Larry David mocks capitulation to Trump in brutal parody about a 1939 dinner with Hitler
Many of President Donald Trump's more outspoken critics believe that way too much "capitulating" is taking place —that Trump is genuinely dangerous and deserves total condemnation rather than having a lot list of universities, law firms and tech CEOs who were critical of him in the past trying to make peace with him.
Comedian Larry David has fun with that concept in a satirical op-ed published by the New York Times on April 21. In his op-ed, David describes a fictional dinner with Adolf Hitler in 1939.
"Imagine my surprise when, in the spring of 1939, a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world's most reviled man, Adolf Hitler," David sarcastically writes. "I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship. No one I knew encouraged me to go. 'He's Hitler. He's a monster.' But eventually, I concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn't change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity."
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David continues, "Two weeks later, I found myself on the front steps of the Old Chancellery and was led into an opulent living room…. Everyone stiffened as Hitler entered the room. He was wearing a tan suit with a swastika armband and gave me an enthusiastic greeting that caught me off guard. Frankly, it was a warmer greeting than I normally get from my parents, and it was accompanied by a slap on my back."
In a separate op-ed also published on April 21, New York Times Deputy Opinion Editor Patrick Healy describes assigning the op-ed to David after he pitched it.
Healy explains, "Times Opinion has a high bar for satire — our mission is geared toward idea-driven, fact-based arguments — and we have a really, really high bar for commenting on today’s world by invoking Hitler. As a general rule, we seek to avoid Nazi references unless that is the literal subject matter; callbacks to history can be offensive, imprecise or in terrible taste when you are leveraging genocidal dictators to make a point. I also understood Larry's intent in writing this piece."
Healy adds, "We had spoken about American politics and how some on the left and in the center think it’s important to talk and engage with President Trump."
David's op-ed follows "Real Time" host Bill Maher's decision to meet with President Donald Trump in the White House. Although Maher has often been a scathing Trump critic, he decided to meet with him anyway. And Maher, on "Real Time," commented that Trump was a lot more low-key during their one-on-one conversation that he is publicly.
"Like many people," Healy notes, "Larry listened to Bill Maher talk about his recent dinner with Trump. Bill, a comedian Larry respects, said in a monologue on his Max show that he found the president to be 'gracious and measured' compared with the man who attacks him on Truth Social. Larry's piece is not equating Trump with Hitler. It is about seeing someone for who they really are and not losing sight of that."
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Read Larry David's full New York Times op-ed at this link (subscription required) and Patrick Healy's op-ed here (subscription required).
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