Is Trump Actually A ‘Fascist’?

Some words shouldn’t be tossed around lightly. Fascism is one of them.

Yet in the 2016 primary season, the season of Trump, we’re hearing fascism more and more, and not just from the left. Even establishment newsrooms are beginning to show a willingness to speak its name, including the Washington Post, Newsweek, the German daily Der Spiegel, and former labor secretary Robert Reich — all at a time when accounts of violence at Trump rallies continue to pile up.

So it’s time to ask: Is Donald Trump a fascist? Is his campaign a fascist movement?

Well, it’s complicated.

The interwar fascist movements (think Hitler and Mussolini) led to dictatorships that murdered millions of people. Historical analogies, always dangerous, wither and collapse in the face of such enormity. And the thing about a word like fascism — not unlike genocide or rape or cancer — is that, once it is spoken, it cannot be allowed to proceed. Fascism isn’t just a word: it’s an alarm, a blaring klaxon that cannot be ignored.

Historian Robert Paxton, an expert on fascism, recently told Slate, “I’m very, very reluctant to use the word fascism loosely, because it’s almost the most powerful epithet you can use. I guess child molester might be a little more powerful but not much.”