Is Donald Trump a fascist? No – he is a new kind of authoritarian

If Trump wins, he will likely make it even harder for people to vote. Civil rights groups fear he will question citizenship in the census, use the Justice Department to carry out a massive purge of the voter rolls and launch criminal investigations into election officials.

As a backup, Trump will likely revive the ” he created in 2017 to justify his claims of alleged voter fraud in the 2016 election and support his election denial narrative.

2) Weaken the legislature and judiciary

The second key to new authoritarianism: bypassing the checks-and-balances function of the legislative branch of government. The goal here is to rule by executive fiat or rule by a stacked legislative majority.

The new authoritarians often rule through executive orders, including the use of emergency powers. For example, Trump has a scenario in which a Republican Congress could issue emergency powers to allow the president to undo governors’ authority to fire their prosecutors and use the National Guard for law enforcement.

Such a development would depend on a number of factors, including the complicity of the judiciary. This is why new authoritarians are also trying to stack the judiciary with loyalists.

In his first term, Trump appointed not only but also members of the federal courts of appeals, district courts, and circuit courts.

3) Attack their enemies

This leads to the third pillar of the new authoritarianism: decapitating political opposition and suppressing dissent.

The fact that Trump will investigate and prosecute his enemies, including leading figures in the Democratic Party, should be taken very seriously. His attacks on the ‘enemy from within’ were pointedly aimed at what he considered ‘radical left-wing lunatics’.

Journalists and the news media would also likely be targeted. For example, Trump’s statement that national networks’ broadcast licenses should be understood in the context of his promises to dismantle federal regulators if elected.

That matters because the next step for new authoritarians to consolidate their power is to suppress dissent. Trump uses the military in civilian contexts to attack criminals and prevent illegal immigration. He even reportedly wondered why the military couldn’t ”protestors.

It is important to understand how this differs from fascism because it is critical to Trump’s ability to maintain electoral support.

Classical fascism under dictators such as Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini was based on , which used violence to intimidate and crush the opposition. The equivalents of this today are right-wing militias like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

Trump keeps one foot on the edge of this camp. But alt-right figures understand that swastika flags and paramilitary uniforms are a political risk. Their preference is for new authoritarianism, capable of pushing a right-wing extremist agenda by reducing democracy to sham elections, rather than openly setting up a totalitarian regime.

As such, Trump can dodge accusations that he is a “fascist” by telling the Proud Boys “,” while making a comment about the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. He can distance himself from forms of paramilitary violence that are reminiscent of classical fascism.

It’s time to call things by their real names. Trump has the antidemocratic tendencies of a new authoritarian leader — and, as his opponents note, it seems likely he will put his words into action if elected a second time.