Is Donald Trump a Fascist Leader like Adolf Hitler?

Is Trump a Fascist?

Is he the new Adolf Hitler?

Is the United States undergoing a similar process to that of Germany back in 1933 and 1934 when Hitler rose to power?

The short answer is no. The long answer would probably be, let’s be careful.

The Trump Administration and Hitler

I remember back in 2016. I used to serve tables at a Mexican restaurant at the time. And hence, a lot of my coworkers were originally from Mexico and for obvious reasons did not want Donald Trump to become president. He had insulted them and other immigrants from different nationalities both literally and metaphorically.

But does the fact that Donald Trump is an asshole make him a fascist leader? Like I said, the short answer would be no.

By definition, fascism is:

a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

straight out of dictionary.com

Let’s break down the definition of fascism and see if Donald Trump makes a good fit for it.

⭕A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power. I’m kind of neutral in this one. Donald Trump is not a dictator. The people of the United States got him elected (with foreign aid, but whatever). Does he have complete power? In many ways, he does. And in many other ways he doesn’t. Yet he seems to have this bad habit of misusing his power which is why he’s currently being impeached.

✅Regimenting all industry, commerce, etc. There is absolutely no question here that Trump is doing whatever the hell he wants in terms of commerce. Whether it’s his China trade war, abolishing deals established by previous presidents which benefited not only the U.S. but also the rest of its allies (yes, I’m talking about the Paris climate agreement) and a long list of etc.

✅Emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism. I don’t think anyone can say he isn’t. Particularly during his presidential campaign. The whole thing got so out of hand that most people thought that the U.S. population would never vote for such a narcissist guy. Sadly, and unexpectedly, they did. This is the scariest part of all. And this is where I want to go next.

Donald Trump isn’t a fascist, even though he shares two of the three attributes that would make a leader fascist.

Here’s a quick summary of how Adolf Hitler became both Chancellor and then President of Nazi Germany.

In essence, Hitler was able to use both intimidation and the fear of the rise of communist parties in Europe to win an almost unanimous plebiscite vote.

Other dictators like Francisco Franco in Spain rose to power after a very bloody civil war. With the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, of course. You know,

Donald Trump was a democratically elected president without having to intimidate anyone or use brutal force to take over a nation. While it has been proven that he got help from foreign countries, I still don’t think this is a good enough reason to claim that Trump won because he cheated. Yes, he cheated, but he also fills up stadiums in his rallies.

This, like I said earlier, is what scares me the most. Trump shares two of the three attributes of what makes a fascist leader fascist. And, unlike fascist leaders from the 20th century, it was the people from his very own country who put him there.

So what is he?

Well, he’s something else that’s for sure. Something that we are experiencing in different parts of the world, not just the United States. Brasil, the U.K., Spain, Germany… we’re seeing the rise of right-wing conservatism like that of the 1940s. Except this time we’re the ones putting them there.