The claim that the Trump administration is fascist had always struck me, I admit, as hyperbole, an exaggerated reaction to some of the president’s admittedly awful traits. But now recent events have forced me to confess I was wrong: for the first time in our history, we have a president and administration that have embraced a version of fascism that is peculiarly American, but potentially no less dangerous than earlier versions in Italy, Germany, Spain, Chile, etc. It can after all happen here.
What do I mean by fascism? In a recent edition of her newsletter the historian Heather Cox Richardson called our attention to a U.S. Army publication from March 1945 addressed to Army personnel serving in Europe and risking their lives to combat fascism. The document, which also addresses the possibility of fascism in the U.S., is highly relevant today, 81 years after its publication. (I include the URL below.) The document rhetorically asked, what exactly was it the troops were fighting? Fascism, the Army stated, has a number of defining traits. First, it is “government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state.” Does this apply today? Well, take the economy. The “one big, beautiful bill” included a few sops to ordinary folks (no income tax on tips, for example), but its overwhelming effect was to cement the 2017 Trump tax cuts which heavily favored corporations and the wealthiest Americans, mostly Trump backers.
As for politics, the Army added, “The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence — democracy must go!” Trump has relentlessly attacked the electoral system as “rigged” (think January 6th) and has insisted that Republican states (further) gerrymander their congressional districts in order to preserve the party’s edge in the House of Representatives in the coming midterm elections. There are also initial steps toward interfering with the elections themselves. How many Spanish-speaking citizens might be deterred from voting if in November ICE agents are surrounding polling places in Blue states? As for the nation’s cultural life, witness the hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center for the Arts, which Trump has defiled by putting not only his stamp but also his name on it.
Fascist regimes, the Army continued, “maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of ‘blood’ and ‘race,’ by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promises of security. The propaganda glorifies war and insists it is smart and ‘realistic’ to be pitiless and violent.” These words could have been written about Trump lackeys Steven Miller, Kristi Noem, and Pete Hegseth. Immigrants, especially Black and Brown people, are vilified, and after recent events do I need to comment about “pitiless and violent?” Altogether fascism thrived on mendacity. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda is quoted as saying, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” Trump himself is a world-class liar; a recent example: his repeated claims that talk of affordability is “a Democrat hoax.”
Turning its attention to the homefront, the Army document went on to list the tactics its adherents would use to enable fascism to triumph in this country. The tactics read like a blueprint for “Project 2025,” the plan guiding the Trump regime. First, they would undermine national unity by promoting the idea of “us” (the good, mostly Christian, white Republicans) against “them” (Democrats, immigrants — especially Somalis — the elite universities, etc.).
Second, a fascist regime would turn its back on international cooperation: “In place of international cooperation, the fascists seek to substitute a perverted sort of ultra-nationalism which tells their people that they are the only people in the world who count. With this goes hatred and suspicion toward the people of all other nations.” Trump has shown nothing but contempt for the UN and its agencies, NATO, the EU, etc.
Finally, a fascist regime, understanding that most citizens do not pay much attention to politics, would present an absurdly distorted choice to the public: “the world has but two
choices — either fascism or communism, and they label as ‘communists’ everyone who refuses to support them.” Enough said.
Why has the United States, with its proud democratic and constitutional history, allowed a fascist regime to take power? I suggest that an unusual set of historical, social and political forces have coalesced to propel a would-be “strongman,” i.e. Trump, into the White House as the leader of just such a regime. I can only list some of those factors here: first, a longstanding American insistence on individualism, especially virulent today in Silicon Valley and longstanding in the gun culture, thus putting enormous financial resources at the movement’s command. Its motto here might be, “Better fascism than higher taxes on the wealthy, i.e. us!”
Second, there is a deep yearning in a significant segment of the population to make America into a “Christian commonwealth.” Trump, who more or less openly confesses he is not a Christian, is the unlikely recipient of this group’s blind ardor. The motto of this group: “Better a godless autocrat who supports us than a secular society with its LBGTQ+ and pro-abortion agenda!”
And finally, there are the cumulative destabilizing effects of decades of societal upheaval, starting in the ‘60s with the overthrow of legal segregation, the anti-war, gay rights and women’s movements, the racist fear that the U.S. will soon be majority non-white, and more recently the Great Recession of 2008-9 and then the COVID pandemic. Throw into the mix a skillful manipulator like Trump and you have the yearning for a strongman: “Fascism American Style.”
It has happened here. How will we respond?
This remarkable U.S. Army document of 1945 can be read online here.
John M. Connolly is Sophia Smith Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Smith College and lives in Haydenville.