American Fascism—We. Are. Here.

The term ’fascism’ is often used to describe Trump and his manner of authoritarian rule, but many people do not actually know what fascism is. Fascism has many definitions depending on the source. The problem with defining fascism is that it is not a fixed attribute or traditional form of governing. Rather, it is used to describe specific characteristics of a unique type of authoritarian that have social and political implications without which the authoritarian would be unsuccessful. As such, fascism is less of a political phenomenon than it is a populist social movement with a charismatic leader, which is why it is so dangerous. Because fascism is a social movement, it cannot be uprooted solely by extracting the fascist from politics. The fascist leader has embedded extreme beliefs and ideologies deep in the spirit of the populace. Therefore, the culture must be healed simultaneously with political change. If this is not done, the ideological hostilities will continue to bubble over from generation to generation.

The Council on Foreign Relations (the Council) lists the characteristics of fascism as: (1) extreme nationalism; (2) cult of personality; and (3) populist mobilization. Let’s take a deeper look at each of these characteristics.

First, every fascist peddles some form of extreme nationalism. We see this in Trump as he promotes a white, Christian State centered on an “America First” agenda. Trump is not covert with this “agenda.” He ferociously vocalizes his demand for “America First” on a regular basis and outright states that this equates to ridding our lands of non-white immigrants and siloing the American economy, severing ties with our global partners who help keep American goods affordable. His attacks on abortion rights and his regime’s push to greatly restrict access to birth control while promoting propaganda directed towards white women encouraging them to have more babies clearly indicates this regime’s intent to reinforce and expand whiteness and white supremacy in America.

Second, fascists gain and maintain popularity through a cult of personality. Rather than gaining the trust of the People through policy agendas, they coerce the populace into following the leader through the use of imagery and propaganda (think Trump’s NFTs or promo flags with pictures of him bearing massive muscles draped in combat gear). They target the vulnerabilities of their base and trigger emotional reactions to swoon the people. We saw this in 2016 as Trump exploited the economic pains of rural America and pointed the finger at urban culture. Once he roped them in, he was able to target their other frustrations such as the drive towards political correctness. His unhinged nature was different from the refinement of every other politician which attracted folks who had never given much thought to politics. Oftentimes, there is also some source of media that helps peddle propaganda backing the fascist’s motives. Fox News was the first to jump on board and was followed by new media sources like Newsmax and OANN. The more charisma (loosely defined) a candidate has, the more powerful this cult of personality is.

Finally, fascists keep their base enthusiastic and loyal by rallying up the troops, literally. While traditional authoritarians want the public subdued and passively compliant, fascists want their followers energized. They often accomplish this by hosting over-the-top rallies. An energized and mobilized base does most of the work for the fascist. It guarantees that a large segment of the population will fight for the fascist if and when trouble arises. We saw this play out in real time as the January 6^th insurrection unfolded. By this time, Trump had rallied his base for five years. Their irrational devotion and enthusiasm, ginned up by years of lies and propaganda, led to a literal revolution. And make no mistake, it was a revolution… a successful one. We are experiencing the outcome right now. Without fascism, Trump’s base would not have been emboldened enough to believe they could overthrow American democracy.

All fascists attain legitimate political power through democratic means and then consolidate power once they’ve secured their position. According to Robert Paxton, who developed the most widely accepted framework for fascism, there are five stages all fascist regimes follow unless uprooted along the way. These five stages are: (1) disillusionment; (2) political legitimacy; (3) right-wing partnerships; (4) institutional dominance; and (5) radicalization. Without diving into any of these, it should be clear that Trump accomplished stage 1-3 the moment he was elected in 2016. However, for the sake of expanding our knowledge base and assessing where we stand today, we’ll analyze these individually.

The first stage of fascism is disillusionment. The fascist leader establishes their base by identifying the “lost people” of society. The ones who have been left behind in one way or another. For Trump, this group was rural America. In many ways, rural America was left behind after the Great Recession hit America’s economy and tanked what was left of our manufacturing industries. Most of these factories were located in rural areas where there were no other jobs available to fill the void. As the economy recovered in urban centers, rural communities continued to struggle. This made it easy for Trump to come in and blame those in urban centers (immigrants, black folks, liberals, etc.) for the lack of recovery in rural areas. Once he successfully triggered the emotional responses of the folks in these communities, he was able to turn a political campaign into a culture war. This sparked a massive swath of the electorate that had previously been apolitical. He exploited their real pain and suffering for his own benefit making economic and cultural promises he knew he never intended to keep. Thus began the cult of personality we see today.

