I don't think you go back far enough. Trump behaves exactly like a medieval monarch, expecting loyalty, which he rewards, and total subordination of the common folk. His sole objectives are conquest, enrichment and self-preservation. His vision is limited to the immediate - there is no strategy.
It's really good that you've written this, your thoughts are on the right lines. I may ramble a little here, so please indulge me.
I'm wondering if we need to find ways to diminish Trump's ego. His vanity is a crucial part of his psyche. I know it's small beer, but if the RoW started making serious noises about not participating in his World Cup what would that do. I mean, how can Colombia be even still considering taking part? Ditto for Canada & Mexico. Maybe we get a RoW fans revolt and just don't go to it. Empty stadiums on global TV broadcasts.would surely hurt his psyche. As would chaos in the organisation as teams pulled out. Give Trump the same pariah treament as was given to South Africa, as was given to other sporting events in other countries. I know this isn't the 1936 Olympics, but there are similarities.
For Greenland I'd suggest NATO immediately deploys all that it can spare to an "exercise" in Greenland. Get the European boots on the ground NOW! Before Trump acts. Then perhaps the remaining sane members of the US Military will be forced to pause in carrying out illegal and insane orders. It's no use reacting to his whims, we all need to get ahead of him.
And for the sake of all of us, find and publish the Epstein Files. In full. That's his kryptonite. Every intelligence agency on the planet should be treating that as their number one priority. Mossad's probably already got them and so has Putin. Imagine how helpful they'd be to Greenland, Denmark, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Cuba...
I agree with the body of your article,but have a problem with 'Trumpism' as a term, as it plays into his malignant narcissm and ego mania. It gives longevity to his name just as his hotels, towers and re-naming of institutions does. It reminds me of how we name serial killers The Wolf rather than The Turd. . . . Oh! How about "Turdism'?
It's a fair point, but as Iratus accurately observes, language matters, particularly in politics. We've reached a peculiar point where Trump, Farage, and their followers are pushing back hard against language that would have once felled a politician. It is now considered more offensive to accuse someone of being racist, than to actually be racist. Racists are far more adept at masking their true beliefs. It takes little to put opponents on the back foot; simply demanding that they justify such claims is enough.
I'm still arguing for the introduction of 'right-washing' into political discussion. This reflects some of the key ideas underlying Iratus' article here. It has reached its apogee in the aftermath of Kirk's murder, and there is considerable effort in the UK to do the same. Simply put, it involves the close alignment with practices seen as having a profound moral base, recasting opponents as extremists, and downplaying language and actions that can be recast as problematic.
Hence, the explosion of 'support' for Evangelical Christianity. The Kirk 'rally' was recast as a memorial service, complete with a grieving widow, scores of Christian music acts, tens of thousands of mourners, and stagecraft lifted straight from Trump's electoral campaign. Kirk was instantly transformed from a right-wing rabble-rouser to a Christian Martyr. Similar efforts have been seen here in the UK with Tommy Robinson and Nick Tenconi both having had their 'come to Jesus' moments, and now pushing a nuanced version of Christianity that seeks to 'other' members of other religions, most notably, Islam.
Other examples include attempts to recast anti-racist groups as paid extremists, seeking to incite violence at 'peaceful protests' in opposition to sexual predators. Pro-Palestinian protesters are recast as violent extremists, whilst anti-migrant protesters are recast as peaceful, common-sensical individuals who want to protect loved ones.
What we can see, then, is the power of language to shape realities and, hence, perception. This is where the danger lies in resorting to language such as 'Turdism'. However amusing it may seem, it allows opponents to dismiss it as puerile, instantly. You're right, "Trumpism" does play into his malignant narcissism. However, it is all the more reason to deploy it. In doing so, we highlight the central flaw in his personality and the great chasm between his ability and how he and his supporters perceive it. Trumpism is that very practice of claiming that "nobody has ever ...." (if you don't finish that with some absurd claim, I promise you, Trump will). By drawing attention to the immaturity at the core of his persona, we infantilise him, whilst refusing to bow to the same level.
This builds well on Bear's essay. The both of you have stirred the same nourishing but strangely unsatisfying soup of rhetoric that's been sloshing around my head since I read Jason Stanley's How Fascism Works.
I agree that naming yet another ism after trump feeds his ego and that is what we need to find as a solution to.
