NO, TRUMP WON'T BURN IT ALL DOWN (BUT WHAT HE'LL DO WON'T BE MUCH BETTER)

Paul Krugman looks at the downfall of Adolf Hitler and wonders whether it's a portent of Donald Trump's future:

By the middle of March 1945 even Adolf Hitler knew that the war was lost. Soviet forces were within 45 miles of Berlin. American forces had crossed the Rhine and were well on their way to encircling the remaining German defenders. But Hitler didn’t believe that he had failed. He believed that he had been failed by the German people.

So on March 19 he issued the “Decree concerning demolitions in the Reich territory,” which has come to be known as the Nerobefehl or Nero decree. It ordered the destruction of Germany’s own infrastructure — supposedly to deny that infrastructure to the Allies, but the obvious purpose was to punish his own country.

Fortunately, Albert Speer and other Nazi officials didn’t carry out the order....

Why am I recounting this history? Obviously because I’m thinking about what will happen after the midterms.

Actually, as Berlin's Deutschlandmuseum points out, some destruction did take place in response to Hitler's order: "almost all of the Rhine bridges from Switzerland to the North Sea were destroyed – and only a lack of time prevented even more destruction." The museum explains Hitler's thinking:

All transport, industrial or supply facilities that could benefit the Allies were to be destroyed before they fell into enemy hands. Hitler told Albert Speer that the needs of the German civilian population were unimportant. As the “best Germans” had already died, those who were set to survive the war would be of no value to the life of the German nation.

It's hard to imagine Trump thinking like Hitler after the midterms. Trump wouldn't seek to punish the American people because he has no interest in the American people one way or another, except to the extent that they provide him with love and fuel his narcissism. Hitler, as Krugman notes, knew he was defeated, but Trump won't believe he lost even if there's a blue tsunami and Democrats win all the close races. He'll tell himself (and his fan base) that the voting was rigged, the polls were rigged, the courts are rigged, the media is rigged, and even so, Republicans would have won if only he'd been on the ballot. Americans still love him!

Trump has an unshakable belief in the Power of Positive Thinking.

TRUST IN TRUMP. "Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!" - President Donald J. Trump. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/CAjU4jM8Jy

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 1, 2026

And, of course, Trump, unlike Hitler, won't have to choose between death and surrender. Krugman says that Trump "will retain immense capacity to inflict destruction on America, not to mention America’s allies." I agree that he'll "retain immense capacity," thanks to the Supreme Court, the Senate filibuster, and America's Framers, who gave us a constitution that was unsuited to a nation with a two-party system, with its requirement of a two-thirds vote to convict in the Senate after a president or other official is impeached. Trump will still have a lot of power, and he'll use it, narcissistically.

Krugman thinks he's already raining destruction on America's allies.

Over the past few days, according to President Zelenskyy, Ukraine has received no warning from the West about impending Russian missile strikes. This could reflect technical problems. But anyone dismissing the possibility that Trump is trying to punish Ukraine for daring to deny victory to his friend Vladimir Putin must have slept through the past two years.

But Trump doesn't see Ukraine as America's ally. Trump sees Russia as Amerca's ally.

In domestic matters, Krugman notes this:

At home, Trump officials suddenly cut down hundreds of trees at a public golf course in Washington. Trump has long wanted to remake that golf course to his own taste, but that’s unlikely to happen given the political winds, and in any case there was no need to rush the destruction. This was almost surely an act of spite, of deliberate act vandalism, undertaken precisely because Trump knows he won’t get his way.

But Trump doesn't regard that as destruction. Trump doesn't like nature. He's never shown the slightest appreciation for it. Trump likes golf courses -- that's the only kind of greenery he appreciates. He likes patios, and built a replica of the one at Mar-a-Lago in place of the White House Rose Garden. Trump doesn't think that's destruction. Trump thinks that's beautification. (And he undoubtedly believes he'll get to build that golf course one way or another.)

Krugman is right about this:

Think of the Kennedy Center, a national icon that Trump is destroying because he can’t put his own name on it, as the model for what is all too likely to happen to America over the next two years.

But he'd rather rebuild it, in his own gaudy, tacky way, and with his name on the building. Maybe he'll tear it down after the midterms, but if he does, he'll begin the process of replacing it with something gaudy and tacky and bearing his name.

Trump won't issue a Nero decree. Just the opposite: He'll keep trying to build grandiose crap and force it all on the rest of us. That's better, but not by much.