As a military leader, Hitler sucked. As a fascist he was able to achieve absolute power in Germany and transform its society from a democracy to a fascist dictatorship.
…. For one brief horrific moment, yeah.
It lasted about the same as one American election cycle. I think the way
@bilby described it is accurate.
33-41. In that time, he destroyed democracy, put all power in his own hands and that of his cronies.
Yes. He did that.
Never had to worry about reelection. Reformed the German economy,
He just went on a massive spending spree. The German economy couldn't support it in the long run, except by grand larceny; So they 'confiscated' everything owned by German Jews, and then invaded a series of neighbouring countries where they 'confiscated' everything that wasn't nailed down, and if it was, they also 'confiscated' the nails.
The glut of labour from the depression was solved by conscripting a vast Army. Whether individual Germans were happier to have regular work, when that regular work involves being shot at in a Russian blizzard, with no winter clothing, no hot food, no ammunition, and no fuel, you would have to ask them. It was great for a few years; Then it (unsurprisingly) all went to shit.
Kleptocracy always looks good to those not targetted for theft, at least for the short term.
The economic strength of Germany was all show and little substance; And with the Great Depression as a backdrop, any economy was going to look good.
and built a war machine that conquered Western Europe.
Well, his Generals did. And even they were surprised that it worked. Every time Hitler himself took an interest, it went to shit - the British Army escaped annihilation at Dunkirk because Hitler decided to take charge, and was terrified by the sheer unexpectedness of the German success into calling a halt in case of a French trap (which existed only in his mind).
His big mistake came when he decided to invade Russia.
That's for sure. But his economy demanded it - he had built an economy that depended on invading people and stealing their stuff.
By the middle of 1941, the European war was essentially over, and Germany had won. All that remained was some mopping up, and a long negotiation to bring a formal diplomatic end to the war with Britain, so their Naval blockade could be lifted. But Hitler had built an economy that couldn't afford to stop expanding, and couldn't afford to spend a couple of years negotiating peace with Churchill, who was particularly bellicose despite Britain's obvious military weakness.
Hitler also believed his own bullshit; The Germans had won by being lucky, and daring, rather than through actual military superiority, but Hitler (and, to be fair, the rest of the world) believed that they had some inherent 'greatness' against which none could stand. When you are invincible, why resile from a fight?
German communications, command, and control were better than those of France and Britain (and waaaay better than anything Stalin could dream of), but their logistics was weak, their weapons systems were mostly second rate (or unsuited to Russian conditions), and their military research varied from the non-existent, to the wildly crazy, with all the key systems neglected in favour of grandiose flashy and insubstantial 'glory projects', like the A4 (later V2) rockets.
Trump didn’t do shit his first administration, aside from a tax cut for the wealthy. He didn’t build a wall even. Lost the next election. Hitler was more competent. At least at first.
Hitler was luckier; And had a better propaganda department (operating in a far simpler and more controllable media environment); And had a less robust set of governmental checks and balances to dismantle.
Trump was, I think, very surprised and very annoyed by just how little actual power the US President has. Hitler grabbed
all of the top jobs in Germany; Trump grabbed only one in the USA, and only then realised it didn't give him much power.
Changes have since been made, both to the systems (including, and then via, SCOTUS), and to his choice of personally loyal cronies (rather than ones who are Republicans and Americans, before they are Trumpians, like Mike Pence showed himself to be on Jan 6).
It's a stretch to describe Hitler as 'competent', even before the 1944 von Stauffenberg assassination attempt pushed him right over the edge into full blown paranoid insanity. Certainly he made the transition to absolute power look easy, but that's partly showmanship - taking each stroke of luck and saying "I made that happen" - and partly a product of working within an already shaky system, with few strong protections.
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