We are only one step away from the 'F' word

New book lays out how close we are to edge in America like never before

The ‘F’ Word

It’s funny how times change. When I started this newsletter two years ago using the ‘F’ word would get you a lot of criticism. You couldn’t just casually drop it in conversation without someone jumping on you about being inappropriate or rude. The feinting couches would roll out and smelling salts called for if you just dropped an ‘F bomb’ about Trump.

But, now we can just say it and everyone gets it. So I’m doing it right now….FASCIST!

Yeah…I said it. Trump is a wannabe fascist. But, don’t just take it from me. Professor Federico Finchelstein is a Professor of History at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York City and has just released his new book ‘Wannabe Fascists’ where he lays out a deeply researched case for how Trump and his MAGA movement are literally just one step away from fascism.

The Four Pillars of Fascism

Finchelstein’s latest book builds on his previous ones on fascism and the work of Ruth Ben-Ghiat and her book ‘Strong Men’ which studies the various strong men and authoritarians of history through today including Donald Trump. He is a native of Argentina in the ‘70s and ‘80s giving him a unique personal perspective on the topics of populism and fascism.

His book lays out four pillars of fascism built from the founder of the movement, Benito Mussolini, and flushed out by Adolf Hitler.

1. Violence and militarization of politics

2. Lies, myths and propaganda

3. The politics of xenophobia

4. Dictatorship

Those seem familiar don’t they after the last 10 years? Anyone who is sentient can see how much the MAGA movement has steadily checked the blocks from violence on January 6th, the bizarre cult of personality around Trump, and everything from Muslim travel bans to a planned deportation of millions of immigrants. But, he isn’t a dictator…yet.

Project 2025 is the MAGA form of government

This is where I see Project 2025 coming into the plan. For those unfamiliar for decades the Heritage Foundation has laid out a road map of policy goals for potential Republican Administrations. They have typically been a few dozen pages of dry policy goals like taxes and alignment of agencies. But, not this time.

This time they have partnered with over 90 far right organizations and created a document over a thousand pages publicly, and with secret annexes, backed by over $25 million in dark money. This new approach lays out a take over of the federal government to all but install permanent MAGA rule in the country.

The plan is massive and ranges from deploying military forces to quell protests on day one to dismantling the entire civil service as we know it and creating a politicized federal workforce. They are right now interviewing and vetting thousands of people for their MAGA credentials to flood into every corner of the government. Imagine a MAGA extremist managing the tax records of people like me or my former colleagues at The Lincoln Project. That’s what we are facing.

Project 2025 clearly represents a fascist system of government and it will give Trump that fourth pillar to close the list: Dictatorship.

We should all be motivated to stop that.

I spoke with Federico on this week’s On Democracy about it all and what we must do to stop it.

The Conversation

Federico Finchelstein

Professor Federico Finchelstein is a world-renowned expert on fascism, populism, and dictatorship. Finchelstein is a Professor of History at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York City as he releases his new book ‘Wannabe Fascists.’ His previous books include From Fascism to Populism in History and A Brief History of Fascist Lies.