Is Donald Trump a Fascist? Here’s What an Expert Thinks

Finchelstein’s own perspective evolved after January 6 2021, when Trump appeared to incite his supporters to attack the United States Capitol, in order to prevent a peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden. In response, Finchelstein wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he argued that Trump had outgrown the populist camp and was now assuming the fascist mantle as a definitive threat to democracy.

And Finchelstein was not the only one to consider January 6 an irrevocable turning point. Robert Paxton, Mellon professor emeritus of social sciences at Columbia University, also changed his mind, writing that the “[fascist] label now seems not just acceptable but necessary”.

Others remain unconvinced. Richard Evans, an emeritus professor at Cambridge University, feels that Trump was not a fascist, arguing in the New Statesman that “6 January was not a coup” and “the attack on Congress was not a pre-planned attempt to seize the reins of government”.

According to Evans, Trump doesn’t display the classic fascist hunger for conquest and expansionist violence, and it is politically unwise for his opponents to fixate on a past category rather than analyzing his politics as a new phenomenon.

Meanwhile, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, remains more divided on the issue. She wrote in an essay that “in some ways, the label of Fascism is too reductive for Trump” because he “praises Communist dictators as much as he praises the Fascistic leaders”, but “it is beyond doubt that Trump has provided a new stage and a new context for fascist ideologies and practices”.

I believe that Trump would act as fully-fledged fascist if he could. The question is: will the American people let him do so? He has, in fact, enacted fascist-lite policies to the extent that his power allowed.

He attempted to overturn a democratic election; he nominated Supreme Court justices to effectively overturn Roe v Wade and govern women’s bodies. He also created additional procedural barriers to prevent immigrants from seeking asylum in America, some of which are reminiscent of fascist racial laws. He also threatened to deploy the military and law enforcement to target political opponents.

However, he has so far been forced to operate within the boundaries of the democratic rule of law. If the American people vote him into power a second time, there is no guarantee that those boundaries will hold. If fascism repeats itself, it will be as tragedy again — not farce.

Benedetta Carnaghi is British Academy Newton International Fellow, Department of History, Durham University. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation.