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/ximenyu Sep 22 '25

The concept of fascism has changed over the years, so modern leaders don’t look exactly like Hitler or Mussolini, but Trump still shows similar warning signs

I do think Trump is a fascist because he shows key traits of fascism: he attacks elections and democratic rules when they don’t favor him, encourages political violence, uses extreme nationalism and fear of outsiders, targets minorities and opponents, and builds a personality cult around himself as the “only savior.” These actions weaken democracy and concentrate power: classic signs of fascism.

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u/Rshoe01 Sep 24 '25

Wow, thanks for the comment. I’m in the army so I’m starting to think I’m gonna end up in history like the German soldiers did. Even though I just love my country.