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Donald Trump is sort of a fascist, actually

February 19, 2025

Last week, this reputable news outlet published a piece by Walter E. Block, a distinguished professor of economics at Loyola University, New Orleans, where he argued that Trump is not a fascist – on the contrary, that “Trump is entitled to label the regulatory Democrats as fascists, not the other way around.” Now, I don’t really care much about whether some individual fits semantically with some semi-arbitrarily defined label, but I found Block’s arguments to be at best disingenuous and uncharitable to those who would label Trump as such.

Why does Block think that Trump isn’t a fascist? According to him, it’s because fascists typically exert executive control over industry and Trump doesn’t do that. That’s most of it. He ignores all of the other components that go into whether someone adequately embodies fascism.

When attempting to determine whether something fits a definition, all that is usually required is to look at the necessary and sufficient conditions that are generally stipulated to encompass that definition, and compare them to the target of analysis. That’s usually all there is to it – debates about what the necessary and sufficient conditions should be are another matter.

What’s the point of determining whether someone is a fascist? I believe that our social consciousness about our shared values of our democratic system tend to automatically categorize someone who is fascist as “bad” because they violate those values and someone who is not a fascist as “better, insofar as they do not violate those values.” Therefore, practical considerations dictate that it’s desirable to clarify to people what sorts of labels they should apply to others.

So let’s keep it as simple possible and use the Wikipedia definition for fascism: “Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.”

Is Trump far-right? Well, he’s not a moderate. He is spearheading the implementation of Project 2025, placing the lead architects of the Heritage Foundation project in critical positions: Russ Vought in charge of the Office of Management and Budget, Tom Homan as border czar, and John Ratcliffe as CIA director, among others. By their own admission, they’re trying to turn our government into a Christian theocracy and are attempting to implement a total ban on abortion.

Is Trump authoritarian? Again, the whole point of Project 2025 is for conservatives to coagulate power within the executive branch. Trump is currently commandeering the legislative branch’s power over spending by ordering things like a funding freeze whose spendings were legitimately mandated by Congress, and he’s also currently ignoring the judicial branch’s orders to release those funds. He’s staffing the government with puppets so that he can implement his will without worrying about checks on his power. That’s authoritarian, whether you agree with the substance of what he’s doing or not.

Is Trump ultranationalist or militaristic? His road to victory was paved by rhetoric that positioned America against the rest of the world, with a consistent emphasis on claiming that the satisfaction of our interests is incompatible with the satisfaction of the interests of other nations – someone is a winner and someone is a loser, and we must ensure America is always the winner. He’s threatening to violate the sovereignty of multiple countries by force. He is threatening to take the Gaza strip and permanently remove millions of Palestinians. This sure sounds like the militarism and expansionism that is characteristic of fascists.

Is Trump forcefully suppressing opposition? He’s firing anyone who doesn’t pass his little loyalty test and is allegedly willing to use military force against dissenting domestic protesters. Republicans have been relegated to such a pathetic status that they’re actually truly performing acts of fealty as you would with a king, such as Rep. Claudia Tenney proposing legislation to make Trump’s birthday a national holiday. Just genuinely embarrassing stuff where you really have to set your pride aside to propose it.

Is Trump implementing a strong regimentation of the economy and society? This is where Block made his point and, in some ways, Trump fits this condition and in other ways he doesn’t. He certainly speaks about deregulating and he does in some respects. In others, he increases regulation. Tariffs themselves are regulations. He’s attempting to undermine the free markets so as to manipulate the competitiveness (a foolhardy attempt) of domestic manufacturing. He’s mandating that society must dispense with DEI and woke ideology. Again, whether or not you think that this is a good thing, he fits the condition for fascism. It doesn’t appear to be a “strong” regimentation, but it’s not the “furthest” from fascism you can be.

So the upshot of all of this is that Trump is somewhat of a fascist.

Block’s argument rests on the thought that executive control over industry is a necessary condition for a leader to be fascist.

First, there is no principled reason to think that executive control over the economy is a necessary condition when a leader exhibits so many of the other conditions in the definition.

Second, there is substantial reason to believe that Trump is exercising some executive control over the economy. It’s not to the extent of the Third Reich, obviously that would be hyperbole. But he does have something beyond modest fascist tendencies, all things considered.

Trump genuinely embodies at least some Hitler and Mussolini adjacent tendencies that are in stark opposition to our democratic values.

Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. He is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at [email protected].

Orange County Register

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Donald Trump is sort of a fascist, actually

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