Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, and the Italian Fascist Connection

This post is the opinion of the the author and does not necessarily represent The Good Men Project.

Is Donald J. Trump a Fascist?

“The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is deeply alarmed at the hateful rhetoric at a conference of white nationalists held on November 19 [2016] at the Ronald Reagan Building just blocks from the Museum…The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words. The Museum calls on all American citizens, our religious and civic leaders, and the leadership of all branches of the government to confront racist thinking and divisive hateful speech…”

These words from a press release from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC refers to a white nationalist conference headlined by neo-Nazi, Richard Spencer, who greeted attendees with a tribute to President-elect Donald J. Trump shouting “Hail Trump! Hail victory!” from the stage before all in attendance gestured in a traditional Nazi straight-arm salute.

In political terms, a “strongman” is one who leads by force within an overarching authoritarian, totalitarian, dictatorial regime. Sometimes the formal head of state, sometimes another political or military leader, the strongman exerts influence and control over the government more than traditional laws or constitutional mandates sanction.

Strongmen situate themselves within positions along the political spectrum, usually toward the extremes on the right and the left. In an extensive Wikipedia list of strongmen by country, Benito Mussolini is included among the four from Italy, Adolph Hitler among the seven from Germany, and only one, Donald Trump, appears on the list from the United States.

They find themselves in the company of, for example, Juan Perón of Argentina, Pol Pot of Cambodia, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Francois Duvalier of Haiti, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Manuel Noriega of Panama, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Idi Amin Dada of Uganda.

On the right-wing side of the dictatorial strongmen’s political spectrum, we find the philosophy and practice of “fascism.” While also deployed as an epithet by some, fascism developed as a form of radical authoritarian nationalism in early-20^th century Europe in response to liberalism and Marxism on the left.

Political scientist, Lawrence Britt, enumerates 14 tenets of fascism:

Powerful and continuing nationalism,
Disdain for the recognition of human rights,
Identification of enemies/scapegoats [of the country’s problems] as a unifying cause, 4. Rampant sexism,
Supremacy of the military,
Controlled mass media,
Obsession with national security,
Religion and government are intertwined,
Corporate power is protected,
Labor power is suppressed,
Disdain for intellectuals and the arts,
Obsession with crime and punishment,
Rampant cronyism and corruption, and
Fraudulent elections

While many governmental leaders and candidates for public office may push for a number of these tactics while still remaining outside the definition of “fascist,” the cumulative effect increases depending on the severity of and the degree to which they initiate these measures.

Though we do not yet know how Donald Trump will act and react once installed in the White House (or more likely in Trump Tower at taxpayer expense), and although he has begun to moderate somewhat on his rhetoric and policy initiatives proposed during his 15-month campaign, what he has stated and purported previously falls directly within the parameters of fascism. Using Britt’s taxonomy, I filled in Trump’s positions:

Appeals to “nationalism,” presented in the guise of “popularism,” feeding on people’s fears and prejudices, which has already resulted in the segregation of people and nations from one another, and threats and dangers of violence;
Promises to roll back many of the rights and protections minoritized peoples have tirelessly fought for over the past decades: reproductive rights, voting rights, citizenship rights, anti-torture guarantees, rights of unreasonable search and seizure, rights of assembly, disability rights, freedom of religion, possibly marriage equality. Recall, as well, his father Fred Trump and his refusal some years ago to rent their properties to black people, over which they were sued and eventually signed a consent decree;
Scapegoating of already disenfranchised identity categories as the internal and external enemies of the United States: Muslims and anyone from Muslim-majority countries, Mexicans and all Latinx people, urban “thugs,” the press, Somalis, President Barack Obama, the ACLU, liberals, etc.;
Toxic misogynistic utterances and allegations of sexual harassment by numerous women reaching historic proportions;
Promises to enlarge and improve our “failing” military and fire generals whom Trump “knows more than about ISIS”;
Threats to employ libel laws to sue the “crooked and lying” media (Lügenpresse, “lying press” popularized by the German Nazis to silence opposition);
Continual cries against “Islamic jihadist terrorists” as the number one threat to our nation thereby exposing U.S. Muslims to increased calls for a “national registry” and surveillance to track their movements;
Attendance at several Christian prayer vigils and appearances atconservative rightChristians conferences and universities like Liberty University, with calls “Make America Great Again” giving the subliminal dog-whistle message of making America white and Protestant again;
Promises of a deregulated corporate business sector with massive tax cuts and other financial incentives.“I will formulatea rule which says that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated.”;
Implied reduction in the rights of workers to organize and negotiate collective bargaining agreements, privatization of entitlements, advocacy for the abolition of a national minimum wage (while relenting somewhat to a $10. minimum wage for the present time at least);
Resentment and attacks on the political, media, and intellectual “elites” to the point of instigating scorn and harassment at the “elite media” covering Trump’s rallies and demanding an apology from the cast of the Broadway show, “Hamilton: An American Musical” for voicing concerns over a Trump presidency with VP-elect Mike Pence in attendance;
Near obsessive calls for “law and order” involving draconian (and possibly unconstitutional) measures of torture and surveillance;
Increasing deployment of his adult children and son-in-law as close trusted political operatives, who even meet with visiting diplomats and have been sent to foreign capitals to negotiate political and business deals, plus continuously unresolved conflict-of-interest issues between his position as President and his worldwide business interests;
Assisted by the larger Republican Party and the Supreme Court, gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights law, which has resulted in voter suppression campaigns effectively reducing the number of polling stations in primarily minoritized racial communities, and limiting days and times for pre-election-day voting. In addition, another fascist ruler, Vladimir Putin, weighed-in on Trump’s side to sway the presidential election in their (Putin & Trump’s) favor.

