In December, the media pounced after former President Donald Trump referred to his political enemies as 'vermin,' comparing it to words spoken by dictators Hitler and Mussolini.

"We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections," Trump told a crowd during a Veterans Day speech, adding "They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream."

The Washington Post said Trump's comments were "drawing rebuke from historians, who compared it to that of authoritarian leaders."

Trump’s use of the word “vermin” both in his speech and in a Truth Social post on Saturday drew particular backlash.

“The language is the language that dictators use to instill fear,” said Timothy Naftali, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “When you dehumanize an opponent, you strip them of their constitutional rights to participate securely in a democracy because you’re saying they’re not human. That’s what dictators do.”

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University, said in an email to The Washington Post that “calling people 'vermin’ was used effectively by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.”

“Trump is also using projection: note that he mentions all kinds of authoritarians ‘communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left’ to set himself up as the deliverer of freedom,” Ben-Ghiat said. “Mussolini promised freedom to his people too and then declared dictatorship.”

Oh please...

Journalist Matt Orfalea, master of receipts and plugger of memory holes, just dropped a massive compilation of Democrats referring to Trump as rats.

Watch: