Trumps new favorite phrase 'enemy of the people' has a very ugly history
Over the last two weeks, President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to media outlets that he dubbed the "fake news media" as "the enemy of the American People."
Trump repeated the attack at a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, saying, "They are the enemy of the people."
The phrase "the enemy of the people" has a long history that Trump may or may not have known about.
Over the couse of the last century, it has been used repeatedly by dictators and autocrats to delegitimize foreign governments, opposition parties, and dissenters.
Though the phrase dates back to Roman times and the reign of Emperor Nero (who was declared "an enemy of the people" by the Roman Senate), it came into use in the modern period during the French Revolution. Ennemi du peuple was used to refer to those who disagreed with the new French government during the "Reign of Terror," a period during which thousands of revolutionairies were executed by guillotine.
While it was featured as the name of a Henrik Ibsen play, its next prominent use was by the Nazis. During the Third Reich's rule in Germany, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels referred to Jews as "a sworn enemy of the German people" who posed a risk to Adolf Hitler's vision for the country, according to The Washington Post.
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