Democratic strategist James Carville warned on Friday that those who cooperate with President Donald Trump’s administration may be treated the way Nazi collaborators were at the end of World War II.
The former Bill Clinton adviser made the comparison during a recent segment of his “Politicon” podcast, noting that the humiliating treatment that the Europeans who helped Hitler’s forces faced at the end of the war may be instructive as a historical comparison.
Carville singled out influential Americans and institutions aiding the Trump administration.
“I’m not saying that these people should be placed in pajamas and have their head shaved, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and spit on. I’m not saying that, but I’m saying that that did happen,” Carville said.
Speculating about the future, he wondered, “Do you know… what the country is going to feel toward collaborators with this regime?”
The strategist began by railing against Trump’s agenda, calling it a “nightmare” and hoping for its end.
He called Trump officials “anti-patriotic,” “a bunch of grifters,” and went on to tar and feather the law firms and corporations that have been cooperating with the administration.
The Trump administration has applied pressure on multiple major law firms allegedly linked to the Democratic Party and anti-Trump causes.
Trump signed an executive order last month that called for the employees of the Perkins Coie law firm to be stripped of their security clearances and banned from accessing government buildings. It also called for the termination of the firm’s existing contracts with government clients.
While Perkins Coie has sued Trump over the executive order, other firms have sought to strike deals with Trump over the pressure.
New York ‘s Paul Weiss firm met with the president in March and agreed to pledging $40 million worth of legal work to support administration causes to be spared from executive penalty, the AP reported.
Carville viewed such efforts to work with Trump as capitulation to his agenda.
“How disgraced must these law firms feel now? How disgraced must these companies that are sucking up to him – that are giving him tens of millions of dollars for ‘access.’ Do you know what’s going to happen? Do you know how this ends,” he asked, before making his historical comparison.
“Do you know… what the country is going to feel towards collaborators with this regime? Maybe you need to go in history and see what happened in August of 1944 after Paris was liberated. They didn’t take very kindly to the collaborators. No. It was not a very pretty sight in the streets of Paris.”
Carville continued, clarifying that he isn’t endorsing this treatment but noting it did happen and it could happen to Trump cooperators, who, he added, have betrayed America.
“But I’m saying that that did happen. And I’m saying that these people betrayed the French nation in the same way that I think that these law firms and these giant corporate conglomerates are betraying the United States,” he declared, though he added he doesn’t know what their “comeuppance” should be and advised people not to assault anyone.
Carville called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos a “collaborator” last month, after the business mogul pledged to work with the Trump administration. “This guy’s not going to be remembered as the greatest retailer who ever lived, of which he is,” Carville said. “He’s going to be remembered as a collaborator. And he will never ever wash that stench off of him.”
