The United States is on a precarious precipice. Former President Donald Trump is now facing felony charges in three separate cases, and despite this, his lead in the Republican primary is over double his closest competitors. What’s even more concerning is that he is still tied with incumbent President Joe Biden in the newest New York Times/Siena College poll.

It is time we recognize Trump is undeniably fascist. This is not a vilification effort against Trump supporters. Instead, I would like to shine a light on Trump’s behaviors both in and out of office to help people accept this fact and decide whether fascism is acceptable or not.

Fascism is often tricky to define and identify in its early stages. Fundamentally, each definition encompasses four key elements: the use of ultranationalist rhetoric often in support of an ethnic or racial group, the ‘othering’ of specific groups of people to support said rhetoric, the development of a strongman persona and the expulsion of political opponents.

Ultranationalist rhetoric

There is no denying Trump has promoted white nationalist and neo-Nazi rhetoric and has corresponded with open white nationalists. For example, Trump has hosted dinners with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and anti-semite Kanye West. He did not condemn David Duke’s support for his campaign.

Trump pushed the false theory that white farmers in South Africa are being systematically murdered by aggrieved Black South Africans; a lie pushed by right-wing reactionaries and white nationalists like Richard Spencer and Graham Allen to justify the re-establishment of some Apartheid policies. 

In response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and riots, Trump used a political phrase popularized by the former police chief of Miami in the late 1960s and by George Wallace in his segregationist 1968 campaign for President: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Attacking minorities

Trump has continued to refer to transgender people as mentally ill and their healthcare as mutilation. He has vowed to take executive action to limit gender-affirming care for minors, which his lackeys see as pedophilia, despite its support from major groups like the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society and the American Association for Pediatrics.

Trump has also promised to limit discussions of race, gender and sexual identity in public schools despite clear objections from teachers’ unions and education non-profits like the College Board.

He has referred to undocumented immigrants as criminals and rapists. He moved to ban immigration from Muslim countries. He incorrectly claimed Muslims were celebrating after 9/11. He has verbally abused many women, including his sexual assault victims and political opponents.

Strongman Posturing

Trump infamously said in accepting the Republican nomination in 2016, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” He continued that same sentiment in his current campaign, with the right-wing publication Newsmax summarizing a recent speech by Trump in Iowa as saying, “I’m the only candidate who can save America.”

Many of his campaign ads present him as overtly masculine, such as his photoshopped image of him as a boxer or his series of childish bouts with reporters in the White House press room.

Removing opposition

Trump-backed Republicans censured former Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for speaking out against the insurrection on January 6, 2021. For years, Trump claimed former President Barack Obama was not American-born and was, therefore, an illegitimate candidate. He did the same for Vice President Kamala Harris.

His ideologues have also questioned Hillary Clinton’s ability to lead the country in 2016 because of her period affecting her mood. That’s not how female anatomy works.

Now he is being charged with four felonies regarding his attempt to push a slate of fake electors in swing states he lost, as well as pressure campaigns against multiple attorneys general and governors. 

We have heard his conversation with Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, telling him to find over 10,000 votes. We saw him attempt to call former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey while he was actively certifying Biden’s victory in Arizona. Comically, Ducey ignored this call on live TV.

All these factors, as well as his political backers’ unrelenting acceptance and defense of his reprehensible behaviors, indicate the rise of fascism in the modern day. The cult of personality he has built up has made his popularity impervious to a political scandal, no matter how damning or dangerous its implications may be.

I wish I could provide a solution to this, but I can’t. Americans are entitled to their opinions. What they are not entitled to is the dismantling of democracy.

Last year’s midterms, while contentious, were only the prologue to the main question of American posterity. We must unite to educate ourselves, accept the facts and boldly and fully reject Trumpism for what it is: Fascism.