I've heard others comment on his lack of connection with the real world, he lives in a fabricated reality played out as reality TV. Its a dream within a nightmare wrapped in controversy and propped up by chaos and money. It's a form of egotistical capitalism writ large as a political transaction, seize what is of benefit to you and your country.
We keep waking to find the dream has shifted and we walk into another nightmare and we are never truly awake to the rational we crave and this plays into Bannons flood the zone rhetoric, it keeps us quelled and on that back foot.
We all need to learn from these threads and weave a different approach completely. The grass roots of commentators who cut through like the man walking his dog past the Kennedy Centre and his startlingly frank and fearless exposition.
Yes, protest the world cup but its all small beer compared with real people calmly pointing out truths formed from an agony that grips them. That's why the Epstein survivors cut through and the administration does far more to distract from this than anything else because it's the worst for him and his base. It makes him the monster he is and undermines his populism, his stardom and the fragile nature of fame.
The worst we can do is make him irrelevant, cast him as the ineffectual face of a populist regime hellbent on acquisition and exploitation riding a wave of sewage composed of cult and lies.
Good morning on this chilly day Bear. Approaching Waterloo on a train so I'll keep this as brief as possible.
You are right that the usual glib labels don't apply and to see why I think one has to first consider Trump and his father and the milieu in which they existed. Senior made a fortune in property with links to the mob and machine politics (i.e. corrupt).
Donald has spent his entire adult life as a fourth rate prince seeking wealth and acclaim who through the democratic process and a well attuned understanding of his base (a word most apt since he is a base being as are many of them) become a king, perhaps an emperor in the making.
I have replied to you before and suggested that the Court of King Donald the 1st is more in keeping with the medieval or renaissance to Napoleon periods. As you say loyalty has to be absolute in his court.
And there is no grand or philosophical meaning to all this. King Donald is a throw back to older, ancient times and he even has the support of the Evangelical Churches to add some pre Reformation colour to his court and power base (to add to his tasteless addiction to gold painted interior decor). Nothing like the approval of a God to add legitimacy.
If only we had a Shakespeare with parchment, quill, ink and sand at the ready to cast King Donald the 1st, a veritable throwback, into context.
Trump is what happens when rules and the law, which are in the end only agreed constructs, are abandoned and the primitive face of humanity is let loose upon the world.
He, Putin and Netanyahu are primitives. To some extent or another they cover their condition and actions in a gossamer of false legitimacy. Enough to give the faithful cause for continuing to believe.
Though the rest of us sit askance trying to adapt to a more primitive world. One when a ruler has absolute power and the divide between him with courtiers, those of great wealth, and those without influence or means is the defining characteristic of this regressive state.
(To add insult to injury and disease, King Donald's chief witch doctor or apothecary, RFK, take your pick of which title suits best is doing his best to return medicine back a thousand years, at least for the poor.
Thanks for that - a really useful prompt to further thought.
I'm not entirely sure that Ffarij fits the "fascist" label either, however tempting it is to apply it. If you look at his actual behaviour, rather than what he says, his priority is personal profit first, profits for his funders second, and anything else is an also-ran.
He's defo on the "mad profiteer" end of the leadership-ambition spectrum too, if you construct one that runs from "idealistic wannabe superhero" to "personal financial gain at all costs".
It's so tempting to assume that these people will always crash-&-burn after a while, but at the moment there always seems to be someone else waiting to take their place (and money) when that happens.
However we have yet to see how this particular version of "great leadership" manages a succession in that situation. Somehow I can't see the North Korean model working either in the UK or the US.
The key problem (if such a wicked mess could be said to have one) seems to be the financialisation of everything that started with Reagan/Thatcher.
Dangerous times, indeed. The one thing that has to be understood is that Trump has never played by any conventional rules of decency and fair play and if the only way the world is going to stop him is by needing to do the same then so be it. He sees decency and adhering to conventional behaviour as weaknesses and it seems, so far, that he’s gotten away with it. It’s time for the rest of the world to ditch pussyfooting around this excuse for a man for fear of upsetting him and show him his actions are unacceptable by whatever means necessary.
What I find to be the most unpalatable fact in all of this is that the American people and its military seem to be going along with this… are they all THAT stupid?!
He certainly seems to tick a lot of the boxes - he’s fascist adjacent at the least and didn’t seem to mind Mamdani calling him one. I certainly can believe he had a copy of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside and can believe he read them…. This list from Keene University seems to chime with much of Trump’s agenda this time round.
