Is Trump a Fascist? It Doesn’t Matter

Some friends were recently debating whether or not Trump is actually a fascist.  Some think yes because, while he may not perfectly fit the definition, he’s rather close in many ways, and if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.  Some think not, that his beliefs and approach are just different enough to real fascism that he can be accurately called many things, but not an actual fascist.

The truth is, history isn’t static.  Nothing in the 2020s can be exactly like something from the 1930s.  For example, today’s Cuban and N. Korean communism are quite different from 1920s–1930s Soviet communism.  So are today’s Cuba and  North Korea still communist or not?

I’m not searching for an answer.  I’m asking that question rhetorically.

Perhaps Trumpism is not exactly fascism, or perhaps it is a suitably updated version.  Either way, I think what matters most on the eve of the election is not which theoretical boxes Trump ticks, but which ideological and practical ones.  Donald Trump is a far right wing, misogynistic, homophobic racist who: radicalizes voters and politicians around phantom threats of the alien invaders making us “impure”; sets up leftist and even centrist opponents for persecution by defining them as the threat from within; erodes democratic norms through rhetoric (including calls to violence) and, when in power, through concrete political action; praises and cozies up to right wing dictators whom he clearly admires and strives to be like; and runs a kleptocratic, nepotistic regimes.

Does that add up to modern fascism.  Right now, it doesn’t matter.

And I say all this as someone who spent a lot of 2016–18 arguing that Trump is not in fact a fascist despite the many similarities.  However, I put that argument aside (perhaps to revisit in the future) because for now it can be distracting.  He’s going to wreak the damage he wreaks regardless of what labels we tag him with.  And while I’m generally open to the argument that this kind of theorizing can help us better understand politicians and their agendas, Trump is so very transparent in his motives and actions (I believe his severe mental illness/personality disorder greatly limits his agency; he largely runs on auto-pilot) that it’s not needed in this case.  The man is stunningly transparent, in a way that’s virtually unheard of in politicians.  His motives and goals really are out there in the open for everyone to see.  He’s not a snake in the grass.  He’s an overgrown, naked, screaming manchild who nearly always does exactly what you think he will.

It doesn’t matter what we call him, except for one thing: Donald Trump.  That’s who he is.

Go vote.