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Comparisons between Donald Trump and fascism

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A bar graph labeled with the text "Who's a Fascist? Results among registered voters." The graph shows that 44% of respondents describe only Donald Trump as a fascist, 18% describe only Kamala Harris as a fascist, 5% describe both as fascists, and 32% consider neither to be fascists.
An October 2024 poll held by ABC News and Ipsos indicated that of the candidates in the 2024 United States presidential election, 49% of registered voters[a] consider Trump to be a fascist.[1]
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There has been significant academic and political debate over whether Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, qualifies as a fascist. Critics of Trump have drawn comparisons between him and fascist leaders over authoritarian actions and rhetoric, while others have accused critics of using the term as an insult rather than making legitimate comparisons.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, a growing number of scholars, historians, commentators, politicians, former Trump officials, and generals have described Trump as a fascist.[b] According to an October 2024 poll held by ABC News and Ipsos, 49% of American registered voters see Donald Trump as a fascist,[a] defined in the poll as "a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents".[1]

A yellow painting of the faces of Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler blended into one.
Double face, Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler by Peter Klashorst, 2016.

Background

An old woman holding a white paper sign mounted on a stick. The sign has hand-written text reading "FASCIST TRUMP".
A protestor with a sign describing Donald Trump as a fascist

Donald Trump is an American businessman and politician who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2020.[2] He lost in the 2020 United States presidential election to Joe Biden, and is currently running as the Republican Party's candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election.[3]

Fascism is an ideological term which refers to a broad set of aspirations and influences that emerged in the early 20th century, exemplified by the European dictators Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Francisco Franco; and include elements of nationalism, enforcement of social hierarchies, hatred towards social minority groups, opposition to liberalism, the cult of personality, racism, and the love of militaristic symbols.[4][5] According to the anti-fascist and socialist writer George Orwell, the term fascist is oftentimes rendered meaningless in common parlance by its frequent use as an insult.[6]

Comparisons

Anti-democratic sentiment and illiberalism

Further information: Trumpism § Parallels with fascism and trend towards illiberal democracy
See also: Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Authoritarian and antidemocratic statements

During his 2016 campaign, Trump made it apparent that he would not accept the results of the 2016 United States presidential election if he did not win, preemptively claiming that he could only lose due to electoral fraud.[7] Following his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election, Trump and other Republicans tried to overturn the results, making widespread false claims of fraud.[8] Due to these false claims, in addition to the January 6 United States Capitol attack that Trump allegedly incited, political opponents have labeled Trump as a "threat to democracy".[9][10] Journalist Patrick Cockburn stated that Trump's politics risk turning the United States into an illiberal democracy similar to Turkey, Hungary, or Russia.[11]

During his 2024 campaign, Trump has made numerous authoritarian and antidemocratic statements.[12] Trump's previous comments, such as suggesting he can "terminate" the Constitution to reverse his election loss,[13][14] his claim that he would only be a dictator on "day one" of his presidency and not after,[c] his promise to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies,[17] and his plan to use the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military in Democratic cities and states,[18][19] have raised concerns over Trump's rhetoric. Trump has stated that he would deploy the military on American soil to fight "the enemy from within", which he describes as "radical left lunatics" and Democratic politicians such as Adam Schiff.[20] Trump has repeatedly voiced support for outlawing political dissent and criticism he considers misleading or challenges his claims to power.[21][22]

January 6 attack and the Beer Hall Putsch

A crowd of people outside and inside of the United States Capitol Building. Many are wearing red hats and carrying United States flags.
The January 6 United States Capitol attack has been compared to the Beer Hall Putsch by some academics.

The attack on the United States Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, has been compared by some academics to the Beer Hall Putsch,[23] a failed coup attempt in Germany by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler against the Weimar government in 1923.[24]

Robert Paxton, a political scientist and historian specializing in the study of fascism, previously denied that Trump was a fascist but changed his views following the January 6 attack, writing that "Trump's incitement of the invasion of the Capitol [...] removes my objection to the fascist label."[7][25]

Dehumanization and racism

Further information: Racial views of Donald Trump and Rhetoric of Donald Trump § Violence and dehumanization
See also: Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Violent and dehumanizing statements

Trump's embrace of far-right extremism[26][27] and several statements and actions have been accused of echoing fascism, Nazi rhetoric, far-right ideology, antisemitism, and white supremacy.[28][29][30]

Trump's comments comparing his political enemies to "vermin" who will be "rooted out" have been compared by several historians to fascistic rhetoric made by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.[31][32][33] During a rally in 2023, Trump stated:[34]

In honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country—that lie and steal and cheat on elections, and will do anything possible; they'll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and to destroy the American Dream.

