Coming back to In the Garden of Beasts, the ambassador's mission, as given to him from Roosevelt, was to be "an American liberal in Germany as a standing example." The natural incompatibility between American liberalism and Nazism would be a difficult gap to bridge. Dodd's detractors at the embassy and in Washington believed he was fundamentally unsuited to the job because of his disdain for the Nazis.
Most of this disapproval was signaled obliquely. He did not, for instance, attend the yearly Nazi rallies in Nuremberg as a sign of America's disapproval of Nazi policies; and on a few occasions would give speeches to groups within the country that veiled the American disapproval by historical analogue, reminding the listeners of the collapse of historical despotic regimes. These were received well by those who could not speak out and despised by the regime.
Bret Baier: You call people sometimes "killers." He is, you know, he is a killer. He's clearly executing people...
President Trump: Well, he's a tough guy. Hey, when you take over a country — tough country, tough people — and you take it over from your father, I don't care who you are, what you are, how much of an advantage you have, if you can do that at twenty-seven years old — I mean that's one in 10,000 that could do that. So he's a very smart guy; he's a great negotiator; but I think we understand each other.
Bret Baier: But he's still done some really bad things.
President Trump (smirking): Yeah, but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things. I mean I could go through a lot of nations where really bad things were done.