1. Powerful, often exclusionary, populist nationalism centered on cult of a redemptive, “infallible” leader who never admits mistakes. - Yes
2. Political power derived from questioning reality, endorsing myth and rage, and promoting lies. Yes - the ‘fake news’ guy…
3. Fixation with perceived national decline, humiliation, or victimhood. Yes (MAGA!)
4. White Replacement “Theory” used to show that democratic ideals of freedom and equality are a threat. Oppose any initiatives or institutions that are racially, ethnically, or religiously harmonious. Yes - antipathy to BLM/DEI
5. Disdain for human rights while seeking purity and cleansing for those they define as part of the nation. - Yes ‘poisoning the blood of the nation …’
6. Identification of “enemies”/scapegoats as a unifying cause. Imprison and/or murder opposition and minority group leaders. Yes - ‘radical leftists …’
7. Supremacy of the military and embrace of paramilitarism in an uneasy, but effective collaboration with traditional elites. Fascists arm people and justify and glorify violence as “redemptive”. Yes - the parade, Hegseth as Sec of ‘war’ …
8. Rampant sexism. Yes - the p***y grabber.
9. Control of mass media and undermining “truth”. Yes - SLAPP suits, ‘truth’ social
10. Obsession with national security, crime and punishment, and fostering a sense of the nation under attack. Yes - ‘they’re eating the cats and dogs…’
11. Religion and government are intertwined. Yes - the veneration of the man who can’t name his favourite bible verse …
12. Corporate power is protected and labor power is suppressed. Yes - DOGE and the tech bros…
13. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts not aligned with the fascist narrative. Yes - the Trump-Kennedy Centre …
14. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Loyalty to the leader is paramount and often more important than competence. Yes - the Cabinet is full of nodding dogs.
15. Fraudulent elections and creation of a one-party state. Not quite, but the MAGA takeover of the GOP seems to be slipping now.
16. Often seeking to expand territory through armed conflict. Work in progress…
Between 2020 and Jan 2025 and Project 2025, the Trumpian project seems to have lurched towards, if not into the fascist lane.
You nailed it with these words: 'We cannot fight a corporatised, oligarchical, tech enabled, self-aggrandising, celebrity driven authoritarianism with the institutional muscle memory of the mid-20th century anymore - we need new tools. New forms of coordination, new shapes of regulatory ambition and new thinking about democratic control over transnational power.'
Add in a new form of colonialism and imperialism. The kind that Russia has been engaged in for centuries. Not the lazy label that some on the left attach to any action or aspect of the West that they do not like. Invading and taking over other countries, oppressing their people and grabbing their resources.
And thats the closest parallel to Trump's USA - Russia. It may not have the tech but it has all the other attributes. Just look at Putins palace and the Kremlin as models for Trump's dreams. Oligarchs rewarded or prosecuted if they step out of line. Massive security forces to prevent civil unrest. And the camps to send people off to.
Bear - Just posted a link to your post on Paul Krugman's excellent substack. He is arguing that American's need to wake up to the fascist regime of Trump and see it for what it is.
I think that Trump is best described as a proto-fascist. Fascism emerged in Europe as a response to economic crisis and depression and as an alternative to the working class movements of the left that were very powerful across the continent and especially in Span, Italy and Germany. Fascism mobilised working class support for a restructuring and renewal of capitalist economies based on nation, race, ethnicity and a subversion of class. The blackshirts/brownshirts were the violent form that was used to destroy the working class movements that might have provided a progressive alternative. Fascism was a radical political accommodation with traditional Capital - never a challenge to it. Trump does not need to be a Fascist. There is no powerful working class movement to destroy; he has gained power without the need for American battalions of brownshirts. However, as we saw with his aborted coup in 2021, mass violence is always an option. ICE and the Young Boys et al. are ready and willing to become instruments of violent repression if needed in the future. And, that future might not be far away. If Trump is at risk of losing power in the mid-terms and then in 2028 mass violence and civil war might seem a good option to him. He is not a Fascist at the moment because he doesn't need to be one - but the option is always open to him if needs be.
It was easy for the fascists of interwar Europe to build millions-strong militias to do their dirty work because they had a youthful population to draw from (the Italian fascist anthem was literally called "Youth"!) including millions of hardened World War I veterans.
