Haha, I knew some people would object to this. And I get it. But I think the reasoning is really important.

If somebody, a year ago, say, had directly compared Putin to Hitler, wouldn't you have said it was a stretch? I certainly would have been tempted to. I think one thing this crisis has made me realise is the importance of the standards to which we hold leaders' behaviour. Especially their relationship with the truth.

Politicians lie. It's a trope. But the degrees matter. If a Xi or Putin clone came to power in America, They wouldn't turn it into a totalitarian state overnight. But they might make the odd "joke" about staying in office for "three, four, five, six terms." They might constantly cast doubt on the democratic process and on any information sources they disliked. They might...I don't know, try to publicly pressure their Vice President to illegally overturn their election loss.

The comparison stands not because Trump did anything as atrocious as these leaders, but because he he runs the same playbook. He was operating within a different, more totalitarianism resistant system. Thank God. But that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to be seen clearly.

To be honest, as another reader also pointed out, Trudeau is another excellent example. I wish I'd thought to include him too.