The comments were compared to comments made by Nazi politician Wilhelm Kube in February 1933 in a Nazi propaganda publication where he stated, "The Jews, like vermin, form a line from Potsdamerplatz until Anhalter Banhof ... The only way to smoke out the vermin is to expel them." They were also compared to Oswald Mosley's British fascists referring to Jews as "rats and vermin from the gutters of Whitechapel" and a 1934 Hitler interview where he stated "I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin!"[34]

Responding to critics, Trump's campaign later said that "their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House", which was also criticized for echoing the rhetoric of authoritarian leaders, along with Trump's statement that "the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within."[35][36] According to The New York Times, scholars are undecided about whether Trump's "rhetorical turn into more fascist-sounding territory is just his latest public provocation of the left, an evolution in his beliefs, or the dropping of a veil".[37]

Since the fall of 2023,[38] Trump has repeatedly used racial hygiene rhetoric by stating that undocumented immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country", which has been compared to language echoing that of white supremacists and Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.[39] He has also claimed that immigrants are genetically predisposed to commit crimes and have "bad genes",[40][30] which Politico reported is "what some experts in political rhetoric, fascism, and immigration say is a strong echo of authoritarians and Nazi ideology."[30] Other fascistic comments include statements that immigrants are the "enemy from within" who are ruining the "fabric" of the country.[30] Trump has stated that immigrants are "not people",[41] "not humans",[42] and "animals".[43] At rallies, Trump has stated that undocumented immigrants will "rape, pillage, thieve, plunder and kill" American citizens,[44] that they are "stone-cold killers", "monsters", "vile animals", "savages", and "predators" that will "walk into your kitchen, they'll cut your throat"[45][44] and "grab young girls and slice them up right in front of their parents".[44]

On October 27, 2024, Trump held a rally in Madison Square Garden that featured speakers making various racist and dehumanizing remarks.[46][47] The event drew comparisons from media and politicians to the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden.[48][49]

Internment camps

A migrant detention camp in 2019.

Donald Trump used internment camps as president, and proposed to do so on a larger scale if elected again. The Cambridge University Press book, Fascism in America: Past and Present, dedicated a chapter to examining "Concentration Camps in Trump's America".[50]

The Trump administration family separation policy was compared to the use of internment camps by previous fascist regimes. In 2018, Trump instituted a "zero tolerance" policy which mandated the criminal prosecution of all adults who were accused of violating immigration laws by immigration authorities.[51][52][53] This policy directly led to the large-scale,[54][55] forcible separation of children and parents arriving at the United States-Mexico border,[56] including those who were seeking asylum from violence in their home countries.[57] Parents were arrested and put into criminal detention, while their children were taken away, classified as unaccompanied alien minors, to be put into child immigrant detention centers.[53][58]

Even though Trump signed an executive order which ostensibly ended the family separation component of his administration's migrant detentions in June 2018, it continued under alternative justifications into 2019.[59]

By the end of 2018, the number of children being held had swelled to a high of nearly 15,000,[60][61] which by August 2019 had been reduced to less than 9,000.[62] In 2019, many experts, including Andrea Pitzer, the author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, have acknowledged the designation of the detention centers as "concentration camps"[63] particularly given that the centers, previously cited by Texas officials for more than 150 health violations[64] and reported deaths in custody,[65] reflect a record typical of the history of deliberate substandard healthcare and nutrition in concentration camps.[66] There has been significant disagreement as to whether or not to label these facilities "concentration camps."[67][68][69]

In 2023, Current Affairs profiled how Trump in his 2024 campaign likewise pledged to build internment camps, warning that Trump's plan was to "build huge camps and put millions of people in them without any semblance of due process", which might include political opponents and critics.[70]

Connections to self-identified fascists

In the 2016 United States presidential election, Trump was supported by multiple self-described Nazi or fascist groups, including the National Socialist Movement and Ku Klux Klan. These groups engaged in voter intimidation by monitoring polling locations in 2016, claiming to have done so both "informally" and "through the Trump campaign".[71] In 2016, Trump was endorsed by self-identified Nazis such as David Duke,[72] though Duke went on to criticize Trump in 2024.[73] In September 2024, CNN reported that Mark Robinson, whom Trump endorsed in the 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial election, had previously identified himself as a "Black Nazi".[74]