Trump and other 21st-century far-right figures don't have that resource to draw upon: instead they have millions of older people who aren't physically strong, but who are burning with resentment towards the upcoming end of the fossil fuel age.
I see strong parallels between American gunmen in pickup trucks flying Trump flags, and Arab gunmen in pickup trucks flying ISIS flags: the rise of apocalyptic variants of Islam (which ISIS is representative of) is likely because Middle Easterners are wondering what will happen to them when the petrodollars stop flowing, and they have to find some other way to support a swollen population in a desert land that can't feed them.
Isn't our problem more that the mechanisms we used to suppress the far-right in the second half of the 20th century simply don't work any more?
The UK's most famous racist politician of that era was Enoch Powell: though immensely popular with the white British public he was taken down by the elites, being sacked from Ted Heath's Shadow Cabinet the day after his "Rivers of Blood" speech and ultimately banished to the obscurity of the Ulster Unionist Party.
The Conservative Party's elites were then motivated to suppress an authoritarian figure like Powell, because they'd lived through a world war started by right-wing authoritarians which killed 70 million people: note incidentally that while Heath personally fought in WWII in Europe, Powell spent the war in the colonies and never personally saw combat.
They also had the power to suppress Powell's politics, because media was then highly centralized, and largely controlled by people who had ALSO lived through World War II. A big problem now is that satellite TV, digital broadcasting and especially the internet mean the media is far more decentralized (making it impossible to censor far-right voices), almost all the generations who lived through World War II are now dead, and centre-right parties no longer have the ability to keep the far-right caged: our own Conservatives arguably lost control in 1998 when they changed their leadership election rules to give the final say to the (now-Powellite) party membership.
I have to disagree a bit. Words do matter, as you said, but part of the problem is a widespread misunderstanding of Fascism. We tend to look at the big examples, which were German and Italian, but Fascism was an international movement, with pieces in forty or fifty different countries and with more than one fascist party in several of them. The point is that it was disparate and incoherent and with no universal aims. That means Trumpism, with no purposes beyond the desire for power and the expression of malice, fits the pattern. Mussolini did try to create a unifying ideology and tried to set up his own equivalent of the Stalinist International, but it didn't work. He even organised a conference for his scheme, which I think was in Montreux, in 1931 (I would have to look that up to be sure). That didn't do the trick and he only got thrty or so delegations, and both the Nazis and the Falange refused to take part, along with several others. Trump's party would fit into this sprawling mess without a hitch, even if he frustrated Mussolini and got nothing except contempt from Hitler -- there were enough Romanian's, Argentines, Irish and more who would have welcomed him, and he would have been happy to exchange complements and money with any of them. So yes, in this broad view, he is a fascist.
" Just because you can, does not mean you must". Trump believes in the opposite of this. In his first term he wanted to nuke some country because they had annoyed him and he had the capability. There were people who managed to persuade him this was not a good idea but they are no longer there.
He is now surrounded by people who will not try to restrain him but even encourage him because of their own desires for power and wealth.
Those who think that if he departs this mortal coil things will get better are wrong. He will be replaced by Vance. Trump is cunning but not very intelligent or knowledgeable. The V.P. is the opposite and to quote someone whose name I cannot remember " The creation of Peter Thiel ". This man believes that democracy is a failed experiment and is using his vast wealth to usurp it.
It could be a case of " be carefull what you wish for"
Thanks. This analysis echoes our daily breakfast rants. Those of us reaching in righteous rage for easy historical political labels and insults are unknowingly enabling these power abusers. The corporate legacy media can so easily manipulate us all by deploying these terms as emotional triggers. Thereby reducing any attempt at critical analysis of our lived experience of increasing political and economic oppression as a simplistic ding dong between the left and the right. A mass mediated dualist simplification that effectively distracts from shining a spotlight upon the criminal actions of a global ruling class.
I don't think you go back far enough. Trump behaves exactly like a medieval monarch, expecting loyalty, which he rewards, and total subordination of the common folk. His sole objectives are conquest, enrichment and self-preservation. His vision is limited to the immediate - there is no strategy.
Indeed
Henry VIII reincarnated
With decapitation strikes still in favour.
Exactly. It is absolutist monarchy as practised before the late 16c / mid 17c when “estates” and assemblies had to wrest control from them.
It's really good that you've written this, your thoughts are on the right lines. I may ramble a little here, so please indulge me.
