How Trumpism Differs From Fascism - The Atlantic
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • last year • 38 commentsBy: Christopher R. Browning (The Atlantic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
I've resisted using the word until now, but something menacing and novel is taking shape with the possibility of a second Trump term.
By Christopher R. Browning July 25, 2024
For some years, a variety of news commentators and academics have called Donald Trump a fascist. I was one of those who resisted using that term. I thought it had long been abused by casual, imprecise applications, and as a historian of Nazi Germany, I did not think Trumpism was anywhere close to crossing the threshold of that comparison. I still deny that Trump's presidency was fascist; but I'm concerned that if he wins another trip to the White House, he could earn the label.
Fascism was most fully exemplified by the regimes of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. These regimes combined totalitarian dictatorship, wars of imperial conquest, and outright genocide in the case of Hitler (of Jews, Slavs, Roma) or ethnic mass murder in Mussolini's case (of Libyans, Ethiopians, Slovenes). Placing Trumpism in the same category seemed to me trivializing and misleading.
I argued instead that Trump was more like Hungary's Viktor Orban or Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoan than Hitler or Mussolini, and should be categorized as an "illiberal populist" rather than a fascist. And in one very important respect, Trump differed sharply from the European fascists of the interwar period.
They were ardent militarists and imperialists. War was the crucible in which the new fascist man was to be forged; territorial expansion was both the means and the end of fascist power and triumph. Trump has shown little ambition to pursue such aims. In his first term, he shamelessly abased himself before Russian President Vladimir Putin, exchanged "love letters" with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban committing the U.S. to withdrawal from Afghanistan, and petulantly sought to downgrade U.S. treaty obligations to NATO and South Korean allies that he deemed to be "delinquent" and getting a "free ride."
Trump has continued in the same isolationist vein in recent interviews and speeches. He has railed against "globalists." He has promised to settle the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 24 hours by cutting off aid to Kyiv if President Volodymyr Zelensky does not reach an immediate settlement with Moscow—that is, capitulate to Putin. He has disparaged Taiwan as a predator nation that stole microchip manufacturing from the U.S. (That Chinese President Xi Jinping would construe the simultaneous abandonment of Ukraine and dismissal of Taiwan as anything other than a green light to invade the latter seems improbable.)
Christopher R. Browning: How Hitler's enablers undid democracy in Germany
No question, Trump inflicted grave damage on our country's political culture, stoking toxic polarization and reveling in dishonesty. And Trumpism did exhibit distinct elements of the fascist style of politics: the inflammatory rallies; the incessant mongering of fear, grievance, and victimization; the casual endorsement of violence; the pervasive embrace of conspiracy theories; the performative cruelty; the feral instinct for targeting marginalized and vulnerable minorities; and the cult of personality. But the Trump presidency lacked any warlike, expansionist interest, and that made it decisively unlike 20th-century fascism.
Thankfully, also, Trump himself was too lazy, inexperienced, and unprepared to set about systematically constructing a true dictatorship. The main focus of the Trump presidency was less plans and programs and more the theatrics of satisfying his constant, insatiable need for attention and adulation. Everything—whether the state of the economy or the chocolate cake served to China's Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago—had to be extolled as "the greatest ever."
Until the final weeks of Trump's term, the guardrails of American democracy seemed to hold firm. The institutions of the federal government remained relatively intact, and civil servants largely secure and uncorrupted. The United States experienced democratic backsliding but not democratic collapse.
In a second term, however, a newly emboldened Trump could well attack democracy itself. The MAGA Republican Party of his making has openly explored ways to transform states where they control all branches of government. States that were once pluralistic democracies with at least some chance of a transfer of power are coming to resemble one-party regimes directed by a minority of the population. (Anne Applebaum's report from Tennessee is a case history in point.)
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump's putative rival for the 2024 Republican nomination, has turned his state into a laboratory for testing how a determined, calculating, uninhibited authoritarian can maximize executive power. In many respects, he has already accomplished at the state level what Trump did not have the discipline and focus to do at the federal level. And DeSantis has created a blueprint for other Republican state leaders to follow.
Shadi Hamid: Americans are losing sight of what fascism means
Just as state Republicans have become more ruthlessly autocratic in their methods, a new Trump presidency would be much more efficiently goal-oriented at the federal level. A huge transformation of the administrative state is being deliberately planned. The government agencies and civil service he has decried as the "deep state" would be purged or politicized, and the "retribution" he has promised against his enemies would also be carried out. The "unitary executive" theory long promoted by some Republicans would become the reality of an unabashed authoritarianism.
The very last months of the Trump presidency foreshadowed what a second term would entail. When formerly loyal vassals such as Attorney General William Barr and Defense Secretary Mark Esper demonstrated that they would not cross the line into unconstitutional insurgency, Trump sought sycophants for whom no such line existed. In a new Trump administration, total devotion to the leader would be the sole qualification for appointment.
Unlike previous fascist leaders with their cult of war, Trump still offers appeasement to dictators abroad, but he now promises something much closer to dictatorship at home. For me, what Trump is offering for his second presidency will meet the threshold, and the label I'd choose to describe it would be "isolationist fascism." Until now, such a concept would have been an oxymoron, a historical phenomenon without precedent. Trump continues to break every mold.
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only one circle on that venn diagram...
The fascist leaders of history came to power by convincing the people that their goals were for the greater good and greater protection for the nation and its citizens.
Trump offers none of that. He grifts. Hurts portions of the population if given the chance. Uses Constitutional protections and the courts to shield every semblance of accountability. Has proven time and again that he is 'reverent' to wealth and power.
He is not a fascist. He is an autocrat that believes in oligarchy, believing himself to be the dominant oligarch.
Wow, we agree for a change.
They didn't convince everybody, though. To his base and to those who would support him, his goals and their goals, nominally at least, are exactly the same: To save America from the evil, liberal ideology and their perceived Deep State enforcement of the evil, liberal ideology so that the "good people " aka those who support him can live "free", whatever free means at any given time and subject to change at a whim.
He abused the constitution in ways that were previously unthinkable. He was held in check only because certain people whom he thought were going to back him had more respect for constitutional precedent and accepted presidential tradition than he did, which is to say more than none.
He seems to fit a lot of the defining traits.
Correct. By 1936 in Germany when the Nazis had total control of Law Enforcement, The Judiciary, The Legislatures, The Military and all aspect of The Civil Service their general popularity among the German public never exceeded 36%. But by then with total control of every governmental apparatus it meant nothing. The Nazis were in charge.
And what is Trump promising his followers....
Some people will gladly go to the devil and hand over their souls thinking they are doing the right thing, only to realize later, to late, that they were just the means to an end. When that end is achieved, everyone is expendable.
Look at his first term, learn from it. If you give him a second chance, we all have none.
What were Trump's promises? He promised nothing except revenge and protection fro himself.
Trump is promising
It is the standard pipe dream but laced with fentanyl.
This is exactly what some of the hard core alt+right populists want to do. One of our own NT posted a Federalist article calling for replacing the 'deep state' liberals with their own people who will ignore the law until they can change the law.
You mean like Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet and San Francisco State University political scientist Aaron Belkin have urged Biden to do?
It never ceases to amaze me the things liberals dream up about conservatives.
This one is a perfect example of "they are doing exactly what they are accusing others of doing". And it's all a distraction from just that not realizing there are many that don't buy into that bullshit.
No. While this asshat is wrong, the far right populists' I'm taking about want the next conservative President to become an autocrat. They understand the only way to do this would be by installing sympathetic people in all facets of government and law enforcement to keep control until the laws can be changed by 'Presidential decree".
The good thing to note here is that these idiots on both sides of the populist isle are few.
It never ceases to amaze me how hypocritical ALL partisans are. How blind partisanship leaves them to their own sides shortcomings and how facts are now just opinions and opinions are facts.
He "convinces people that his goals are for the greater good".
He's racist. (At least, he embraces racism as a means of recruiting for his Tribe.)
Authoritarian + racist = fascist
He utilizes the "No True Scotsman" method of determining "True Americans" and "True Patriots" and "True" whatever he is bloviating on at the second.
Yup
Lets start with the actual definition of fascist shall we.
Now with that definition and looking at the whole situation, it's safe to say, that's not what we saw from the former POTUS. But we have seen it from the current administration. Censoring social media about COVID, the President's crackhead kid, etc.
Not to mention Geriatric Joes blatant racist comments throughout his career. You remember comments like:
In my experience, trying to argue with someone who actually believes this shit is pointless.
So joe Biden is a fascist then
It's like trying to play chess with a pigeon. They'll run all over the place knocking pieces off the board and shitting on the whole thing in an attempt to make themselves look good.
Merriam-Webster agrees with me.
No.
When you look at the definition of fascist. Yes, despite your best efforts, Biden is Fascist.
Only if you leave out 90% of the information and substitute it with your delusion.
But he’s the one who keeps trying to aggregate power in the presidency while delegitimizing organizations and branches of government (supreme court) that don’t knuckle under to his power. Biden’s the one abusing law enforcement to harass his critics and protect his family.
Very authoritarian.
and no one can deny Biden’s racism. He literally favors governmental discrimination on the basis of race. Can’t get more racist than that.
by your own standard, Biden is a fascist.
How does Donald Trump differ from Volodymyr Zelenskyy? How would Trump's vision for United States differ from Zelenskyy's vision for Ukraine? How is America First different than Slava Ukraini?
Why should the United States be denied what Ukraine is demanding?
Slava Ukrainia is an offshoot right wing group. These factions exist in every nation. Even Denmark has a Nazi faction as does the United States, France and many other nations.
Trump and Zelenskyy differences. Zelenskyy is trying to repel invaders from his country. Trump would aid the invaders. That is but one difference.
Unproven, wild-assed speculation.
Read and discounted.
You spelled blatant assed lie wrong.
true, guilty as charged!
You mean like President Biden and Mr. Mayorkis are doing?
You know the only response is going to be "but Trruuummmmppppp!" followed by some fictional "information" from a list of talking points.
What a silly piece. The author admits the Trump Presidency bore no relationship to fascism (despite the hysteria) but claims the movement is fascist now because it wins elections now and refuses to govern the way progressives demand, using Tennessee as an example.
I'm in Tennessee now, anyone who thinks this is a "fascist state" is an idiot. It's such a stupid argument to engage with it is giving it too much attention.
By all means, come to Tennessee, tell everyone how bad Trump is, how bad the Republicans are and see what happens. You might get laughed at. The horror!.
This is basically an attempt to hide a pardon in the plea agreement. Garland should be impeached for this
Must be sad for the Bidens tonight.
Imagine running into a competent judge!
Ah, poor Hunter!