Jane Fonda Warns About 'Parallels' Between Trump And Hitler

Jane Fonda did not mince words Thursday night when talking about President Donald Trump ’s abundant attacks on the media.

“If you’ve read anything about the rise of the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler, you will see the parallels,” the legendary actress told Variety at the Women’s Media Awards in New York City . “Attacking the media is the first step in the move towards fascism. The cornerstone to democracy is an independent, democratic media.”

Fonda also said that “our democracy is fragile and under attack” and urged people to vote.

On multiple occasions, Trump has called the press the “fake news media” and the “enemy of the people” and baselessly accused news outlets of fabricating stories .

The “parallels” that Fonda was talking about include Nazi propagandists referring to people critical of the regime and Adolf Hitler as members of the “Lügenpresse apparatus” “Lügenpresse” translates to “lying press.” Journalist Marvin Kalb has noted that dictators like Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong also regularly made similar comments about their critics.

However, some historians argue that comparisons between Trump and Hitler can trivialize the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime and also oversimplify current political issues.