Claims describing Trump as ‘fascist’ are incorrect

(MENAFN) The common claim by Trump’s opponents—particularly from the American social democratic left—that he is a fascist is both inaccurate and fails to recognize the uniqueness of his political phenomenon.

Fascism, which emerged in the 1920s, was a revolutionary movement that sought to dismantle both liberal democracy and communism while preserving capitalism. As Hungarian historian György Lukács argued in The Destruction of Reason (1953), fascist ideology is incompatible with the post-World War II Western world.

While Western liberal democracies can display authoritarian tendencies, fascism never gained a strong foothold in countries like the US, Britain, or France, where democratic traditions were firmly established. Unlike Germany and Italy—where authoritarian state formation hindered liberal democracy—America was never fertile ground for true fascism.

Trumpism differs fundamentally from fascism because it lacks a coherent ideological foundation. Trump is not an ideological politician in the way fascist leaders like Hitler were. National Socialism, for instance, was rooted in a structured worldview combining racial theories and militaristic expansionism—something Trump neither advocates nor has the capability to implement.

Furthermore, Trump’s foreign policy is not expansionist, nor does he pursue revolutionary social transformation. Labeling him a fascist is not only historically inaccurate but also reveals the intellectual limitations of his critics, who fail to engage with deeper discussions on American global dominance since 1945.

Unlike principled critics of American empire, such as Barrington Moore Jr., William Appleman Williams, and Gore Vidal in the 1960s—or contemporary scholars like John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs—Trump’s detractors rely on simplistic and misleading rhetoric rather than substantive analysis.

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