Al Gore didn’t mince words.
At a Climate Week event in San Francisco on Monday, the former Vice President delivered a stunning rebuke of Donald Trump—comparing his administration’s tactics to the early warning signs of Nazi Germany.
“I understand very well why it is wrong to compare Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich to any other movement. It was uniquely evil, full stop. I get it,” Gore told the audience. “But there are important lessons from the history of that emergent evil.”
Gore referenced German philosopher Theodor Adorno, saying the Nazi regime started with “the conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power.”
“They attacked the very heart of the distinction between true and false,” Gore quoted. “The Trump administration is insisting on trying to create their own preferred version of reality.”
That wasn’t a casual jab. His words cut deep. Gore directly accused Trump of twisting truth to hold on to power, just like authoritarian regimes have done before.
This isn’t the first time Trump’s rhetoric has been compared to fascist imagery. Back in February, Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz likened one of Trump’s campaign rallies at Madison Square Garden to a pro-Nazi event held in the same venue in 1939.
Gore, a longtime environmental advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent decades warning about the dangers of climate denial. But Monday’s speech was about more than just the environment.
Trump’s administration has gutted environmental protections, stripped $4 million in federal funding from Princeton for climate research, and signed executive orders to weaken state authority over pollution controls—moves Gore says are driven by politics, not science.
Earlier this month, Trump called environmental policies “burdensome” and “ideologically motivated.” Gore sees that as a tactic.
“Power-seeking is what this is all about,” he said.
He didn’t stop there. Gore also blasted Trump’s immigration policies and the use of fear to divide the country.
“We’ve already seen, by the way, how populist authoritarian leaders have used migrants as scapegoats and have fanned the fires of xenophobia to fuel their own rise of power,” Gore said.
Then he dropped the hammer: “Our constitution, written by our founders, is intended to protect us against a threat identical to Donald Trump.”
Watch more of the coverage below from ABC7:
