On Donald Trump’s Fascism
January 16, 2026
It becomes more and more obvious every day that Donald Trump is not only an American fascist but that he iss using fascist techniques to impose his will on not only the United States of America but on the whole world. What are some of those techniques:
Have an innocent demographic that you accuse of being responsible for all of your country’s problems, then use violence against them. For Hitler that was the Jews. For Stalin (a Communist who functioned like a fascist), it was counterrevolutionaries. For Trump, it is immigrants legal or otherwise be they citizens or not.
Make people disbelieve in the reality of truth. Lie, lie, lie, the lie some more. Not because you want people to believe the lies, though you’re perfectly happy if they do, but because you want them not to believe that there is no such a thing as truth. To believe that they can trust no one to tell them the truth.
Suppress what we in America call constitutional rights, most especially the rights of freedom of speech, of the press, and of peaceful assembly.
Censor everything published or broadcast in the country. Prohibit any expression of opposition.
Make opponents enemies. In a democracy, people of different political opinions vie in the public square for public support. They may not like each other. They consider the other’s policy positions to be dangerous and destructive. But they don’t call opponents enemies. They don’t think political opponents deserve execution. Fascists cannot tolerate opposition, so they turn opponents into enemies and say they deserve to be killed. In classical fascist systems, they actually kill them, sometimes by the millions.
Have some sort of paramilitary group of thugs that you employ against those “enemies.” Hitler had the Gestapo and the SS. Stalin had the NKVD. Trump has ICE. He has violent paramilitary organizations on standby. He if fully willing to use all of these institutions against advocates of democracy.
Centralize political, military, and police power in one person, one Supreme Leader. For the Nazis, of course, that was Hitler, whom they called “der Fűhrer,” the leader. Soviet Communists of his time called Stalin the “Vozhd,” which also means leader. Fascist regimes may retain outwardly democratic political structures, but, in reality, there is nothing democratic about them.
In fascist systems, the leader exercises that unlimited political, military, and police power only for the benefit of the leader’s fascist regime. The leader may do that through nominally constitutional institutions, but, in fact, the leader is in complete control of the country.
Convince the people that only that supreme leader can solve their country’s problems.
Glorify the leader beyond all reason. Make him (it’s always a him) infallible. Make any opposition to him or even questioning of him sedition. Make everyone pledge allegiance to him. Hitler required even Christian pastors to take the Hitler oath. Yours truly will never, under any circumstances, take a Trump oath.
Claim to be working for the people while actually creating a privileged power elite above the people.
Greatly increase the wealth of the leader and his closest supporters through both legal and illegal means.
Have no scruples whatsoever about using murderous violence against perceived enemies or against people you want the country’s people to believe are enemies. Have no scruples against violence even to the point of committing genocide. Hitler did it against the Jews. Stalin did it against the Ukrainians. Trump hasn’t committed genocide yet, but then, he’s just getting started.
Seek to expand the part of the world under the leader’s control. Hitler did it by invading and conquering most of western and central Europe. Stalin did it by being part of the Soviet Communists’ conquest of most of what had been the Russian Empire and by entering into a coalition with another fascist, Hitler, that allowed the Soviet Union to occupy and absorb the three Baltic Republics and parts of Poland that became part of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine.
Care nothing about the opinions or interests of any nation. Only the fascist leader’s opinions matter.
Claim the right to do anything internationally with no negative consequences or negative responses by any other nation or international organization. No one, domestic or foreign, has the right to criticize the fascist leader.
So what is a fascist regime? It is a system of government grounded in a supreme leader’s megalomania and lust for power. It is established and maintained through violence or other illegal means. Even is it is established through legal mechanisms, as Hitler’s was, it comes to be maintained through violence and fear. It functions only for the benefit of its leader and a small group of the leader’s closest supporters. It panders to non-political power structures, such as economic systems and institutions, only to coopt them and make them supporters. Or, as Stalin did, it simply destroys all non-political power structures so that they cannot be centers of opposition.1
Perhaps the good news is that Most fascist régimes don’t last very long. Italy’s Mussolini, the protopicalfascist, ruled Italy only from 1922 to 1943. Hitler’s fascist regime lasted only for twelve years, from 1933 to 1945. Stalin ruled from roughly 1929 to his death in 1953.2 The Soviet regime that followed him certainly was nothing close to democratic, but at least it wasn’t nearly as murderously violent as Stalin had been. Mao Zedong was head of the Chinese state from 1949 to 1959 and effectively in control of the country as head of the Chinese Communist Party until his death in 1976. The Communist regime in China that followed him, like the Communist regime that followed Stalin in the USSR, was, and is, in no way democratic; but it, however, was, and is, less fascist than Mao had been if only because it was and is somewhat less murderously violent.3 It is too early to say how long Trump’s would-be truly fascist regime will last in the United States.
Donald Trump truly is an American fascist in the sense I have outlined here. Every one of these criteria either applies to what Trump has done or is doing or points to something he will do if he thinks he can get away with it. He has not succeeded in turning the United States into a truly fascist nation, at least not yet. No one, I trust, is going to arrest or murder me for writing this post and posting it online. Yet there is no doubt that he will turn us into a truly fascist nation if he can. He is clearly a megalomaniac. He clearly sees opponents as enemies deserving death. He has expressly said as much. He uses force as much as he has so far been able to use to exert his power and suppress all of his opponents. Clearly, he will establish as much of a truly fascist regime as his country allows him to establish.
Which means that it is up to us to stop him. I am an adherent of Christian nonviolence, so I will never advocate stopping him violently; but we must all use every nonviolent means available to us to stop him from turning our country truly fascist. How do we do that? By speaking out. By demonstrating against Trump and essentially everything the executive branch of the federal government he heads does. By voting, for as long as we still have the right to vote for candidates of any political party with the guts to stand up to him and say “No,” and, those for whom we vote who are to be members of Congress have the guts to vote against him every time. By supporting nongovernmental organizations like the ACLU that take the Trump administration to court over its myriad violations of the law (and often win). By bombarding our senators and representative with phone calls and email telling them to oppose everything the Trump administration wants to do.
Folks, short of violence, which I will not advocate, nothing is too much for us to do to try to stop Trump’s fascist takeover not only of our government but of our entire nation. I wish I had a magic wand that could make him to away, but I don’t. I do still have my constitutional right of free speech; and, for now at least, so do you. So let’s speak out. Let’s cry out. Let’s scream out. Let’s demand that our elected representatives do everything they can to stop Trump. Let us demand that our state governments, some of which at least are anti-Trump, do whatever they can do to stop him in their states. Nothing we can do amounts to too much. We face a true crisis. We face a turning point in American history. Will we turn to fascism, or will we return to the ideals America has always espoused, as woefully inadequately as we have put them into practice. It may well be up to us which we way we turn. So let’s yank any steering wheel we have and do what we can to stop the American fascist Donald Trump. The future of our country, and perhaps the future of the world, depends on it.
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