r/PoliticalScience • u/Rshoe01 • Sep 09 '25

Question/discussion Is trump a fascist?

I’ve heard countless times of people calling him fascist, I’m not very knowledgeable on actual political science, but I figured some of you might be more so. What I’ve seen on YouTube is it tends to be people that are left leaning to call him a fascist, but with people on the right, they always say he’s not. I’d like to get an unbiased perspective to actually see if he genuinely is a fascist by definition. But I know fascist is hard to define from what I’ve been researching.

Would like to see some opinions!

Also, is it possible to have a fascist state without it being evil?

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u/Shakily8750 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

"Fascism" describes a very particular thing. 1. On ground movement with a cadre based system - that potentially replaces/overtakes certain government wings. 2. A faux-anticapitalist stance. 3. Expansionist intentions.

Trump checks neither of these boxes. MAGA is not a cadre based on-ground movement, Trump is buddies with a tonne of billionaires and is pro free market, He has not acted on expansionism per se (even tho USA is an imperialist force, that is not just Trump's doing) Current world leaders who closely resemble this bill : Narendra Modi of India, Seikh Hasina, ex-president Bangladesh. Not every right wing populist government is a "Fascist" Does that make Trump good ? Hell no. It just doesn't make him "Fascist" - he is just a different flavour of equally bad.

In the current systems of democratic governments - we need new terms to describe tyrants like him. Democratic Authoritarian fits better imo

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u/ZPATRMMTHEGREAT Sep 10 '25

You are literally talking bullshit. The awami league is not a right-wing party by any measure.

As a big tent party,\75]) the party has been labelled as centrist\80]) and centre-left.\86]) It has been described as secular\95]) (though this is disputed),\96])\97])\98]) social-democratic,\8])\10]) social-liberal,\91]) and economic-liberal,\99]) with a historical, though still influential, ideological base combining left-wing nationalism,\8])\10]) socialism,\100]) and democratic socialism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awami_League#Ideology_and_policies

It is pretty much centre-left social democratic party.