Is Donald Trump a Fascist? (Part I)
Background
President Obama says that Donald Trump is a fascist.
In the film “Hillary”, a documentary about Hillary Clinton released in 2020, Senator Tim Kaine, her running mate in the 2016 presidential race, recalls a phone call in which President Obama refers to Donald Trump as a fascist.
Kaine speaking to Clinton:
President Obama called me last night and said, “Tim, this is no time to be a purist. You’ve got to keep a fascist out of the White House.”
Clinton responds:
I echo that sentiment.
References:
Others say Donald Trump is a fascist.
Of course, President Obama’s claim is not unique. Trump has been referred to as a fascist by many people, and for several years now.
Starting shortly after June 16, 2015, the day Donald Trump descended the escalator in Trump Tower to declare his candidacy for president, a steady stream of fascism charges has kept flowing.
2015
- “Trump is a fascist”, tweeted Max Boot, a Washington Post columnist and CNN analyst.
- “Donald Trump Is a Fascist”, headlined Slate Magazine.
- “Trump may indeed be a little fascistic”, declared New York Times columnist Ross Douthat.
- “I’m still not sure it’s 100 percent clear that Donald Trump really understands that he’s a neo-fascist”, wrote Michael Tomasky in the Daily Beast.
2016
- “I think that Donald Trump himself is a dangerous neo-fascist in the making”, claimed Cornell West, a professor at Harvard and Princeton universities.
- “Donald Trump’s Fascist Week”, was the title of a segment on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
2017
- “Donald Trump is behaving like 1930s fascist dictator”, said Yale University historian Timothy Snyder.
2018
- “You foolish fascist!”, proclaimed Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson, at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.
2019
- “…the current occupant of the White House is borrowing so many elements from fascism…”, wrote author and New School University professor Federico Finchelstein, for the Washington Post.
- “The Trump regime’s fascism and racial authoritarianism do not rest on Christmas or any other holiday”, wrote Chauncey Devega in Salon.
Anti-Fascism Groups
Then there are the various groups that have sprung up since Trump’s election to challenge his alleged fascism. Among the most prominent is RefuseFascism.org.
From their website home page:
There’s also Antifa (a portmanteau of “ANTI-FAscist”), a de-centralized cluster of groups that have been around for a long time, but have gained new awareness since Trump’s election in 2016, fighting those they consider fascist.
Clearly, across the United States — in the news media, on late night talk shows, in Congress, in Hollywood, in Silicon Valley, on college campuses, and in many other quarters of society — President Trump is considered a fascist.
So is any of this true? Is Donald Trump really a fascist?
Next article: Part II (Analysis)
