Conservative commentator David Horowitz claimed yesterday that comparisons of Donald Trump to dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini are off base and that it is instead people who protest at Donald Trump events who are “fascists” and resemble “what led to the rise of Hitler.”

“This kind of fascist tactic — which is what it is, breaking up meetings, they went in to disrupt the meeting — it’s what led to the, you know people hate this analogy, but it is what led to the rise of Hitler in the ‘30s, the communists and the Nazis broke up the meetings of the social democrats and that’s how Hitler was elected,” Horowitz told Newsmax’s Steve Malzberg. “But they’re fascist tactics anyway, the left is dedicated to shutting down the free speech of anyone who disagrees with them by calling them names like ‘racist’ or ‘sexist’ and by physical violence. And we’ve seen it from Ferguson and Baltimore, out of control leftist mobs.”

After declaring that the “only real fascists in America are on the left,” Horowitz echoed Trump in saying that protesters should be arrested, adding that student demonstrators in the 1960s should have been expelled and Black Lives Matter protesters should all be “in jail.”

Horowitz has close ties in the GOP, frequently recruting leading Republicans — including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — to rub shoulders with anti-Muslim activists at retreats that he holds at a beach resort in Florida.