Good Blood: Donald Trump, Henry Ford, and American Fascism
On Thursday, sans required mask, President Donald Trump visited a Ford Motor plant in Michigan. As per usual, his remarks were bizarre and occasionally incoherent, including a promise that should the coronavirus pandemic worsen he would not shut down the country again. But what gained the most outrage was his reference to Ford and its “bloodlines” and “good blood.”
Any reference to this kind of nonsense justifiably hearkens back to bygone eras of racial eugenics and blatant white supremacy as the notion of inherited genetic markers of “good” and “bad” varieties is one of the cornerstones of institutionalized prejudice. It should be noted that Ford Motor company was founded by Henry Ford, a disgusting figure who played a prominent role in that very institution.
Obviously Trump was referring to Ford, but his tip of the hat failed to mention Ford’s problematic history, including his role in spreading weaponized prejudice throughout the world and inspiring, in part, the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany.
It was Henry Ford, in the early 20th century, who collected the fictional Protocols of the Elders of Zion manuscript, a forgery that alleged Jewish conspirators were manipulating world events for their own power and profit, to publish in his newspaper the Deerborn Independent. Later, he would publish a book called The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem, which unfortunately became incredibly popular around the world.
Ford’s conspiracy theory was based on a plagiarism of a play called "The Dialogue In Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu that was actually criticizing white supremacist manipulation of politics and world affairs, but the cat was out of the bag. Ford’s conspiracy theory swept the world, catching the attention of hate-mongers like Adolf Hitler, who used the story to promote his own conspiracy theory of “The Knife In The Back,” that alleged Jewish traitors had caused Germany to lose World War I.
Hitler admired Ford. He was awarded the Order of the German Eagle on his 75th birthday and a portrait of Ford hung in Hitler’s private office. In an interview with an American paper, Hitler lauded Ford as a potential fascist president in the United States, promising he’d be willing to send his shocktroops to make the election happen.
In little known history, fascism actually flourished in America. Groups associated with the Nazi movement enjoyed thousands upon thousands of members and Charles Lindbergh’s America First organization, which called for cooperation between America and Nazi Germany to protect “caucasian” interests gained widespread popularity. The links didn’t stop there, either, as American eugenicists traveled to Germany to observe and consult in the construction of the Nazi eugenics machine that birthed the tragedy of the Holocaust.
America and Nazi Germany are unfortunately linked by individuals like Ford, but also in our philosophies. The nationalist movement that inspired the Nazi revolution was the same that powered our concepts of Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism. Emerging out of the Romantic Era, these ideas were powerful and destructive, leading to both the genocide of the Native Americans and the Jewish people of Europe. It is this mindset that has created so much destruction in both of our countries, but which has also allowed individuals like Donald Trump to believe they are superior and that “lesser beings” do not deserve the same luxuries or freedoms.
On Tuesday, Trump allowed yet another glimpse into just who he is and what he believes. Listen to him. At long last, dear god, listen to him.
Jared Yates Sexton is the author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, available for pre-order from Dutton/Penguin-Random House. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Politico, and elsewhere. Currently he serves as an associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University and is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast.
