Oh, they are rhyming like Eminem on a sugar rush.

1. The Mythical Golden Age That Never Existed

The Nazis promised to restore a great, glorious Reich.
MAGA promises to “Make America Great Again,” though no one can quite pinpoint the golden period.
Was it the 1950s?
The 1770s?
Or the exact moment Trump discovered spray tan technology?

Both movements thrive on a nostalgic fever dream so unrealistic even Nollywood wouldn’t produce it.

2. The Cult of the Leader

Hitler had the raised-arm salute.
MAGA has the raised credit card at the campaign store checkout.
Both insist their leader is a misunderstood genius—even when he struggles to pronounce “oranges” of the investigation.

And while one regime edited history books, the other edits crowd sizes.

3. The Enemy of the Week Club

The Nazis blamed Jews, communists, and anyone who could read.
MAGA blames immigrants, windmills, and occasionally the entire state of New York.

Every week brings a new villain.
Today it’s “woke teachers.”
Tomorrow it’s the FBI.
Next Tuesday it might be the Michelin Guide for not giving Mar-a-Lago a star.

4. The Warning Signs—All Flashing, All Ignored

Historians are waving their arms like traffic wardens at a Lagos roundabout.
Political scientists are writing papers with titles like “Guys, Seriously, This Is Literally What We Warn About.”
Even the BBC Obituary Department must be on standby like, “Hmm. Should we prep a democracy obituary as well?”

But today’s citizens?
They’re scrolling TikTok, liking a cat video while democracy smoulders behind them like an unattended jollof pot.

5. The Difference?

One movement conquered Europe.
The other can’t organise a healthcare plan.
But the intent, the rhetoric, the messianic delusion, the victimhood packaged as nationalism—all eerily familiar.

The tragedy isn’t that history is repeating itself.
The tragedy is that it’s repeating itself as farce, and half the audience has the headphones on.

A Final Warning From History

Fascism doesn’t march in wearing jackboots anymore.
It arrives in golf shoes.
It tweets.
It sells baseball caps for $49.99.
It shouts on cable TV.
It jokes about dictators while quietly practising the hand gestures.

And we?
We write think pieces, shrug our shoulders, and hope our passports are up to date.

History is calling.
Today’s world is letting it ring out.