I'm wondering if we need to find ways to diminish Trump's ego. His vanity is a crucial part of his psyche. I know it's small beer, but if the RoW started making serious noises about not participating in his World Cup what would that do. I mean, how can Colombia be even still considering taking part? Ditto for Canada & Mexico. Maybe we get a RoW fans revolt and just don't go to it. Empty stadiums on global TV broadcasts.would surely hurt his psyche. As would chaos in the organisation as teams pulled out. Give Trump the same pariah treament as was given to South Africa, as was given to other sporting events in other countries. I know this isn't the 1936 Olympics, but there are similarities.
For Greenland I'd suggest NATO immediately deploys all that it can spare to an "exercise" in Greenland. Get the European boots on the ground NOW! Before Trump acts. Then perhaps the remaining sane members of the US Military will be forced to pause in carrying out illegal and insane orders. It's no use reacting to his whims, we all need to get ahead of him.
And for the sake of all of us, find and publish the Epstein Files. In full. That's his kryptonite. Every intelligence agency on the planet should be treating that as their number one priority. Mossad's probably already got them and so has Putin. Imagine how helpful they'd be to Greenland, Denmark, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Cuba...
More power to you Ursa. Keep writing.
I agree with the body of your article,but have a problem with 'Trumpism' as a term, as it plays into his malignant narcissm and ego mania. It gives longevity to his name just as his hotels, towers and re-naming of institutions does. It reminds me of how we name serial killers The Wolf rather than The Turd. . . . Oh! How about "Turdism'?
It's a fair point, but as Iratus accurately observes, language matters, particularly in politics. We've reached a peculiar point where Trump, Farage, and their followers are pushing back hard against language that would have once felled a politician. It is now considered more offensive to accuse someone of being racist, than to actually be racist. Racists are far more adept at masking their true beliefs. It takes little to put opponents on the back foot; simply demanding that they justify such claims is enough.
I'm still arguing for the introduction of 'right-washing' into political discussion. This reflects some of the key ideas underlying Iratus' article here. It has reached its apogee in the aftermath of Kirk's murder, and there is considerable effort in the UK to do the same. Simply put, it involves the close alignment with practices seen as having a profound moral base, recasting opponents as extremists, and downplaying language and actions that can be recast as problematic.
Hence, the explosion of 'support' for Evangelical Christianity. The Kirk 'rally' was recast as a memorial service, complete with a grieving widow, scores of Christian music acts, tens of thousands of mourners, and stagecraft lifted straight from Trump's electoral campaign. Kirk was instantly transformed from a right-wing rabble-rouser to a Christian Martyr. Similar efforts have been seen here in the UK with Tommy Robinson and Nick Tenconi both having had their 'come to Jesus' moments, and now pushing a nuanced version of Christianity that seeks to 'other' members of other religions, most notably, Islam.
Other examples include attempts to recast anti-racist groups as paid extremists, seeking to incite violence at 'peaceful protests' in opposition to sexual predators. Pro-Palestinian protesters are recast as violent extremists, whilst anti-migrant protesters are recast as peaceful, common-sensical individuals who want to protect loved ones.
What we can see, then, is the power of language to shape realities and, hence, perception. This is where the danger lies in resorting to language such as 'Turdism'. However amusing it may seem, it allows opponents to dismiss it as puerile, instantly. You're right, "Trumpism" does play into his malignant narcissism. However, it is all the more reason to deploy it. In doing so, we highlight the central flaw in his personality and the great chasm between his ability and how he and his supporters perceive it. Trumpism is that very practice of claiming that "nobody has ever ...." (if you don't finish that with some absurd claim, I promise you, Trump will). By drawing attention to the immaturity at the core of his persona, we infantilise him, whilst refusing to bow to the same level.
This builds well on Bear's essay. The both of you have stirred the same nourishing but strangely unsatisfying soup of rhetoric that's been sloshing around my head since I read Jason Stanley's How Fascism Works.
I agree that naming yet another ism after trump feeds his ego and that is what we need to find as a solution to.
I've heard others comment on his lack of connection with the real world, he lives in a fabricated reality played out as reality TV. Its a dream within a nightmare wrapped in controversy and propped up by chaos and money. It's a form of egotistical capitalism writ large as a political transaction, seize what is of benefit to you and your country.
We keep waking to find the dream has shifted and we walk into another nightmare and we are never truly awake to the rational we crave and this plays into Bannons flood the zone rhetoric, it keeps us quelled and on that back foot.
