Rachel Maddow said Donald Trump's rise led her to Hitler's in Germany. | Getty Maddow researches Hitler’s past to prepare for a possible Trump win

Rachel Maddow has been reading up lately on Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, the MSNBC anchor told Rolling Stone, because that’s where she thinks the United States could be headed.

In an interview published Tuesday on the magazine’s website, Maddow said Donald Trump’s rise to the top of the Republican Party has prompted her to search for historical equivalents, periods when cultures “have unexpectedly veered into dark places.” That search, she said, led her to 1930s Germany.


“Over the past year I've been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor,” she said. “I am gravitating toward moments in history for subliminal reference in terms of cultures that have unexpectedly veered into dark places, because I think that's possibly where we are.”

Asked by the interviewer if she was disappointed in the country for vaulting Trump to within shouting distance of the White House, Maddow said she was mystified that the Manhattan billionaire has made it into the general election. She said she was stunned that Republican voters would pick a candidate who could have devastating consequences for the country.

“What is amazing is the Republican Party that picked him,” she said.

“They had 330 million people to choose from, and they've decided that he is the best one to be the standard-bearer of one of the two major parties of the greatest nation on Earth. Like, talk to me, Republican voters! What's the worst-case scenario for America if he wins? It can be pretty bad. You don't have to go back far in history to get to almost apocalyptic scenarios.”

