an independent, crowd-funded online magazine covering the far-right in Germany and abroad.
While too many American leaders are content to quibble over definitional particularities, experts are (finally) calling a fascist a fascist.
Jason Stanley, a fascism expert who publicly announced his decision to flee Trump’s authoritarian crackdown on universities and leave Yale for The University of Toronto’s renowned Munk School in Canada, recently told German newspaper Die Zeit that the Americans are living under “fascist conditions.” “What other terms should we use?” Stanley asked. “Fascism is not just a dirty word. It’s a concept that helps us understand reality. And what we are seeing now? That is fascism.”
When the Zeit interviewer insisted that “such comparisons often lead to noise rather than insight,” Stanley insisted that “the fascism debate is over. The professors who once hesitated to use the term have long since given up. The historian Samuel Moyn, a colleague of mine, recently said: ‘Okay, that’s fascism.’ The political scientist Cory Robin, one of my harshest critics, admitted in an interview: ‘I was skeptical, but this looks like fascism.’ What else can I say?”
Sure, Jürgen Habermas is still holding out for a fascism closer to that of his youth—but even earlier skeptics like Corey Robin, Robert Paxton, and Samuel Moyn now largely agree that the current administration is deploying fascist strategies. Though historian Roger Griffin argued in 2024 that Trump could not be considered a fascist because he lacks a “coherent ideology,” Austrian political scientist Natascha Strobl recently told Der Spiegel Trump absolutely came to power through a “fascist dynamic.” “The MAGA movement is ideologically and structurally fascist,” Strobl asserted.
But what does it mean to call Trump’s administration and tactics fascist? What even is fascism?
Defining fascism
There is no single agreed-upon definition of fascism, but there are some key characteristics shared by all fascist regimes. (See if any of these sound familiar, American readers.) These include:
Us v. them rhetoric
Pits the fascist party against its opponents, characterizing them as dangerous, destructive, essentially outside and unworthy of true national belonging. In North America and western Europe, the fascist worldview is white supremacist—and specifically white Christian supremacist/antisemitic.
Trump uses such rhetoric often: in 2018, he claimed that “radical Democrats want to turn back the clock. They want to restore the rule of corrupt, power-hungry globalists.” “Globalists” has clear antisemitic connotations; it also appeared in a 2023 email campaign warning potential donors about a “radical leftist, globalist cabal.”
We see this in the oft-repeated, sometimes tiki-torch-accompanied “Great Replacement” grievance, a far-right, antisemitic lie/conspiracy theory parroted by prominent (and now mainstream) Republicans, frequently associated with far-right mass shootings.
Delighting in violence against “the Other”
There might be no clearer example in recent memory of eroticized American political force than the deportation inspo video Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted of herself posing in front of a cage of bare-chested detainees illegally removed to a brutal labor camp in El Salvador. El Salvador is a country known for its human rights violations; according to current information, 90% of the detainees have no criminal record in the US.
Conservative-leaning Never-Trump media outlet The Bulwark suggests Noem’s video might violate the Geneva Convention. Former DOD head of the POW/MIA Accounting Agency and retired Navy Vice Admiral Mike Franken agrees, arguing that Article 27 of the 4th Geneva Convention protects civilian prisoners “against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.”
Though Secretary of State Marco Rubio used the Alien Enemies Act, which pertains only to war-time, to justify this mass incarceration, Trump supporters insist the Geneva Convention’s provisions do not apply to the detainees because they are not prisoners of war.
Dehumanization of scapegoats
So many examples to choose from here! But for starters, see the White House tweeting a video of migrants in chains, calling it “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight;” constant and unfounded accusations of queer people “grooming” children for sexual abuse (despite a truly unprecedented number of accused and adjudicated sexual predators currently employed by this administration); the forty-seventh president calling his political opponents “radical left-wing criminals” who “live like vermin within the confines of our country,” US residents without permits “not people” but “animals,” claiming that migrants are “coming from all over the world, coming from prisons, coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re terrorists” who are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Calls for and shows of violent force
In late 2024, NPR found more than 100 quotes from Trump calling for violence against his political opponents, as well as for their prosecution and imprisonment. He has repeatedly praised and promoted political violence, perhaps most notably during the far-right storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Trump pardoned the legally convicted attackers, including armed militia members involved in the failed coup attempt.
This administration directs its most visible exercises of violent force against immigrants. More than 1,300 children remain separated from their parents after being seized at the US-Mexican border during Trump’s first term. In the first 100 days of his presidency, Trump authorized plain-clothed ICE agents to arrest immigrants without judicial warrants or due process and illegally “deport” them to El Salvador, while showing open contempt and disregard for court rulings demanding their return.
Aggressive ultra-nationalism
A Völkisch (populist, and in this case white Christian supremacist) world view that vows to defend “blood and soil,” echoing Nazi phrasing and ideology. The president has publicly trumpeted his own nationalism since (at least) 2018, positioning himself against “corrupt, power-hungry globalists” (which, again, is just antisemitic code for “Jews”) beyond the control of the courts.
In his 2025 inaugural address, Trump promised that “the United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.” He swore that “during every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. […] America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before. […] America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world.”
Fearmongering about the “Enemy Within,”
Which necessitates the use of force against citizens. During his 2024 re-election campaign, Trump frequently warned that “the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries” and that “sick people, radical left lunatics…and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
Weaponized nostalgia
Which promises the return to a mythical golden age while erasing all evidence that contradicts this narrative. Trump’s now-infamous 2016 campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,“ invokes Reagan’s own 1980 election campaign slogan and garnered public support from the Ku Klux Klan. The president assures his supporters he will usher in a new “Golden Age” that will “re-industrialize” the country while restoring “natural” patriarchal and racist hierarchies. Under his leadership, evidence of non-white, non-male Americans’ contributions to this nation’s history are being systematically erased while anti-DEI policies clear the way for re-segregation.
Führerprinzip (principle of the Leader)
The notion that a single leader can, should, and must protect the nation—so anything the leader does cannot be illegal. Trump swore in 2016 that he alone could fix this country; now he likens himself to a king, promising supporters that “I am your fighter. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution.” The GOP’s agenda is now Trump’s alone; his vice president insists that if the president wants to annex Greenland, we really just have to let him have it.
Chauvinism and misogyny
Oh boy, where to start? So many examples immediately grab the, uh, attention. Slate called this the “Sexual-Abuse Cabinet;” the number of alleged sexual predators currently serving at the pleasure of the president (himself an adjudicated rapist) boggles the mind. Extreme misogyny characterized Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. And his appointment of anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court led directly to the Dobbs decision, which stripped abortion of its constitutional protections and cleared the way for anti-choice states to enact draconian abortion bans.
Palingenesis [rebirth after (induced) collapse]
Trump advisor Steve Bannon publicly celebrates being influenced by fascist philosopher Julius Evola, who insists “civilization” must collapse to allow a new world to emerge from the ruins; Vice President J.D. Vance (how is this real life) similarly embraces the theories of extreme right-wing dictatorship proponent Curtis Yarvin, who focuses on the idea of civilizational collapse and rebirth. This might go some lengths toward the Trump administration’s destabilization of the American (and global) economy.
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This is not, of course, an exhaustive list (and RD recommends you check out the original article in its entirety for further examples). But it should be enough to convincingly demonstrate that Donald Trump and his supporters are doing their level best to establish a fascist dictatorship. It is not yet clear whether they will succeed.
But we shouldn’t fool ourselves: It is fascism.