We all need to learn from these threads and weave a different approach completely. The grass roots of commentators who cut through like the man walking his dog past the Kennedy Centre and his startlingly frank and fearless exposition.
Yes, protest the world cup but its all small beer compared with real people calmly pointing out truths formed from an agony that grips them. That's why the Epstein survivors cut through and the administration does far more to distract from this than anything else because it's the worst for him and his base. It makes him the monster he is and undermines his populism, his stardom and the fragile nature of fame.
The worst we can do is make him irrelevant, cast him as the ineffectual face of a populist regime hellbent on acquisition and exploitation riding a wave of sewage composed of cult and lies.
Or ‘who farted’ ?
Good morning on this chilly day Bear. Approaching Waterloo on a train so I'll keep this as brief as possible.
You are right that the usual glib labels don't apply and to see why I think one has to first consider Trump and his father and the milieu in which they existed. Senior made a fortune in property with links to the mob and machine politics (i.e. corrupt).
Donald has spent his entire adult life as a fourth rate prince seeking wealth and acclaim who through the democratic process and a well attuned understanding of his base (a word most apt since he is a base being as are many of them) become a king, perhaps an emperor in the making.
I have replied to you before and suggested that the Court of King Donald the 1st is more in keeping with the medieval or renaissance to Napoleon periods. As you say loyalty has to be absolute in his court.
And there is no grand or philosophical meaning to all this. King Donald is a throw back to older, ancient times and he even has the support of the Evangelical Churches to add some pre Reformation colour to his court and power base (to add to his tasteless addiction to gold painted interior decor). Nothing like the approval of a God to add legitimacy.
If only we had a Shakespeare with parchment, quill, ink and sand at the ready to cast King Donald the 1st, a veritable throwback, into context.
Trump is what happens when rules and the law, which are in the end only agreed constructs, are abandoned and the primitive face of humanity is let loose upon the world.
He, Putin and Netanyahu are primitives. To some extent or another they cover their condition and actions in a gossamer of false legitimacy. Enough to give the faithful cause for continuing to believe.
Though the rest of us sit askance trying to adapt to a more primitive world. One when a ruler has absolute power and the divide between him with courtiers, those of great wealth, and those without influence or means is the defining characteristic of this regressive state.
(To add insult to injury and disease, King Donald's chief witch doctor or apothecary, RFK, take your pick of which title suits best is doing his best to return medicine back a thousand years, at least for the poor.
Anyway must rush. Toodle pip.
Thanks for that - a really useful prompt to further thought.
I'm not entirely sure that Ffarij fits the "fascist" label either, however tempting it is to apply it. If you look at his actual behaviour, rather than what he says, his priority is personal profit first, profits for his funders second, and anything else is an also-ran.
He's defo on the "mad profiteer" end of the leadership-ambition spectrum too, if you construct one that runs from "idealistic wannabe superhero" to "personal financial gain at all costs".
It's so tempting to assume that these people will always crash-&-burn after a while, but at the moment there always seems to be someone else waiting to take their place (and money) when that happens.
However we have yet to see how this particular version of "great leadership" manages a succession in that situation. Somehow I can't see the North Korean model working either in the UK or the US.
The key problem (if such a wicked mess could be said to have one) seems to be the financialisation of everything that started with Reagan/Thatcher.
Dangerous times, indeed. The one thing that has to be understood is that Trump has never played by any conventional rules of decency and fair play and if the only way the world is going to stop him is by needing to do the same then so be it. He sees decency and adhering to conventional behaviour as weaknesses and it seems, so far, that he’s gotten away with it. It’s time for the rest of the world to ditch pussyfooting around this excuse for a man for fear of upsetting him and show him his actions are unacceptable by whatever means necessary.
What I find to be the most unpalatable fact in all of this is that the American people and its military seem to be going along with this… are they all THAT stupid?!
He certainly seems to tick a lot of the boxes - he’s fascist adjacent at the least and didn’t seem to mind Mamdani calling him one. I certainly can believe he had a copy of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside and can believe he read them…. This list from Keene University seems to chime with much of Trump’s agenda this time round.
