Noam Chomsky dismisses 'megalomaniac' Donald Trump and says win has energised neo-Nazis globally

Noam Chomsky has branded Donald Trump an “ignorant, megalomaniac” with no clear positions whose election has energised neo-Nazis around the world.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera, the celebrated American philosopher and linguist delivered a scathing assessment of Mr Tump’s ability to lead America and gave a bleak outlook on the turbulence and instability the future will hold after his ascendency to power.

Chomsky dismissed the President-elect as “off the spectrum”, a “showman” and unlike any other candidate to hold political office, a man whose most predictable attribute is his fundamental unpredictability. Mr Trump has no clearly identified positions other than his plans to strengthen the military, says Chomsky. Any stated positions he does give are often subject to sudden and erratic about-turns.

It’s extremely hazardous to have an “ignorant, thin-skinned megalomaniac“ who fires off angry 3am tweets in control of the nuclear codes, he added.

Mr Trump has cranked up the volume of his Twitter tirades in the last 48 hours, targeting CNN when one of their reporters challenged his “baseless” claims electoral fraud took place during the election. On Wednesday, he suggested flag burning should be punishable by revoking citizenship despite being protected under the US constitution and on Thursday shared a misleading tweet claiming the Somali immigrant student who launched an attack on Ohio State University should not have been in the country, wrongly implying he was an illegal immigrant.

“I wouldn’t compare it with Weimar Germany," Chomsky continued. "Hitler was a sincere, dedicated ideologue. Trump isn’t. He has no known ideology other than me.”

He said Mr Trump’s election was energising neo-Nazis not just in the US, but globally. “If you look at the European reaction, every far-right, ultra-nationalist neo-Nazi was greatly encouraged and excited by his victory and thought it helped them. Whether he will go in that direction we don’t know.”

But there were aspects of the US election Chomsky does feel encouraged by. Bernie Sanders has an overwhelming majority among young people which he says could be a “positive portent” for the future, he continued.

Chomsky has been a vocal critic of Mr Trump and declared the Republican party “the most dangerous organisation in world history” with him at the helm. “The party is dedicated to racing as rapidly as possible to destruction of organised human life," he said in October. "There is no historical precedent for such a stand."