Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot.

Almost nine years ago, in these pages, I started writing about Donald Trump and fascism. Then I raised the question of whether Trump and his MAGA movement were fascist. My Jewish, anti-fascist antennae were buzzing.

At that time, many political observers dismissed the idea. They typically pointed out the differences between classical German and Italian fascism and what was going on in the United States. They didn’t engage the possibility that fascism might take new forms in different historical periods.

In 2024, the verdict is in. Trump and his MAGA movement can be accurately classified as fascist. Of course, the American variant of fascism is not a duplicate of past models but the word still fits. Because the word remains a political football used by both sides, I will make the case for why the label is appropriate for Trump.

Fascism requires an ‘us’ and a ‘them.’ In Germany, it was the Nazi Aryans and the Jews. In America, Trump is demonizing immigrants (who are largely people of color) and he is setting them against white Christians. Back in 2015, it started with him talking about Mexico sending rapists. He later objected to immigrants from “shithole countries.” Now he falsely claims Haitians are eating pets. He refers to immigrants as “vermin.”

Trump has strung together a horrifying pack of lies designed to dehumanize and create a hated other. He makes unsupported wild assertions about foreign insane asylums and prisons being emptied with those inhabitants coming to America. He says immigrants commit horrendous crimes because “it’s in their genes” and “they are poisoning the blood of our country.” This is straight-up Hitler-talk out of Mein Kampf.

Trump has been talking about “the enemy within,” invoking the idea that the military should be used against protesting Americans. He says America is “an occupied country” awaiting its liberation from migrant criminals who are “the most violent people on earth.” The talk has no relationship to what is actually going on in America. Trump’s hellscape does not exist.

As Ashley Parker wrote in the Washington Post, “In Donald Trump’s imaginary world, Americans can’t venture out to buy a loaf of bread without getting shot, mugged or raped.”

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

Study finds recyclables valued in millions of dollars tossed in New Hampshire’s waste stream

Helen Hanks resigns as Department of Corrections commissioner

As Canadian travel to the U.S. falls, North Country businesses are eyeing this Victoria Day weekend to predict impacts in New Hampshire

‘I thought we had some more time’ – Coping with the murder-suicide of a young Pembroke mother and son

Owners of Lewis Farm prepare to bring back agritourism after long dispute with city of Concord

‘It's how we fight back’: Youth demonstrate at “No Voice Too Small” rally

Your Daily Puzzles

Cross|Word

Flipart

Typeshift

SpellTower

Really Bad Chess

Fascists sell fear of the other and as the election gets closer, the rhetoric has ramped up. Aaron Rupar writes, “Trump’s closing message is a full-blown hate campaign against Black and brown people. Historians will look back in astonishment that this terrifying reality wasn’t the subject of wall to wall coverage and commentary in weeks leading up to the election. He’s not hiding anything.”

During the Republican National Convention, we all saw the signs “Mass Deportation Now.” Trump and his advisors plan a vast 21st-century version of concentration camps designed for mass detention prior to mass expulsions. They plan to begin in January 2025.

Such drastic action requires a more compliant press that will not get in the way. Contrary to the First Amendment, Trump has called for the broadcast licenses of CBS and ABC to be revoked because he believes they have been unfair to him. He has said MSNBC should be investigated for “treason.” He has called for revising libel laws so it would be easier to sue reporters and media outlets for critical coverage.

Part of the road to authoritarianism is the emasculation of a free press. Government action against journalists is highly chilling. Trump wants a cowed media afraid to criticize him because of possible consequences. A weak press devoted to propaganda praising the great leader is the fascist norm.

Timothy Snyder has said fascism is about a cult of the will. MAGA is a cult of personality and reason takes a back seat to emotion. Fascists have no use for the rule of law or constitutions. Violence and lies are central to the fascist project.

Trump is an embodiment of the Big Lie. He pushes conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and he clings to the utterly discredited mythology he won. All who care about democracy must be vigilant about the Trump team’s efforts after the 2024 election and before the new president is inaugurated. They were bumbling in the aftermath of the 2020 election. They have had four years to plan for this upcoming moment.

Fascists want power at all costs. If Trump is successful, do not be surprised to see him fire the entire senior staff of the DOJ, FBI, and top military staff in all branches. Loyalty to Trump will be the overriding job qualification. If Trump loses, expect many state-level election challenges and expect him to float the narrative of widespread non-citizen voting. He has raised the specter of ‘hordes of illegals’ crossing the border to somehow mysteriously vote. This fits in neatly with the far right’s Great Replacement Theory.

It should not be surprising that the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, has called Trump “a total fascist.” He saw enough.

The historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat says that since 2015 Trump has been taking Americans and his followers on a journey of conditioning, then step by step instilling hatred in a group, then escalating. Trump has gotten way too much of a pass on his absurd verbiage. I worry that as a society we have become dulled and anesthetized to the danger.

An earlier generation of Americans had a noble history of opposing fascism in World War II. Now it is our turn.