When asked outright if she believed former President Donald Trump was a fascist at one CNN town hall last week, Vice President Kamala Harris’ answer was simple.
“Yes, I do,” the Democratic presidential candidate told Anderson Cooper. She used the term later in the evening when asked what she would say to someone considering a third-party candidate because of her position on the war between Israel and Hamas.
“For many people who are concerned about this problem, they also want to lower the price of groceries,” Harris said. “They also care about our democracy and the fact that there is no president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
I was surprised to hear her use such a loaded word during the presidential campaign, even though people have called Trump one before. Historians And scholars The question of whether Trump is a fascist has been debated for years, and the answer has changed over time. So I decided to just ask the question. Is Trump a fascist?
Is Trump a fascist? This professor says yes.
Former President Donald Trump campaigns for re-election in Atlanta on October 28, 2024.
Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale, is the author of ‘Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.” Since 2018, he has described Trump’s rhetoric and actions as fascist Vox interview From then on, he described the main components of fascism as “identifying enemies, appealing to one’s own group (usually the majority group), and destroying the truth and replacing it with power.”
“The fact is that it was correct then and it is still correct now,” Stanley told me this month. “And if you realized Trump was a fascist, you would have known he would try to stay in power.”
I asked him what he thought of Harris’ use of the term.
“Finally, the Democratic Party nominee is using an accurate description of reality,” Stanley said. “It’s essential. Is it enough? No. Is it necessary? Yes.”
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Trump’s former chief of staff, General John Kelly, thinks he is a fascist
This was not the first time the Democratic candidate called Trump a fascist during his campaign. Said in an interview earlier in October Charlamagne tha God asked Harris if they could use “fascism.” to describe the other side. She said they could.
Harris also used CNN’s town hall to highlight this revelations from former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. In a recent one interview with the New York Timesthe retired four-star Marine general said Trump “falls within the common definition of fascist.”
Then-President Donald Trump and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in 2017. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, now says Trump “certainly falls under the general definition of fascists.”
In a story for The Atlantic Oceantwo anonymous sources recently said they heard the former president say he needed “the kind of generals Hitler had.” Kelly confirmed it.
Chairman Joe Biden agrees with Kelly’s assessmentthe White House said. Clearly, Harris does too.
Trump has used this type of language in the past to describe Harris. He often calls her “Comrade Kamala‘ and said she was a ‘Marxist, communist, fascist, socialist’ at a September event in Arizona. These claims are baseless and a tactic used by true fascists.
“Hitler called the entire Social Democratic Party ‘Marxists’ and imprisoned them in concentration camps,” Stanley said.
Trump’s own words and policy proposals point to fascism
Delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024.
It’s not enough to call Trump a “fascist,” Stanley said. Democrats must back up their claims by pointing to what the former president says and does.
“To explain that he is a fascist, all you have to do is list the things he has proposed,” Stanley said.
A big part of this is Trump’s position on immigration. He has repeatedly claimed that, if re-elected, he will “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.” Hitler shared similar anti-immigrant ideas in “Mein Kampf,” Stanley said.
He emphasized that Trump’s deportation plans would change the fabric of the nation: “People are turning in their neighbors, that’s what’s going to happen.”
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The Democrats have finally realized that they have to point out fascism every chance they get
Trump has threatened to punish political opponents more than 100 times. He wants to use “stop and frisk‘ throughout the country. He wants abolish public schools allowing their transgender students to be who they are.
All of these things, Stanley said, are evidence that Democrats could use to point out Trump’s fascism.
Significantly, Harris’ closing message to voters in the final days of her presidential campaign takes a strong stance on the threat Trump poses. I’m not sure whether it makes a difference to voters. Trump has already survived scandals that would undermine the career of any other politician; the MAGA crowd doesn’t seem to care.
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Bee Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden On Sunday night, a comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash” and joked about black people “carving watermelons” for Halloween. Trump spoke of the “enemy within” and called the media the “enemy of the people.”
None of this is normal. That’s fascism.
I’m sure some voters will be quick to dismiss this as Trump just being Trump. It doesn’t change the fact that he said these things and seems to mean them. Even if none of Trump’s claims come true, that doesn’t change the fact that he made them. It’s not okay for Trump to say and do the things he does.
Finally, Democrats aren’t afraid to say their quiet part out loud. Trump and the Republicans have been doing that all election long.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Democrats call Trump a fascist. It’s the truth