The granddaughter of Italy’s infamous fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, ally to Adolf Hitler, called comedian Jim Carrey a “bastard” on Twitter today, and offered support to President Trump.
In 1925, Mussolini declared himself dictator of Italy and reduced the influence of the judiciary, muzzled a free press, arrested political opponents, continued condoning fascist squad violence and otherwise consolidated his hold on power.
During World War II, Mussolini’s invading soldiers murdered thousands of civilians, bombed the Red Cross, dropped poison gas, starved infants in concentration camps and tried to annihilate cultures deemed inferior.
Around 8,879 Italian Jews were killed under his regime.
Carrey wrote in the original Tweet that started the feud: “If you’re wondering what fascism leads to, just ask Benito Mussolini and his mistress Claretta.”
If you’re wondering what fascism leads to, just ask Benito Mussolini and his mistress Claretta. pic.twitter.com/uc2wZl0YBu
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) March 30, 2019
“You are a bastard,” responded Alessandra Mussolini after Carrey posted the cartoon of her grandfather and his mistress hanging upside down as part of their execution.
You are a bastard
— Alessandra Mussolini (@Ale_Mussolini_) March 31, 2019
In 1940, Mussolini took Italy into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany but soon was met with military failure.
By the autumn of 1943, he was reduced to being the leader of a German puppet state in northern Italy and was faced with the Allied advance from the south and an increasingly violent internal conflict with the partisans.
Mussolini and Hitler.
In April, 1945, with the Allies breaking through the last German defences in northern Italy and a general uprising of the partisans taking hold in the cities, Mussolini’s situation became untenable.
He soon fled Milan, where he had been based, and tried to escape to the Swiss border.
He and his mistress were captured by local partisans and shot the following afternoon, two days before Hitler’s suicide.
The bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were taken to Milan and left in a suburban square, the Piazzale Loreto, for a large angry crowd to insult and physically abuse.
They were then hung upside down from a metal girder above a service station on the square.
The bodies were beaten, shot at, and hit with hammers.
HISTORY: Benito Mussolini’s gang hanging by their feet at a filling station in Milan” after being executed. Milan, Italy. 29 April 1945.
His tomb has now become a place of pilgrimage for neo-fascists and the anniversary of his death is marked by neo-fascist rallies.
Alessandra Mussolini, who is a member of the European Parliament for Central Italy, has her own controversial history in addition to being related to the WWII dictator.
In 2006, she told a transgender member of Parliament it was better to be a “fascist than faggot.”
Carrey, known for such comedy movies as “The Mask” and “Ace Ventura,” has taken up painting; his art often turns political, and his over-the-top cartoons often target President Trump and his Republican allies.
Mussolini’s granddaughter said Trump should have nothing to worry about Carey’s cartoons because they were “dirty.”
President @realDonaldTrump doesn’t have to worry about poor @JimCarrey politica attacks; his drawings are only dirty paper
— Alessandra Mussolini (@Ale_Mussolini_) March 31, 2019
Carey’s point about Benito Mussolini and his ruthless and murderous fascist dictatorship is historically accurate.
Meanwhile, Mussolini regularly retweets the views of Trump to her Twitter followers.