In 1990, Ivana Trump, Donald Trump's former wife, stated that he kept a copy of My New Order, a collection of speeches written by Adolf Hitler, by his bedside.[75] John F. Kelly, Trump's former chief of staff, stated in October 2024 that Trump spoke positively of Hitler during his tenure as president.[76][77] Kelly also stated that Trump had told him that he desired military generals similar to the generals who served Hitler.[78][79][80]

Invocations of the comparison

See also: Hiring and personnel concerns about Donald Trump
A portrait photograph of John Kelly, an old man in a black suit.
A portrait photograph of Mark Milley, a middle-aged man in a military service dress uniform decorated with various badges and ribbons.
Former Trump staff members John F. Kelly (left) and Mark Milley (right) have both described Trump as a fascist.
Voice of America coverage of comparisons drawn between Trump and fascism by former Trump staff[81]

Trump was described as a fascist in October 2024 by John F. Kelly, Trump's former chief of staff during his presidential tenure. Referring to the definition of fascism as a far-right authoritarian ideology with elements of ultranationalism and a dictatorial leader, Kelly stated that Trump "certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure".[76][82] This is the first time a president has been called a fascist by his former hand-picked top adviser.[83] Following the statements by Kelly, Karine Jean-Pierre stated that United States President Joe Biden agreed with the assertion that Trump is a fascist.[84] Kamala Harris, Biden's vice president and Trump's opponent in the 2024 election, also stated that she considers Trump to be a fascist.[85][86] Thirteen former Trump officials signed an open letter agreeing with Kelly's statements.[87] Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense under Trump, also agreed with Kelly, saying Trump meets the definition of a fascist and has fascist instincts.[88]

Additionally, Mark Milley, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described Trump as "fascist to the core".[89] JD Vance described Trump as "America's Hitler" in 2017, also calling him "reprehensible". Despite this, he went on to run alongside Trump in his 2024 presidential campaign.[90][91]

In 2017, Holocaust historian Timothy Snyder published On Tyranny, warning about the danger signs of fascism in the Trump era.[92] Comparisons between Trump and fascism drawn by mainstream media increased substantially in 2023 and 2024.[93]

Trump has also been described as a fascist by philosophers such as Judith Butler,[94] Noam Chomsky,[95] and Cornel West.[96] Additionally, American journalist Rich Benjamin stated in 2020 that Trump's political movement is "shot through with fascism".[97] However, the British Journal of American Legal Studies denied that Trump's movement was truly fascist as it was "too hostile to insider welfare", instead opting to describe it as "fascism-lite".[98] The Economist said it was reasonable to describe Trump as a modern iteration of fascism.[99] Howard French agrees that Trump is a fascist but wonders whether it is the best message for Democrats to win the 2024 election.[100] Peter Baker described Trump as the president who most aggressively discredited democracy at home while embracing autocrats abroad.[83]

Criticism of the comparison

A bust-length photograph of JD Vance, a middle-aged bearded man in a suit
JD Vance described Trump as "America's Hitler" in 2017 but later criticized the comparison when he became Trump's running mate in 2024.

In a column published in The Guardian, Jan Werner-Müller argued, "it is perfectly possible to find the label fascism inappropriate (and possibly counterproductive), without in any way minimizing the dangers Trump poses, or turning a blind eye to fascist strands in US history, such as the KKK."[101] Geoff Boucher, writing for The Conversation, stated "[i]n my view, Trump is not a fascist. Rather, he is part of a 'new authoritarianism' that subverts democracy from within and solidifies power through administrative, rather than paramilitary, means."[102] Jacob Sullum argues in Reason that Trump's reckless (and in his view, disqualifying) authoritarian impulses are guided only by self-interest and that he is not ideological enough to be labeled a fascist.[103]

Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, some Republicans including vice presidential nominee JD Vance[7] and Stephen Miller[104] argued that comparing Trump to fascism or Nazism can incite violence.[10][105] Susan Benesch, founding director of the Dangerous Speech Project, has called such comparisons "a pot calling the kettle black", and noted that Trump's continued use of inflammatory rhetoric against Democrats has not stopped.[106][107] In response to John F. Kelly and Mark Milley calling Trump a fascist, Vance dismissed their claims and characterized them both as "disgruntled former employees".[81]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Including 44% that describe "only Trump" as fascist and 5% that describe both Trump and Harris as fascists.
  2. ^ Attributed to multiple references:
    • Homans 2024: "No major American presidential candidate has talked like he now does at his rallies—not Richard Nixon, not George Wallace, not even Donald Trump himself."
    • Bender & Gold 2023
    • Lehmann 2023
    • Basu 2023
    • Cassidy 2023
    • Lutz 2023
    • Browning 2023
    • Kim & Ibssa 2023
    • Ward 2024: "It's a stark escalation over the last month of what some experts in political rhetoric, fascism, and immigration say is a strong echo of authoritarians and Nazi ideology."
    • Applebaum 2024: "In the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. ... The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the 'bloodbath' that Trump has said will unfold if he doesn't win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents—none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics. But neither has this rhetoric been tried in modern American politics."
    • Rubin 2024
    • Brooks 2024: "Trump, however, has also used the term fascist to describe Harris as he has doubled down on his insults against Harris and ratcheted up the intensity of his own rhetoric against political opponents. 'She's a marxist, communist, fascist, socialist,' Trump said at a rally in Arizona in September. Johnson and McConnell made no mention of Trump's rhetoric in their statement, keeping the focus on their political rival."
  3. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[15][16]

