Is Trump a Fascist? Why Does it Matter?
Is Trump a fascist? Historians and analysts weigh his rhetoric, cult appeal, and actions, questioning if his politics threaten American democracy. This debate exposes what’s truly at stake.
By Jeremi Suri
Since 2016 historians and pundits have debated whether Donald Trump is a fascist. Some observers have pointed to his glorification of violence (“fight hard,”), his advocacy for a master race (“superior genes,”) and his narcissistic self-promotion as symptoms of a fascist mindset. Those commentators, especially Timothy Snyder and Ruth Ben-Ghiat, see evidence of a cultish movement that exults in displays of cruelty and power. The insurrection on January 6, 2021, encouraged by Trump, echoed fascist riots in early twentieth-century Italy and Germany.
Is Trump’s behavior really fascist or just extreme?
Other critics of Trump, notably Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Samuel Moyn, have argued that the fascist label is neither accurate nor useful. Trump does not seek to build a strong state, as fascists did in Italy, Germany, and other countries. He is a crass materialist, who loves his golden toilets, and he promotes no value or vision that supersedes wealth, as his fascist predecessors did. Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco had contempt for big business leaders; Trump admires them, especially Elon Musk of late. Most significant, Trump uses militaristic language, but he is notably wimpy in his actions. As president, he generally avoided military options, even after an Iranian attack on American personnel in Iraq. He regularly insults military veterans. And he is isolationist in his skepticism about what the U.S. military and its allies can accomplish in Ukraine, the Middle East, and other conflict zones. Fascists loved fighting wars; Trump talks tough, but he generally runs from the fight.
This somewhat academic debate burst into the current campaign when Vice President Kamala Harris was asked in her CNN town hall meeting if she believed Trump was a fascist. “Yes, I do,” she said without hesitation. Harris was repeating what two four-star generals who worked with Trump, Generals Mark Milley and John Kelly, have said about their former commander-in-chief. Trump and his supporters deny, of course, that he is a fascist, but they affirm that he is virtually infallible. He acts as the “great dictator” of the Republican Party, requiring fealty and contorted defenses of his craziness, but somehow he is not fascist, we are told.
Scholars agree that fascism is a slippery concept because it is not based on a set of core texts or philosophies, as Marxism, libertarianism, or any major religion are. Fascists emphasize action and personality, which opens an enormous range of behavior. There have been “fascists of the right,” like Francisco Franco of Spain, and “fascists of the left,” like Juan Peron of Argentina. In the United States before Trump, Alabama Governor George Wallace was often called a “fascist of the right,” while Louisiana Senator Huey Long was viewed as a “fascist of the left.” What united these figures with vastly different programs was their populism – their appeal to large crowds through demagoguery, scapegoating, and frequent circus antics. They pandered to the worst instincts of citizens.
What this reveals about democracy’s future
The debate surrounding Trump’s fascism is serious and meaningful because it tells us that his candidacy is not about ideas or policies or even a coherent worldview. Many of Trump’s supporters claim to be religious, but he is ignorant, non-practicing, and often contemptuous of the piety one would expect from a religious leader. Many of Trump’s voters claim they are conservative, but his advocacy for changes in tax policies, tariffs, immigrant deportations, and restrictions on the press are radical, to say the least. And then there is the inevitable topic of “rule of law.” Trump’s advocates claim they want to restore “law and order,” yet their candidate was convicted of thirty-four felony counts. He was also convicted of sexual harassment in a civil case, for which he is still paying heavy fines. And the list of his legal misdeeds goes on…
These are not just instances of gross hypocrisy. That is obvious. Trump’s support is really not based on what he thinks, what he says, or what he does. The 46 percent of voters who will cast their ballots for Donald Trump in this election are men and women who find his anger, hate, and vengeance intoxicating. He is attacking people they do not like. He is asserting male power and privilege in ways widely rejected by powerful figures and institutions. He is challenging educated and non-traditional figures who are rapidly acquiring wealth and influence in our society, at the cost of those who once monopolized it. It is not what he promises to do, but who he promises to hurt. “The cruelty is the point,” as journalist Adam Serwer, wrote a few years ago. There is no other way to explain why people still revere this guy, even as he implodes before our eyes with incoherent rants and creepy jiggles on stage to second-rate dance songs, most of which mock jerks like him.
Trump is a fascist, and it matters because his politics are antithetical to everything that democracy is about. Democracy requires fairness and inclusion; he rejects that. Democracy requires rules; he breaks them all. And at its core, democracy demands respect for the humanity of citizens; he has contempt for anyone who does not serve him. Trump’s fascism is the polar opposite of democracy. In rejecting him, citizens will re-affirm a politics based on values over a politics based on power alone.
This is not a partisan issue anymore, and it appears more Americans are waking up to that diagnosis of what this election is about. Trump’s defeat will be democracy’s victory.
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Jeremi Suri holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a professor in the University's Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Professor Suri is the author and editor of eleven books on politics and foreign policy, most recently: Civil War By Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy. His other books include: The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office; Liberty’s Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama; Henry Kissinger and the American Century; and Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente. His writings appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Atlantic, Newsweek, Time, Wired, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and other media. Professor Suri is a popular public lecturer and comments frequently on radio and television news. His writing and teaching have received numerous prizes, including the President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Texas and the Pro Bene Meritis Award for Contributions to the Liberal Arts. Professor Suri hosts a weekly podcast, “This is Democracy.”