I'm a historian of totalitarianism.

I look at fascist rhetoric.

I've been thinking about the sources of the worst kinds of history for a quarter of a century.

Experts say the constitutional crisis is here now.

The Trump administration deporting hundreds of men without a trial.

A massive purge at the FBI.

To make people afraid of speaking out against him.

I'm leaving to the University of Toronto

because I want to do my work without the fear

that I will be punished for my words.

The lesson of 1933 is you get out sooner rather than later.

I've spent a lot of time in the last decade trying to prepare people if Trump were elected once,

let alone twice.

Look what happened.

Is this crazy?

I did not flee Trump.

But if people are gonna leave the United States

or leaving American universities,

there are reasons for that.

One thing you can definitely learn from Russians.

Is that it's essential to set up centers of resistance in places of relative safety.

We want to make sure that if there is a political crisis in the U.S., that Americans are organized.

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