References

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  12. ^
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  39. ^
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Works cited

Further reading

  • "Once Top Advisers to Trump, They Now Call Him ‘Liar,’ ‘Fascist’ and ‘Unfit’" (Oct. 30, 2024) by New York Times
  • "Harris called Trump a 'fascist.' Experts debate what fascism is — and isn't" (October 29, 2024) by NPR
  • Jackson, Paul Nicholas (June 24, 2021). "Debate: Donald Trump and Fascism Studies". Fascism. 10 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1163/22116257-10010009. ABSTRACT: Since coming to prominence, Donald Trump's politics has regularly been likened to fascism. Many experts within fascism studies have tried to engage with wider media and political debates on the relevance (or otherwise) of such comparisons. In the debate 'Donald Trump and Fascism Studies' we have invited leading academics with connections to the journal and those who are familiar with debates within fascism studies, to offer thoughts on how to consider the complex relationship between fascism, the politics of Donald Trump, and the wider MAGA movement. Contributors to this debat are: Mattias Gardell, Ruth Wodak, Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, David Renton, Nigel Copsey, Raul Cârstocea, Maria Bucur, Brian Hughes, and Roger Griffin.
  • De Genova, Nicholas (2020). ""Everything is Permitted": Trump, White Supremacy, Fascism". American Anthropologist. 122 (1). (...) Whereas fascism has historically tended to be ushered into state power only following the gestation of a fascist social movement organized on the basis of paramilitary violence, the ethos of civil war that has come to more or less universally animate Republican politics in the United States has delivered a populist opportunist into power, and now, only in the aftermath of that cataclysmic systemic backfire, in the aura and orbit of that nonstop demagogical spectacle, a white supremacist fascist movement—albeit in convulsive fits and starts—is gathering its forces. (...)
  • Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. (December 4, 2019). "An American Führer? Nazi Analogies and the Struggle to Explain Donald Trump". Central European History. 52 (4): 554–587. doi:10.1017/S0008938919000840. ABSTRACT: Ever since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the US presidency in June 2015, journalists, scholars, and other commentators in the United States have attempted to explain his political success with the aid of historical analogies. In so doing, they have sparked a wider debate about whether the Nazi past helps to make sense of the US present. One group in the debate has contended that Trump's ascent bears a worrisome resemblance to interwar European fascism, especially the National Socialist movement of Adolf Hitler. By contrast, a second group has rejected this comparison and sought analogies for Trump in other historical figures from European and US history. This article surveys the course, and assesses the results, of the debate from its origins up to the present day. It shows that historians of Germany have played a prominent role in helping to make sense of Trump, but notes that their use of Nazi analogies may be distorting, rather than deepening, our understanding of contemporary political trends. By examining the merits and drawbacks of Nazi analogies in present-day popular discourse, the article recommends that scholars draw on both the German and American historical experience in order to best assess the United States's present political movement.
  • Robinson, William I. (March 2019). "Global Capitalist Crisis and Twenty-First Century Fascism: Beyond the Trump Hype". Science & Society. 83 (2): 155–183. doi:10.1521/siso.2019.83.2.155. ABSTRACT: Global capitalism faces an organic crisis involving a structural dimension, that of overaccumulation and a political dimension of legitimacy or hegemony that is approaching a general crisis of capitalist rule. Fascism, whether in 20th-century or 21st-century forms, is a particular response to capitalist crisis. Trumpism in the US, BREXIT in the UK, Bolsonarism in Brazil, the increasing influence of neo-fascist and authoritarian parties and movements around the world, represent far-right responses to the crisis of global capitalism. There are similarities but also important differences between fascist projects of the 20th and 21st centuries. The former involved the fusion of reactionary political power with national capital, whereas the latter involves the fusion of transnational capital with reactionary and repressive political power — an expression of the dictatorship of transnational capital. A fightback against the global police state and 21st-century fascism must involve broad anti-fascist alliances led by popular and working-class forces.
