Darryl Cooper (historian)

Darryl Cooper is an American podcaster and writer, best known for hosting ''The MartyrMade Podcast'', where he explores historical events (e.g. Jonestown massacre, the interwar period), political themes, and contemporary issues including a six-part series on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. He has also co-hosted ''The Unraveling'' podcast with Jocko Willink.

Cooper has been a guest on two of the most popular podcasts in the U.S., ''The Joe Rogan Experience'' and '' The Tucker Carlson Show.''

Some of Cooper's podcasts have been the subject of controversy due to his commentary about Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill, and World War II. Cooper’s interpretations of historical events have been criticized by historians for inaccuracies.' He has also been accused of downplaying Nazi crimes, engaging in Holocaust revisionism, and has been labeled a "Nazi apologist."

Early life and background

Cooper has shared limited details about his early life. He was serving in the United States Navy at the age of 20 during the September 11, 2001 attacks. In a 2022 "Ask Me Anything" session on his website, he reflected on his military service, expressing a shift from youthful enthusiasm for conflict to a more critical perspective on war, influenced by historical instances of government deception.

Career

After his military service, Cooper transitioned into media and content creation. In 2015, he launched The MartyrMade Podcast, a series dedicated to deep explorations of historical and political topics.

In collaboration with retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink, Cooper also co-hosts ''The Unraveling'' podcast. This series examines connections between historical events and contemporary issues including the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Views

2020 United States presidential election

In 2021, Cooper gained significant attention for a viral Twitter thread attempting to explain why many supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump believed in claims of election fraud during the 2020 United States presidential election. This thread was highlighted by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and mentioned by Trump himself.

Philip Bump at ''The Washington Post'' wrote an opinion piece in response.

''The Tucker Carlson Show'' and ''The Joe Rogan Podcast'' appearances

Nazi Germany commentary

In September 2024, Cooper appeared on '' The Tucker Carlson Show''. He made statements that drew widespread criticism from historians, Holocaust memorial organizations, and political figures for promoting Holocaust revisionism. While discussing Nazi Germany’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), Cooper claimed that the Nazis "went in with no plan for andling prisonersand they just threw these people into camps." (By "these people", he referred to Jews while omitting the many hundreds of thousands of Serbian Orthodox Christian, Roma, Soviet, and homosexual German concentration camp prisoners and deaths.) He further asserted that "millions died, partly because the Germans didn’t have enough food to feed their own army, let alone prisoners," framing the atrocities as a result of logistical failure rather than premeditated genocide. This interpretation was widely condemned as a form of Holocaust revisionism for minimizing the ideological and systematic nature of Nazi crimes.

Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial, denounced Cooper’s remarks as “one of the most repugnant forms of Holocaust denial of recent years,” emphasizing that the atrocities committed during Operation Barbarossa were not incidental but ideologically driven and meticulously planned. Historians note that Nazi policies such as the Hunger Plan, which deliberately redirected food from occupied Soviet territories to Germany, were intended to cause mass starvation among civilians. Additionally, mobile killing units known as Einsatzgruppen carried out mass executions of Jews, communists, and other targeted groups with logistical support from the Wehrmacht. Cooper’s comments, suggesting that the genocide was an unplanned consequence of wartime chaos, directly contradict the historical consensus that the Nazi regime pursued a racial war of extermination from the outset.

In response to the interview, all 24 Jewish Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives issued a joint statement condemning Cooper as a “Nazi apologist” and warning that such rhetoric promotes Holocaust revisionism under the guise of historical reinterpretation. The interview also drew criticism from the Anti-Defamation League's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who labeled Cooper a "Nazi apologist" and criticized Carlson for promoting him as an honest historian.

Despite the backlash, Cooper defended his position, suggesting that the strong reactions to his interview indicated that World War II had become a sacred myth that cannot be questioned. This response was characterized as "Kafkaesque" by the conservative ''National Review'', highlighting the problematic nature of his assertions.

In March 2025, Cooper was a guest on ''The Joe Rogan Experience'' podcast. During the interview, Cooper claimed that Adolf Hitler opposed the Kristallnacht pogrom. Cooper also said that Hitler, after viewing the "sorry state" of the German people, could only sympathize with the belief that they had been "manipulated" by the Jews, and that Hitler's "antisemitism is what allowed him to love the German people." Rogan commended Cooper's views, calling them comprehensive and nuanced.

Winston Churchill history

In the same September 2024 appearance on ''The Tucker Carlson Show'', Cooper described British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as the “chief villain of World War II,” asserting that Churchill was “primarily responsible for that war becoming what it did, becoming something other than an invasion of Poland.” Cooper alleged that Churchill’s personal ambitions and psychological makeup played a central role in escalating the war, stating that Churchill was a “psychopath” driven by a need for historical redemption following his earlier military and political failures, including the Gallipoli campaign during World War I. Cooper argued that Churchill prolonged the war unnecessarily. He claimed that the British refusal to make peace with Nazi Germany after the fall of France in 1940 led to greater destruction and set the stage for the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. In his words, Churchill “could have sued for peace, but he didn’t want to be remembered as the man who gave in. He wanted to be remembered as a great war hero.”

These views have sparked significant backlash from historians and Churchill scholars. Andreas Koureas, writing for ''the Churchill Project'' at Hillsdale College, called Cooper’s characterization “ahistorical and ideologically driven, ignoring primary sources, diplomatic history, and Churchill’s own writings.” Koureas emphasized Churchill’s early and consistent opposition to Nazi appeasement and his efforts to rally Britain at a time when most of Europe had already fallen under Axis control. He wrote, “To call Churchill the villain of World War II is not only factually indefensible—it verges on historical inversion.”

Historian Andrew Roberts, author of '' Churchill: Walking with Destiny'', also responded to Cooper’s claims in a special episode of the ''School of War podcast''. Roberts called Cooper’s interpretation “an act of historical vandalism” and accused him of repackaging long-discredited revisionist narratives, similar to those promoted by pro-Axis sympathizers during and after the war. Roberts emphasized Churchill’s role in forging the Allied coalition, stating, “Without Churchill, Britain may have come to terms with Hitler. Without Britain, there may have been no staging ground for D-Day. Without D-Day, the Holocaust may have never ended.”

Despite criticism, Cooper has stood by his claims, arguing that Western historiography has turned Churchill into a “mythic figure” and that challenging this portrayal is essential for what he calls “a more honest reckoning with imperial and wartime legacies.” In the same interview, he likened Churchill’s mythologizing to the “sacralization of World War II,” a term he also used when discussing criticisms of his views on the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.

Other views

In a now deleted social media tweet Cooper once claimed that a picture of Adolf Hitler coming to Nazi-occupied Paris was "infinitely preferable in every way" to a picture from the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony of drag queens reenacting ''The Last Supper'' of Jesus with the Twelve Apostles.

References

External links

*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Darryl
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American conspiracy theorists
American history podcasters
American male non-fiction writers
American neo-Nazis
American political writers
American writers
Conservatism in the United States
Critics of multiculturalism
Pseudohistorians