1. Powerful, often exclusionary, populist nationalism centered on cult of a redemptive, “infallible” leader who never admits mistakes. - Yes
2. Political power derived from questioning reality, endorsing myth and rage, and promoting lies. Yes - the ‘fake news’ guy…
3. Fixation with perceived national decline, humiliation, or victimhood. Yes (MAGA!)
4. White Replacement “Theory” used to show that democratic ideals of freedom and equality are a threat. Oppose any initiatives or institutions that are racially, ethnically, or religiously harmonious. Yes - antipathy to BLM/DEI
5. Disdain for human rights while seeking purity and cleansing for those they define as part of the nation. - Yes ‘poisoning the blood of the nation …’
6. Identification of “enemies”/scapegoats as a unifying cause. Imprison and/or murder opposition and minority group leaders. Yes - ‘radical leftists …’
7. Supremacy of the military and embrace of paramilitarism in an uneasy, but effective collaboration with traditional elites. Fascists arm people and justify and glorify violence as “redemptive”. Yes - the parade, Hegseth as Sec of ‘war’ …
8. Rampant sexism. Yes - the p***y grabber.
9. Control of mass media and undermining “truth”. Yes - SLAPP suits, ‘truth’ social
10. Obsession with national security, crime and punishment, and fostering a sense of the nation under attack. Yes - ‘they’re eating the cats and dogs…’
11. Religion and government are intertwined. Yes - the veneration of the man who can’t name his favourite bible verse …
12. Corporate power is protected and labor power is suppressed. Yes - DOGE and the tech bros…
13. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts not aligned with the fascist narrative. Yes - the Trump-Kennedy Centre …
14. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Loyalty to the leader is paramount and often more important than competence. Yes - the Cabinet is full of nodding dogs.
15. Fraudulent elections and creation of a one-party state. Not quite, but the MAGA takeover of the GOP seems to be slipping now.
16. Often seeking to expand territory through armed conflict. Work in progress…
Between 2020 and Jan 2025 and Project 2025, the Trumpian project seems to have lurched towards, if not into the fascist lane.
You nailed it with these words: 'We cannot fight a corporatised, oligarchical, tech enabled, self-aggrandising, celebrity driven authoritarianism with the institutional muscle memory of the mid-20th century anymore - we need new tools. New forms of coordination, new shapes of regulatory ambition and new thinking about democratic control over transnational power.'
Add in a new form of colonialism and imperialism. The kind that Russia has been engaged in for centuries. Not the lazy label that some on the left attach to any action or aspect of the West that they do not like. Invading and taking over other countries, oppressing their people and grabbing their resources.
And thats the closest parallel to Trump's USA - Russia. It may not have the tech but it has all the other attributes. Just look at Putins palace and the Kremlin as models for Trump's dreams. Oligarchs rewarded or prosecuted if they step out of line. Massive security forces to prevent civil unrest. And the camps to send people off to.
Bear - Just posted a link to your post on Paul Krugman's excellent substack. He is arguing that American's need to wake up to the fascist regime of Trump and see it for what it is.
@janeygodley summed it up pretty well.
I’d add that’s he’s a
Tuesday
Wednesday
And
Thursday
However, I’m not sure giving him his own ‘status’ or ‘moniker’ is a good idea seeing as how he believes himself to be worthy of adoration.
I know we can’t ignore him but it sickens me to think that he’ll get a kick out of ppl spending time thinking about him🤷🏻♀️
Tbh, I’m more concerned about the shitshow that is behind him, propping him up while they bide their time…
Love your ramblings btw, thank you for sharing and caring👍
Trump is a bog standard robber baron of the type who levied unscrupulous tolls. Might is right. Lawless. Everything I want is mine.
I think that Trump is best described as a proto-fascist. Fascism emerged in Europe as a response to economic crisis and depression and as an alternative to the working class movements of the left that were very powerful across the continent and especially in Span, Italy and Germany. Fascism mobilised working class support for a restructuring and renewal of capitalist economies based on nation, race, ethnicity and a subversion of class. The blackshirts/brownshirts were the violent form that was used to destroy the working class movements that might have provided a progressive alternative. Fascism was a radical political accommodation with traditional Capital - never a challenge to it. Trump does not need to be a Fascist. There is no powerful working class movement to destroy; he has gained power without the need for American battalions of brownshirts. However, as we saw with his aborted coup in 2021, mass violence is always an option. ICE and the Young Boys et al. are ready and willing to become instruments of violent repression if needed in the future. And, that future might not be far away. If Trump is at risk of losing power in the mid-terms and then in 2028 mass violence and civil war might seem a good option to him. He is not a Fascist at the moment because he doesn't need to be one - but the option is always open to him if needs be.