  • Giroux, Henry A. (December 29, 2018). "Trump and the legacy of a menacing past". Cultural Studies. 33 (4): 711–739. doi:10.1080/09502386.2018.1557725. ABSTRACT: The inability to learn from the past takes on a new meaning as a growing number of authoritarian regimes emerge across the globe. This essay argues that central to understanding the rise of a fascist politics in the United States is the necessity to address the power of language and the intersection of the social media and the public spectacle as central elements in the rise of a formative culture that produces the ideologies and agents necessary for an American-style fascism. In this project, education is central to politics, which demands understanding and critically interrogating, in particular, the role of the conservative media in suppressing history, normalizing a discourse of racial hatred, and advancing the most poisonous elements of neoliberalism. The essay calls for a comprehensive notion of politics and education that draws from history, imagines a present that does not imitate the future, and employs a language of critique and hope in the service of building a new broad-based political formation. If fascism begins with language so does the possibility of a radical social imaginary in which to envision a democratic socialist order that both challenges the menacing momentum of a fascist politics and the savagery of neoliberal capitalism.
  • Cole, Mike (October 10, 2018). Trump, the Alt-Right and Public Pedagogies of Hate and for Fascism. What is to be Done?. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429467141. ISBN 9780429467141. FROM ABSTRACT: Beginning with an examination of the history of traditional fascism in the twentieth century, the book looks at the similarities and differences between the Trump regime and traditional Western post-war fascism. Cole goes on to consider the alt-right movement, the reasons for its rise, and the significance of the internet being harnessed as a tool with which to promote a fascistic public pedagogy. Finally, the book examines the resistance against these discourses and addresses the question of: what is to be done?
  • Colasacco, Brett (2018). "Before Trump: On Comparing Fascism and Trumpism". Journal for the Study of Radicalism. 12 (1): 27–53. doi:10.14321/jstudradi.12.1.0027. I have been contemplating a photograph of Donald J. Trump - businessman, bestselling author, and reality television star - shaking hands with Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the While House, one day after being declared president-elect of the United State. I fully confess that I was one of those who thought this image, and this moment, would never come: that Trump would not, could not, win the presidency. (...)
  • Harris, Jerry; Davidson, Carl; Fletcher, Bill; Harris, Paul (December 14, 2017). "Trump and American Fascism". International Critical Thought. 7 (4): 476–492. doi:10.1080/21598282.2017.1357491. ABSTRACT: The election of Donald Trump reflects the rise of a Right-wing nationalist movement. Central to Trump's appeal has been his advocacy of anti-immigrant, racist, and misogynist ideas. At its core, his ruling power bloc consists of neo-liberal fundamentalists, the religious Right, and white nationalists. There are similarities between the new power bloc and fascism, and there are many who see Trump's administration as such. Nevertheless, the new president's authoritarian power bloc is neither hegemonic nor fascist, but such a definition can send oppositional strategy in the wrong direction.
  • Love, Nancy S. (April 14, 2017). "Back to the Future: Trendy Fascism, the Trump Effect, and the Alt-Right". New Political Science. 39 (2): 263–268. doi:10.1080/07393148.2017.1301321. I started writing Trendy Fascism: White Power Music and the Future of Democracy following the 2008 election of Barack Obama, the first African American President of the United States, and I finished it in 2015 shortly after Dylann Roof murdered nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In a police interview, Roof said that he wanted to start a race war and that the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and racist skinheads were not doing enough. Fast forward to 2016. When Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, many pollsters and pundits expressed surprise and, in some cases, also dismay. Pre-election polling proved stunningly inaccurate, and it increasingly appears that the alt-right contributed significantly to Trump's victory. (...)
  • Connolly, William E. (January 2017). "Trump, the Working Class, and Fascist Rhetoric". Theory and Event. 20 (1): 23–37. (...) Perhaps we can gain preliminary bearings by listening to things Hitler said about the potent mixture he pursued of leadership, propaganda, and violence in Mein Kampf, a two-part book published in 1926 and 1927 when the Nazi movement was consolidating itself. I consult this text not because Trump is on a course that must end in death camps, or because the scapegoats he identifies are the same as those marked by Hitler, or because the institutional restraints against Trumpism are definitely as weak as those were against Hitlerism, or because Hitler launched a world war and Trump will necessarily lead us to a nuclear winter. The latter is indeed possible. But real differences between the two circumstances and drives must be kept in mind as we explore affinities in style and organization between them. (...)
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