The second and third stages are political legitimacy and right-wing partnerships, respectively. I address these together because Trump did not have to wait to attain legitimate political power before acquiring right-wing partnerships. Rather, the partnerships were established along the way. As some may remember, folks on both sides of the aisle initially laughed Trump off as an anomaly who didn’t stand a chance against career politicians with real policy agendas. However, as the 2016 primary rolled on, the Republican Party quickly embraced him as their leading candidate because the party recognized that he was gaining support and popularity in ways and in places other Republicans simply could not. They adopted his unhinged, populist campaigning style and held him up as the change candidate while the Democrats threw theirs out (we miss you, Bernie Sanders). This proved a winning formula as Trump beat the establishment Democrat, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 election. As such, Trump accomplished the second and third stages of fascism simultaneously.

For a while, this was where the extent of Trump’s fascism plateaued. For this reason, many wrongly assumed Trump was not a FULL fascist. However, the main issue was that Trump had a second election to win. He had to appease the people to some extent to win a second (final) term. It is easy to see how he would be on his best behavior during his first four years (and to think THAT was his best behavior is absolutely horrifying). The fact that scholars did not address this reality, and rather, chose to assume he had some sort of internal moral compass, is gravely troublesome. We know this now. It should have been predictable then (it was to many of us who were labeled hysterical). The alarms should have been blaring. Which brings us to stage four: institutional dominance.

Once fascists acquire legitimate power and consume the right arm of the governing system, they consolidate power through institutional dominance. Everyone in the government MUST be a loyalist. Think back to February and March of 2025. Trump and his regime fired nearly all of the federal employees. Many of those who remained were subjected to polygraph tests to ensure loyalty to the regime. They filed lawsuits against major law firms who represented clients attempting to challenge the constitutionality of the regime’s actions. They issued executive order after executive order to “legitimize” their actions and avoid federal laws to the contrary. Federal agencies were shuttered wholesale without any plan to replace those resources. Federal funding was stripped from public universities who refused to comply with the regime’s admission demands. Court orders were overtly defied. Our public health institutions were gutted as measles spread across the country.

It is safe to say the Trump regime wasted not one second of time asserting dominance over EVERY institution in this country. It did not care whether the impact would ultimately harm the regime’s standing. Dominance was the point. We still do not know how this will impact us in the decades to come, but we know it will. Furthermore, please note that fascist do not care about concerns over civil unrest, disruption or the threat of civil war. They will simply assert further control over the people through militarization. They will continue their assault on democracy regardless of the demands of the populace. This is not to say we should not protest. We should. But we should understand that our access to political change no longer resides within the traditional avenues available under democracy. Protests are a show of solidarity. That, in and of itself, is power. But this regime is not ruling by law, and therefore, no law passed by Congress will change the path we are on. Protesting for impeachment, or for an act of Congress to stop this will not be effective. That only works when the regime abides by the bounds of democracy. Unfortunately, we are much further along than you likely realize.

Thus, we arrive at the end of the road, stage five: radicalization. This is where it gets really ugly. Concentration camps are implemented, genocide is committed, and sometimes the fascist State invades other countries. We. Are. There. The moment the Trump regime sent 238 Venezuelans to a death camp in El Salvador, they made clear their intent to radicalize immigration policy. This was then followed up by the construction of Alligator Alcatraz on US soil. While a federal court has ordered that Alligator Alcatraz be dismantled due to environmental reasons, this should not ease our concerns over the lack of humanity displayed by this regime. They are already constructing more camps around the country and converting old prisons into ICE camps. They have proven over and over who they are and what they intend to do to anyone who challenges their authority. They will not stop at immigrants. And they will not relinquish power simply because the people are angry. Furthermore, they have now mobilized the National Guard against their own people in 19 states. This is just the beginning.

It is terribly unfortunate that so many scholars brushed aside the rising fascism in America over the last nine years. Madeleine Albright, in her book, Fascism: A Warning (2018), criticized those of us who labeled Trump a fascist while simultaneously warning that he had fascist tendencies. She said we were simply following a trend of everyone calling everyone and everything a fascist. Similarly, the Council updated its article titled ‘What is Fascism?’ a week before the 2024 election and was critical of “both sides” for accusing their opponent of being a fascist. It asserted that most scholars agree that fascism was unique to the era between WWI & WWII, and while some leaders have displayed fascist tendencies (repeating Albright’s “warning”), fascism has not reappeared after WWII.

