Donald Trump and the fascism debate

Many top Democrats thought it for years. Now they are saying it out loud: They think Donald Trump is a fascist.

While Trump's potential ties to fascism have been debated in public for nearly a decade, many Democrats running for federal office thought the term was "best left unsaid," said The New York Times. That is changing. Trump is "about fascism," Charlemagne Tha God said during his podcast interview with Kamala Harris. "Can't we just say that?" "Yes, we can say that," Harris said. That followed revelations in a new book that retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had called Trump "fascist to the core." Trump's Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly agreed.

There is pushback. "The fascist meme is all over the place," The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial. It's true that Trump's language is "often coarse and divisive," and he has a penchant for praising dictators. Still, he did win the GOP nomination for a third time. "Are tens of millions of Americans really falling for a fascist takeover?" Probably not. Trump was "hemmed in" by checks and balances during his term in office, the Journal said. In a second term, those same institutions "would resist any attempt to subvert the Constitution."

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'Beast out of 1930s Germany'

"The left doesn't know any other way to make its case," Rich Lowry said at National Review. Democrats can't merely oppose Republican Party principles and candidates. "No, the GOP always has to be a slouching beast out of 1930s Germany." Democrats don't understand the restraints in place — or that the Supreme Court decision granting Trump immunity from prosecution for "official acts" might "benefit President Biden" when he leaves office. Instead, we get "irrational and unhinged" attacks on Trump and his agenda, Lowry said. "It always has to be the F-word with these people."

"Let's be honest, Trump's running as a fascist," Will Saletan said at The Bulwark. Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. He has advocated a "really violent day" of anti-criminal action, promised to protect police from prosecutions for following his orders, threatened to use the military against his domestic opponents and threatened the broadcast license of networks whose reporting he doesn't like. The word "fascist" fits perfectly, Saletan said. "That's not hype; it's a textbook application of the term."

'I don't fear Donald Trump'

Republicans say Democratic charges of fascism are themselves a kind of incitement. "All of the rhetoric needs to stop," Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said on CBS' "Face the Nation." On NBC's "Meet the Press," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took aim at Milley's "fascist to the core" comment about Trump: "You have a right to your opinion, but I don't fear Donald Trump," Graham said.

Others do. "There is no precedent for such a thing in American history," Jamelle Bouie said at The New York Times. Milley's warning about Trump is unusual: There is "no example" of another high-ranking general who felt the need to "warn the public of the danger posed by its once and perhaps future chief executive." With good reason. During his first term, Trump had people around him who curbed his worst impulses. That won't happen in a second term. "Next time, we won't be so lucky."