Is Trump a Fascist

Is Trump a Fascist?  He Meets Almost All of the Criteria

He admires Hitler.

He believes that Hitler’s generals were preferable to America’s during WWII.

He wished that he’d had Hitler’s generals instead of his own during his presidency.

He admires modern-day dictators, including Putin, who Republican icon Ronald Reagan would have detested and fought against every day of his eight years in office.

He laces his typically-racist rants against immigrants (“hordes of marauding rapists and murderers”) with Nazi-like terminology – rooting out vermin, too many people with bad genes, getting rid of the “enemy within,” etc.

He talks about concentration camps for immigrants.

He states that there will be military tribunals to prosecute his opponents and those “internal enemies” such as “Marxists” Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff.

He promises that the military will be used against civilians when they get out of line.

But when he speaks like the authoritarian that he dreams of being, we’re told not to take him seriously. “Oh, come on, you lib whiners. He won’t really do it. That’s just Trump being Trump!”

Exactly! He constantly lets us know who he is. He repeats it over and over again! And there’s proof that he means what he says. He continually weaponized the Justice Dept. against opponents. He fired anyone who disagreed with him. He asked General Mark Milley to order U.S. military forces to attack peaceful protesters – “Crack skulls,” “Beat the fuck out of them,” and “Just shoot them,” were Trump’s words. The general told Trump that such as attack would be illegal and that he wouldn’t do it (that must be one of the many times he wished for loyal Nazi commanders). He incited a deadly insurrection to overthrow a free and fair election, and even now, in a sickeningly Orwellian fashion, refers to it as a Day of Love.

And now, high-ranking military personnel and top political associates of Trump are warning us that we need to take his words very seriously, and that he is dangerous and a bona fide threat to American democracy 

The aforementioned General Milley, former chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff, said that Trump is a “fascist to the core.”

John Kelly, retired general and Trump’s chief of staff, had to advise him to refrain from praising Hitler publically, and now states that given any commonly accepted definition of fascism, Trump is definitely a fascist.

James Mattis, Trump’s first Secretary of Defense, resigned in protest and recently agreed with General Milley that Trump “is the most dangerous person ever.”

Mark Esper, Trump’s second Secretary of Defense, has said that he is “unfit for office,” “a national security threat,” and “a threat to democracy.”

So, even though these upper-echelon military men and advisors who knew him best, state with no hesitation that Trump will attempt to rule as a dictator, apologists are lining up to excuse their leader, claiming that a hysterical liberal press is blowing this out of portion. They ask us to ignore his actual words - the words that come out of his mouth every day. They laugh, they scoff, they rant, they pontificate, all with a unified right-wing voice, asking us to forget his words.

Then adding injury to insult, spineless politicians like Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell have joined Faux News alt-reality propaganda ministers in attacking the integrity of people like Kelly. It sickens me that he and the other men and women who have served the country honorably, and dare to tell the truth, are raked through a MAGA cesspit by morality-impaired “journalists” and Republican toadies who once trashed Trump, but now bow down to kiss the hems of his slacks. These are people who aren’t good enough to launder John Kelly’s shorts, let alone speak about his record and reputation.

And I’m not the first to mention that while Trump couldn’t realize his authoritarian dreams in his first administration, a second will be a completely different animal. He was as surprised to win in 2016 as the rest of us, and was baffled by the roll of POTUS. He filled his administration with stooges and yes-men who weren’t adept at getting things done. He also made the mistake of bringing people into his inner-circle that were actually mature, thoughtful, and ethical. They never lasted, but several of them were present at key times to be the “adult in the room” who would put up resistance to Trump’s un-democratic and frequently illegal impulses (like the men mentioned above).

Those people won’t get anywhere near the White House this time around. There will undoubtedly be a number of imbecilic sycophants, because that’s what the man-child requires, but he will also be surrounded by a team of the most unethical, battle tested, take-no-prisoners enforcers ever assembled on U.S. soil. Project 2025 apparatchiks who are guided by God to serve Him, and his messenger on earth, Donald J. Trump. They will be loyal. They will ignore laws. They will shred the Constitution. They will be the Nazi underlings that Trump has pined for.

Will they succeed in destroying democracy in America. I don’t know. I know that hundreds of thousands of people will be in the streets protesting each fascistic move. People will be killed, but prisons won’t be able to be built fast enough to house the discontented masses. We have lived with some semblance of democracy for 240 years, and it won’t be abandoned without many, many fights. Maybe some of the “I didn’t take him seriously” or the “Yes, he was unhinged, but I didn’t like inflation” people will see how gullible they were, and join the protests. But then, der Leader’s loyalists, most of whom have guns – lots of guns – will be unleashed on the “communistic vermin” who dare to challenge God, country, and Trump.

I just don’t know. The German people had never experienced real democracy, so they were more willing to accept fascism. Same with Italy and Spain. Maybe America’s history is implanted deeply enough in people’s minds that it won’t happen here. Maybe taking apart the three branches of government will prove more difficult than the autocrats imagined.

I’m curious about this, and I’d love to hear from those of you who don’t believe that fascism is possible under Trump. What evidence leads you to the conclusion that we shouldn’t take his words seriously? Don’t tell me why you like Trump better than Harris, or why you don’t find her qualified to be president. I know what your reasons and arguments are, I don’t agree with them, and I don’t want us to waste each other’s time rehashing them.

I just want to know why, in light of warnings by people who are more knowledgeable than either you or me, following words and actions that show a distinct propensity to the exercise of autocratic power, do you fail to see potential fascism under Trump?