I think we can all agree, as we sit here eight months into Trump’s second term, how devastatingly inaccurate these assessments were. I wonder how the Council feels about its choice to neutralize the issue knowing damn well who Trump was and what his intentions were… he told us… for nearly a decade… and still, the Council opted to both-sides the threat. Never once did Harris or Biden claim they would ever rule as a dictator. Trump did. Never once did Harris or Biden incite an insurrection. Trump did. Never once did Harris or Biden promise to prosecute their opponents (even when they should have). Trump did. The fascism was one-sided, and we all know it.

We were not calling Trump a fascist for fun. We were sounding the alarm. We were not overexaggerating the threat. We were trying to prevent the train from crashing. We understood that fascism does not appear overnight, that there is no line in the sand where the world comes together to declare, “YES! This is fascism,” and that by the time the world did agree that fascism was here, it would be too late to root it out without catastrophic destruction.

We knew that you cannot stamp out fascism by ignoring its existence, by turning a blind eye to the very clear signs, by simply relying on the guardrails of democracy to hold without reinforcement. We knew that once it dug its claws in, we would have one hell of a fight on our hands. And here we are.

We had an opportunity to rectify the situation, but American democracy decided to “play fair” and give him another chance. It’s almost as if American democracy didn’t care about the outcome. It’s almost as if American democracy was in on it. The media, the politicians, the courts, they all played their “neutral” role in the face of a fascist who told us all what he planned to do.

Our avenues for change have shifted. Democratic activism only applies when the regime abides by democracy. Surely, you can call your reps and demand they step up and do something, but what do you expect them to do? Pass a law? Vote for impeachment? That is all the power they hold. We’ve already established that the Trump regime does not abide by the constitutionally established laws of this country. Any act of Congress would be merely symbolic. Furthermore, the regime’s handpicked Supreme Court determines what is and is not constitutional. It already handed him absolute immunity and has handed him win after win for the last eight months. Even on the rare occasion the Court has ruled against him (Abrego-Garcia), the regime has outright defied those orders to establish its dominance of the Court. Since then, to preserve its own “legitimacy,” the Court has ruled in favor of the regime; for if it didn’t, it would risk its own survival as the people would no longer trust its rulings if they could simply be defied for no reason other than, “we are in charge, not you.”

What I know about fascism says that the only way out is through. We are here. We are in it. Wishful thinking will not force the regime into compliance. Impeachment is not an option. America has fallen to authoritarian rule. This isn’t about giving up our democracy before they take it from us. It’s about recognizing that the taking is done. We can pretend this isn’t true and stick to our old playbook, or we can choose to chart a new path forward. We need resources, and we need them now. People have lost jobs that held their families together. People are about to lose their access to healthcare and food. We are losing our funding for medical and scientific advancements.

These resources will not be found through the government. Policy makers are not coming to save us from this. We do not have time to wait for elections that frankly, will not be free and fair. Begging Congress to give us our Medicaid and SNAP benefits back will not be effective. Underground networks of mutual aid will. Begging ICE to stop kidnapping human beings will not be effective. Underground networks of protectors will. Demanding impeachment will not be effective. Divesting from the system in every way possible will.

We do not have time to waste. Communities must be built, and they must be built now. It is important that we direct our finite energy towards that which will have the greatest impact for everyday Americans. What do you have to offer? Do you have skills that could benefit the community? Healthcare knowledge? Nursing skills? Survival skills? Car work? Land for a community garden? Money for mutual aid funds? Everyone has something they can contribute. Be generous with your skills and resources. This is about survival and networking until we are unified enough to overcome.

Fascism does not end pretty. Ever. It is explosive. It is destructive. Lives will be lost. We are already into the final stage. There is no rewinding the trajectory to a less form (stages 1-3), but we may be able to soften the blow by lifting each other up and reinforcing our communities from the inside out. We cannot simply return to the American democracy we had nine months ago. This is not an option. Any attempt to do so will be met with bloodshed. We cannot avoid the revolution that the Republican Party is already waging. Our only choice is to redirect the revolution in the best interests of the people. That requires a reimagining of American government and that picture is not yet clear.

Give what you can, and take what you need. We must be in this together. It’s the only way.