Donald J. Trump currently is involved with his transition team in advance of taking the oath of the office of President of the United States of American on January 20, 2017, and time will tell whether his actions and politics follow his campaign behavior and rhetoric.

But referring back to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s history reminder: “The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words.”

Is There an Italian Fascist Connection?

“Arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand-in-hand.”

M (Judi Dench), “Casino Royale”

The bad news is that Donald J. Trump will soon become the 45^th President of the United States. The good news is that Trump, the so-called “populist,” lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, and over two million more voters do not support the draconian policies and vile language he uttered during the campaign.

White nationalist (fascist) leaders and many of their followers supported the candidacy of Donald J. Trump, and celebrated his victory. For example, a white nationalist conference held on November 19 [2016] at the Ronald Reagan Building headlined by neo-Nazi, Richard Spencer, greeted attendees with a tribute to President-elect Donald J. Trump shouting “Hail Trump! Hail victory!” from the stage before all in attendance gestured in a traditional Nazi straight-arm salute.

White nationalist (fascist) leaders and many of their followers supported the candidacy of Donald J. Trump, and celebrated his victory.

Before his election, Trump tapped Steve Bannon, former editor of the far-right Breitbart News as his campaign director, and has since vowed to elevate Bannon (the fox) into the White (hen) House to function as his chief policy advisor, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. Bannon once gloated that Breitbart News serves as the mouthpiece for the so-called “alt-right” – the less odious term for “fascists.”

Though we do not yet know how Donald Trump will act and react once installed in the White House, what he has stated and purported throughout the campaign and previously in his personal life and business affairs falls directly within the parameters of fascism.

While many of the social, political, and economic conditions differ today in the United States from Italy during the first half of the last century, some parallels persist.

Certainly, Trump rises to the level, and possibly surpasses, Mussolini’s arrogant swagger and all-consuming narcissism? Both figures are and were legendary for their predatory womanizing and frequent extra-marital affairs. In Mussolini’s case, his mistress, Clara Petacci, acted as his informal policy advisor.

Both leaders played hard-and-fast with the truth, in their utterances and in their consciousness. They never let the facts get in the way. According to Nazi chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” In the case of Trump and Mussolini, they themselves came to believe it.

Mussolini and Trump could be placed into the category of “Machiavellian” in their singlemindedness, cunning, plotting, and unscrupulous – sometimes vicious — actions in advancing their careers and enacting their policies. To them, the ends certainly justified the means no matter who gets hurt.

Trump differs significantly from Mussolini, though, in terms of interest and achievement in intellectual pursuits. Mussolini prided himself on his scholarly endeavors and command of multiple languages. Mussolini acted on strong ideological beliefs. Trump acts on concerns for winning through concerns of expediency.

Once identifying himself as a Democrat, Donald Trump, while recently and moderately disavowing himself from white nationalists, has transformed himself, at the very least, into the mouthpiece of the far-right-wing of the Republican Party.

Once a staunch socialist, Benito Mussolini was denounced by the Italian Socialist Party for advocating Italy’s involvement in World War I, which countered the Party’s stance on neutrality. Mussolini severely transformed his political stance, and later he become one of the chief architects of the fascist movement.

Born in 1883 in the small town Dovia di Predappio to Alessandro Mussolini, a blacksmith and socialist, and Rosa Maltoni Mussolini, a Catholic school teacher, he was named after the Mexican leftist President, Benito Juaréz.

Though Mussolini’s theories on “race” centered on the culture of a people more than on biology as in Nazism, he did, however, assert a “natural law” thesis that “stronger” people had the right to dominate the “inferior,” for example, the Slavic peoples of Yugoslavia whom he characterized as “barbaric.”He believed that nationalism superseded class distinctions, as opposed to a focus in socialism on class struggle, which he had previously accepted. He argued that a vanguard of elites must lead society, which would ultimately suppress democracy, and that the state must control “proper linguistic and racial confines.”

Recall Trump’s father Fred and his refusal some years ago to rent his properties to black people, and his racist representations of Mexican people who attempt to come into the United States across the border. He promises to roll back many of the rights and protections minoritized peoples have tirelessly fought for over the past decades: reproductive rights, voting rights, citizenship rights, anti-torture guarantees, rights of unreasonable search and seizure, rights of assembly, disability rights, freedom of religion, possibly marriage equality.

Trump’s continual cries against “Islamic jihadist terrorists” as the number one threat to our nation, and his call to place U.S. Muslims on a “national registry” and surveillance to track their movements de facto “racializes” Muslims regarded of their so-called “race.”

Mussolini founded Italian war interventionist newspapers in 1914, Il Papolo d’Italia (The People of Italy) and the Fasci Rivoluzionari d’Azione Internazionalisto (Revolutionary Fasci for International Action), supported by funds he received from the armaments firm, Ansaldo, which would profit in any Italian war effort. (The National Rifle Association would have loved Il Duce!)

Later, serving as Italy’s youngest Prime Minister in 1922 at the age of 39, he helped to establish the secret police, outlawed labor strikes, and facilitated the establishment of a one-party dictatorship. Favoring the wealthy classes and forming a virtual oligarchy, he passed legislation making it easier for privatization, deregulation of business and industry, and the dismantling of labor unions. Trump has proposed very similar policy directives.

As World War II approached, Mussolini decided to join with Hitler’s Germany describing the war as “the struggle of the fertile and young people against the sterile people [British and French] moving to the sunset; it is the struggle between two centuries and two ideas,” and a “logical development of our [fascist] Revolution.”

Will Trump’s apparent parallels with Benito Mussolini hold and even strengthen while occupying the White House, or will he pleasantly surprise us by pivoting to become a healer of the national wounds he cut into the body politic throughout his career up to the point in time?