Is Trump a Fascist?

In today’s climate, nothing is scarier than the allocation of power into the wrong hands. With the fascist dictatorships of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, historians and politicians err on the side of caution with the intention to not repeat the past. This is not to say, however, that leaders today can escape the ever-looming label of fascism. Trump is not exempt from this. 

So, what is the criteria to be deemed a ‘fascist’? History professor Federico Finchelstein sums it up as “a political ideology that encompasses totalitarianism, state terrorism, imperialism, racism, and, in Germany’s case… the Holocaust”. Writing an entire book on the difference between historical fascism and contemporary populism, he argues that, whilst they share many features, fascism is a form of dictatorship whilst populism functions within the boundaries of democracy. This does not go to say, however, that populism cannot morph into fascism. 

Roger Griffin, an emeritus professor of modern history and a widely cited political theorist on the topic states that the term ‘fascist’ has taken on a looser definition, becoming a favourable epithet in the political sphere on both sides. Many on the left accuse right-wing leaders of upholding such ideals, and vice-versa. “Anything that smacks of authoritarianism or chauvinism or being a control freak can be dismissed as fascist,” Griffin says.

In terms of public opinion on the matter, Trump certainly incites a divide in opinion. The argument that Trump is not a fascist can be framed through the lens of his lack of a unified ideological movement. Francesco Marone, an assistant professor at the University of Teramo and a researcher at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, says that Trump isn’t quite a by-definition fascist. He outlines that Trump’s charisma, chauvinism and personal diplomacy are “general traits shared by radical rightwing leaders”, offering a description of him as a more of a nativist-populist. This said, he recognises there are indeed similarities between Trump and other fascist leaders. Both Hitler and Mussolini’s similarly practised the classic performist-style personal approach to politics of screaming and hand-gesturing at rallies, and threatening their enemies during their power. Trump’s off-the-cuff speech style, now and in previous campaigns, has become synonymous with that kind of dictatorial machismo of the 30s.

The comparison between Trump and fascist leadership-styles doesn’t stop there. Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor at Yale and author of ‘How Fascism Works’, says Trump also targets the same people the ‘Duce’ and ‘Fürher’ did. Stanley outlines that a fascist leader initiates politics by choosing an arbitrary enemy with little to no basis in reality, taking its force from the decisive will of the leader. The people who watch Trump’s television ads had most likely not been harmed by a transgender person, an immigrant, a woman of colour, or anyone else from the vast list of communities he villainises. He exploits vulnerabilities and incites fear in otherness, declaring a weaker group to be part of an overwhelming conspiracy which he alone is fighting to protect a nation from. This idea of the “enemy from within” is a key facet of fascism, says Griffin. Since announcing his presidential bid in 2016, Trump has maligned migrants as rapists who are ‘poisoning the blood of the country’  and pledged to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. He sought to delegitimize news media, calling the press an ‘enemy of the American people’, and tried to overturn a free and fair election that he lost by convincing others that Biden's victory was illegitimate, sowing distrust in the democratic process. He nominated Supreme Court Justices to effectively overturn Roe v. Wade and govern women’s bodies, and threatened to deploy the military and law enforcement to target political opponents that threaten his power. The implementation of the ‘great replacement’ theory, resolving anxiety with hatred and villainification, is just one factor of Trump’s personal diplomacy that aligns him with other fascist leaders of the past and present.

For many scholars, the answer to whether Trump can indeed be labelled a fascist boils down to the events of the 6th of January 2021, when Trump’s followers stormed the Capitol to stop the democratic transfer of Power from Trump to Biden. In response, Finchelstein wrote a cop-ed in the Washington Post arguing that Trump had outgrown the populist camp and was now taking on clearly fascist traits, becoming a definitive threat to democracy. 

Finchelstein was not the only one to hold this view in light of the events of January 6. Robert Paxton, political scientist specialising in fascism, also stated that he now sees the fascist label “not just acceptable but necessary”. Trump’s brand of fascism, he writes, is “bubbling up from below” in ways much like the “original fascisms” when Mussolini and Hitler incited and leveraged mass discontent to gather support, culminating in an overwhelming display of loyalty. Despite the failure of the coup, one thing arose definitively from the siege: Trump had advanced to the next populist level, encroaching on - if not adhering to the label of - fascism. If fascism is a process, Trump is flying through the steps at an alarming rate. 

When Soviets called their enemies ‘fascists’, the word became an insult rather than a political, ultra authoritarian diagnosis. Putinist Russia has preserved this habit labelling anyone who opposes his wishes - such as the Ukrainians defending their country from Russian invaders - fascists. This is a trick that Trump has copied as he, like Putin, uses the label as a term of opprobrium. In response to Kamala Harris stating Trump was a fascist, he responded with the same accusation “she’s a fascist, Ok? She’s a fascist”. Aside from lacking originality in his insult, he fabricated a story that Harris would “go so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind”. Whilst this accusation of Harris was factitious, a great irony lies in that it was his own running mate, J.D. Vance, who had once called him “America’s Hitler” in a private text message. 

Alongside Vance, John Kelley, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, went public about his concerns that he met the criteria of a fascist and “would govern like a dictator if allowed”. So, if such accusations and concerns are arising from his own supporters and administration, should we not be concerned that Trump’s autocratic sympathies and political qualities are in actuality in line with other fascist movements across history? Much like Pinochet, Hitler, Franco and Mussolini, his de-facto impunity and de-jure immunity have generated a sense of the untouchable, the heroic (made worse by his recent assassination attempt consolidating his martyrdom-hero complex). As Yale professor Timothy Synder states, Trump has reached fascist status, and that under his presidency Americans might just quietly adapt to the “banality” of his tyranny.

As Trump makes his way into the White House and International politics once more, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the parallels between Trump’s rhetoric, policies, and tactics and the hallmarks of fascism. From the vilification of minority groups to the disdain for democratic institutions, his actions echo traits commonly associated with authoritarian regimes and the ideological underpinnings of fascism. Whilst he has so far been forced to operate within the boundaries of democratic rule of law, there is no guarantee that these boundaries will hold. If fascism repeats itself, it will be as tragedy again.