Ken Langone, Top Christie Donor And Home Depot Co-Founder, Makes Hitler Comparison

Ken Langone, a GOP megadonor and the co-founder of Home Depot, made a questionable Adolf Hitler comparison while looking at political trends ahead of 2016.

In an interview with Politico published Tuesday, Langone warned of populist rhetoric against the wealthy, recalling "what Hitler was saying in Germany":

In two-dozen interviews, the denizens of Wall Street and wealthy precincts around the nation said they are still plenty worried about the shift in tone toward top earners and the popularity of class-based appeals. On the right, the rise of populists including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz still makes wealthy donors eyeing 2016 uncomfortable. But wealthy Republicans — who were having a collective meltdown just two months ago — also say they see signs that the political zeitgeist may be shifting back their way and hope the trend continues.

“I hope it’s not working,” Ken Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot and major GOP donor, said of populist political appeals. “Because if you go back to 1933, with different words, this is what Hitler was saying in Germany. You don’t survive as a society if you encourage and thrive on envy or jealousy.”

Langone's Hitler comparison echoes statements previously made by venture capitalist Thomas Perkins, who compared the "progressive war on the 1 percent" to Nazi anti-Semitism in January.

“In the Nazi area it was racial demonization, now it is class demonization,” Perkins wrote in a letter to the Wall Street Journal.

Langone, a prominent backer of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), hasn't been shy about his opinions in the past, once criticizing the Pope and once saying he hoped former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's "private hell is hotter than anybody else's."

Read more at Politico.