Donald Trump’s Fascist Rampage – The Atlantic

Last week Donald Trump was on fascist territory. At rallies in Colorado and California, he doubled down on his usual rants and added a rancid note, suggesting that a heckler should let her mother “knock the fuck out” of her after she returned home. But on Sunday morning, he outdid himself in an interview on Fox News by saying that “the enemy within” — Americans he described as “radical left-wing lunatics,” including California Representative Adam Schiff, whom he mentioned by name — were more dangerous than Russia or China and could be “handled very easily” by the National Guard or the US military.

This wasn't the first time Trump suggested using America's armed forces against its own people: as president, he viewed the military as his personal guard and regularly dreamed of ordering “his generals” to suppress dissent, which was one of the Reasons is why the former chairman reportedly told Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Bob Woodward that he viewed Trump as “thoroughly fascist.”

The term “fascism” has been used as a slur so frequently that many people have understandably ignored it. But every American should be shocked to hear a presidential candidate say that other Americans (including a sitting member of Congress) are more dangerous than two nations pointing hundreds of nuclear warheads at America's cities. During the Cold War, conservative members of the Republican Party would likely have labeled anyone who said such things a “comsymp,” a follower, or even a traitor. In fact, one might expect that other Republicans would be horrified to hear how much hatred is directed at their fellow citizens and how much comfort is shown to the nation's enemies.

Nice to think of that. But today's Republican leaders are cowards, and some are even worse: they are complicit, as Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin proved in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Monday. At least cowards run away. The Republican elected officials who cross the street at stoplights just to get away from reporters demonstrate at least a tiny, molecular awareness of shame. Youngkin, however, smiled and pretended, excusing Trump's hideousness with a kind of folksy shamelessness that made cowardice seem noble by comparison.

Tapper read Trump's remarks verbatim and then asked, “Is this something you support?” Youngkin responded that Tapper had misunderstood Trump, who he said was referring to undocumented immigrants. No, Tapper replied, Trump clearly meant American citizens. Tapper added that Trump singled out Schiff in particular. Youngkin struggled through stories about Venezuelan criminals and Virginians dying from fentanyl. “Obviously there is a border crisis,” Tapper said. “Of course there are too many criminals who shouldn't be in this country and who should be imprisoned and completely deported, but that's not what I'm talking about.” And then Tapper didn't let up: What about Trump's threat to use the military against Americans?

Well, Youngkin shrugged, he “can't speak for Trump,” but he was sure Tapper was “misrepresenting Trump's thoughts.”

Some of the people who saw Youngkin's appalling dishonesty immediately thought of one of the most famous passages from George Orwell's work 1984: “The Party told him to reject the evidence of his eyes and ears. It was her last and most important command.”

But this interpretation gives Youngkin too much credit. Orwell's dictators were able to use torture and deprivation to intimidate people into accepting the government's lies. However, Youngkin is not a frightened subject of an authoritarian regime: he is merely an opportunist. Like JD Vance, he knows exactly what he's doing. Youngkin demands that everyone else play along and pretend that Trump is just a misunderstood immigration hawk and then move on – all so that people like Youngkin can later say that he was a loyal Republican when he goes after Trump for the Republican leadership The party fighting is either defeated, retired or has been gone for a long time.

In doing so, Youngkin joins a long list of completely dishonorable people, including Nikki Haley, who ran against Trump with energy and honesty and bowed and fought back after her defeat. As The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg noted that 10 Republican senators could have changed the course of history by supporting Trump's impeachment. A particularly galling example is Ohio Senator Rob Portman, a supposedly moderate Republican. Portman voted twice against convicting Trump. He announced his resignation just weeks after the January 6 insurrection and had no electoral prospects to defend (not that protecting his electoral prospects was an honorable excuse). Still, he let Trump slide, perhaps fearing recriminations from his neighbors in Ohio.

It's not exactly a revelation that the elected ranks of the Republican Party have become a haven for cranks and opportunists, and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference: when Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, talks about As “they” can control the weather, it's hard to tell if she's just a crazy person, if she's an anti-Semitic herself, or if she's just using another anti-Semitic phrase because she knows that some of the MAGA base is delight in such rubbish.

For someone like Greene, the difference doesn't matter. She is ignorant. And she acts with ignorance. Her voters rewarded her with a safe seat in Congress. But in the Trump era there has always been a conceit that more responsible Republicans like Youngkin lurked in the background, keeping their heads down while they calmly and competently conducted the people's business.

So Americans should see Youngkin's exchange with Tapper for themselves. You should see that supposedly competent Republicans have already left the party. To believe otherwise – especially after seeing someone like Youngkin – is to truly obey the commandment to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.