Analyzing textbook graph showing Trump as ideologically similar to Hitler

In April 2026, an image circulated online that claimed to show a graph in a high school American government textbook that depicted U.S. President Donald Trump as being ideologically similar to Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party in Germany.

Karol Markowicz, a conservative columnist for the New York Post and Fox News, first shared the image of the alleged graph on X, writing (archived):

A teen cousin showed me this in her AP American Government book. Trump is similar ideologically to Hitler and Bernie Sanders is a touch off the center to the left.

(X)

Markowicz's image quickly circulated on X (archived, archived), drawing attention from the platform's owner Elon Musk (archived) and conservative podcaster Trish Regan (archived). The image also appeared on Instagram (archived). Snopes readers wrote in to ask whether the graph was authentic.

The graph shared in social media posts did appear in "American Government: Stories of a Nation," a textbook for high school students published by Bedford/St. Martin's and Macmillan Publishers in 2019, according to a physical copy that Snopes viewed.

That graph classified both Trump and Hitler as highly authoritarian.

Because the graph appears in a real textbook and matches the image circulating online, we rate this claim true. That said, a spokesperson for Macmillan Publishers confirmed to Snopes via email that the graph was part of a "critical thinking exercise" and that it included modern politicians to "prompt students to oppose or defend particular perspectives." 

The Political Compass, a website that the textbook authors credited with providing the data for the graph, said via email it was "not responsible" for the visual as presented in the textbook. In response, Macmillan Publishers said that while its authors had used publicly available data from The Political Compass, the graph wasn't "produced by or directly reproduced" from the website itself. 

At the time of this writing, it was also unclear how many schools used "American Government: Stories of a Nation" or where Macmillan Publishers distributed the book.

Snopes contacted Markowicz to elaborate on a social media post (archived) that suggested she thought the textbook authors sought to push a specific political agenda by including the graph. We await replies to our queries.

What the graph shows

The graph in question appears on Page 384 of "American Government: Stories of a Nation" as part of a section that discusses party ideology in the U.S. Another social media user posted (archived) an identical version of Page 384 of the book that shows the graph and we include an image of the page below.

Snopes viewed the first edition of the textbook published in 2019. The Macmillan Publishers spokesperson said in April 2026 that the graphic in question "does not appear in the current edition of the textbook."

Figure 12.1 in the first edition of the textbook includes two graphs — one features "Authoritarian" and "Libertarian" labels as end points on the vertical y-axis and "Economic Left" and "Economic Right" as end points on the horizontal x-axis. These axes divide the graph into four quadrants: starting from the top left and moving clockwise, they are "Authoritarian Left," "Authoritarian Right," "Libertarian Right" and "Libertarian Left."

The second graph uses the same labels to plot 14 political figures marked as red dots. Trump and Hitler appeared within the "Authoritarian Right" quadrant and both ranked high on the "Authoritarian" y-axis, with Trump's dot just below Hitler's. Trump's dot was further toward the right edge of the "Authoritarian Right" quadrant than Hitler's.

("American Government: Stories of a Nation" by Karen Waples and Scott Abernathy, Page 384)

The accompanying text says the graph uses The Political Compass ideology quiz to plot figures from recent U.S. presidential campaigns and international politics, and asks readers to think about whether they agreed with the quiz's placements (emphasis ours): 

Thinking about Ideology and Shapers of American Ideology

Top: This graphic is a way of thinking of ideology two-dimensionally. The left tends to favor shared economic action, and the right prefers individual economic initiative. Take a moment to place yourself and your ideas on the graphic.

Data from Wikimedia

Bottom: This graphic shows where the Political Compass ideology quiz places figures from recent U.S. presidential campaigns and several famous political figures from outside the United States. Do you agree with where the graphic places certain people?

Data from Political Compass blog

This description supports Macmillan Publishers' statement that the textbook authors included the graph as part of a critical-thinking exercise rather than presenting the findings as fact. 

Group credited with data says it's 'not responsible'

Despite the textbook's description, David Wayne, who runs The Political Compass website, said via email the website was "not responsible" for the graph in "American Government: Stories of a Nation."

Wayne said the graph in the textbook lacked The Political Compass's graphical style, which includes colored quadrants, and appeared to compile several different charts that the website had previously produced. Wayne wrote:

We would never have made a chart like this one where contemporaries and near contemporaries are compared with figures from history. It seems that the creators of the chart in question have, in some instances, taken bits and pieces from some of our different charts – some of them quite old — and assembled them together, out of context and sometimes out of date. In other instances additions have been made with which we disagree.

In response, a spokesperson for Macmillan said in an emailed statement:

The graphic was created based on publicly available data, with attribution noting the source of that data. "Data from" refers to the underlying dataset used to inform the visual, rather than indicating that the graphic itself was produced by or directly reproduced from that source.

For further reading, Snopes has previously investigated various claims related to Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump, and their respective ideologies and politics.