It was easy for the fascists of interwar Europe to build millions-strong militias to do their dirty work because they had a youthful population to draw from (the Italian fascist anthem was literally called "Youth"!) including millions of hardened World War I veterans.
Trump and other 21st-century far-right figures don't have that resource to draw upon: instead they have millions of older people who aren't physically strong, but who are burning with resentment towards the upcoming end of the fossil fuel age.
I see strong parallels between American gunmen in pickup trucks flying Trump flags, and Arab gunmen in pickup trucks flying ISIS flags: the rise of apocalyptic variants of Islam (which ISIS is representative of) is likely because Middle Easterners are wondering what will happen to them when the petrodollars stop flowing, and they have to find some other way to support a swollen population in a desert land that can't feed them.
Isn't our problem more that the mechanisms we used to suppress the far-right in the second half of the 20th century simply don't work any more?
The UK's most famous racist politician of that era was Enoch Powell: though immensely popular with the white British public he was taken down by the elites, being sacked from Ted Heath's Shadow Cabinet the day after his "Rivers of Blood" speech and ultimately banished to the obscurity of the Ulster Unionist Party.
The Conservative Party's elites were then motivated to suppress an authoritarian figure like Powell, because they'd lived through a world war started by right-wing authoritarians which killed 70 million people: note incidentally that while Heath personally fought in WWII in Europe, Powell spent the war in the colonies and never personally saw combat.
They also had the power to suppress Powell's politics, because media was then highly centralized, and largely controlled by people who had ALSO lived through World War II. A big problem now is that satellite TV, digital broadcasting and especially the internet mean the media is far more decentralized (making it impossible to censor far-right voices), almost all the generations who lived through World War II are now dead, and centre-right parties no longer have the ability to keep the far-right caged: our own Conservatives arguably lost control in 1998 when they changed their leadership election rules to give the final say to the (now-Powellite) party membership.
I have to disagree a bit. Words do matter, as you said, but part of the problem is a widespread misunderstanding of Fascism. We tend to look at the big examples, which were German and Italian, but Fascism was an international movement, with pieces in forty or fifty different countries and with more than one fascist party in several of them. The point is that it was disparate and incoherent and with no universal aims. That means Trumpism, with no purposes beyond the desire for power and the expression of malice, fits the pattern. Mussolini did try to create a unifying ideology and tried to set up his own equivalent of the Stalinist International, but it didn't work. He even organised a conference for his scheme, which I think was in Montreux, in 1931 (I would have to look that up to be sure). That didn't do the trick and he only got thrty or so delegations, and both the Nazis and the Falange refused to take part, along with several others. Trump's party would fit into this sprawling mess without a hitch, even if he frustrated Mussolini and got nothing except contempt from Hitler -- there were enough Romanian's, Argentines, Irish and more who would have welcomed him, and he would have been happy to exchange complements and money with any of them. So yes, in this broad view, he is a fascist.
Does it really matter what we call the tangerine turd? He is a danger to the entire world, and the sooner we are rid of him the better.
Exactly. Whilst we're bogged down in semantics, he and his flying monkeys are breaking everything in sight.
" Just because you can, does not mean you must". Trump believes in the opposite of this. In his first term he wanted to nuke some country because they had annoyed him and he had the capability. There were people who managed to persuade him this was not a good idea but they are no longer there.
He is now surrounded by people who will not try to restrain him but even encourage him because of their own desires for power and wealth.
Those who think that if he departs this mortal coil things will get better are wrong. He will be replaced by Vance. Trump is cunning but not very intelligent or knowledgeable. The V.P. is the opposite and to quote someone whose name I cannot remember " The creation of Peter Thiel ". This man believes that democracy is a failed experiment and is using his vast wealth to usurp it.
It could be a case of " be carefull what you wish for"
Thanks. This analysis echoes our daily breakfast rants. Those of us reaching in righteous rage for easy historical political labels and insults are unknowingly enabling these power abusers. The corporate legacy media can so easily manipulate us all by deploying these terms as emotional triggers. Thereby reducing any attempt at critical analysis of our lived experience of increasing political and economic oppression as a simplistic ding dong between the left and the right. A mass mediated dualist simplification that effectively distracts from shining a spotlight upon the criminal actions of a global ruling class.