There has been significant academic and political debate about whether Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, can be considered a fascist according to consensus definitions of the term or because of expressed attitudes some critics perceive as sympathetic to the extreme right. Such critiques arose especially in response to his 2016 and 2024 presidential campaign and during his second term as president. A number of prominent scholars, former officials, and critics have drawn comparisons between him and fascist leaders with respect to authoritarian actions and rhetoric, while others have rejected the label.
Trump has supported political violence against opponents; many academics cited Trump's involvement in the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack as an example of fascism. Trump has been accused of racism and xenophobia with respect to his rhetoric about illegal immigrants and his policies of mass deportation and family separation. Trump's base, referred to as the MAGA movement, is sometimes analyzed as a cult of personality. Especially during his second term, several experts of fascism have characterized Trump and his allies' rhetoric and style of governance as authoritarian and have compared them to previous fascist leaders'. In contrast, some scholars have described Trump variously as an authoritarian populist, a far-right populist, a nationalist, or of a different ideology.
Background
Donald Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and has served as the 47th president since January 2025. He ran three times as the Republican Party's candidate for the presidency, winning against Hillary Clinton in 2016, losing to Joe Biden in 2020, and winning again facing Kamala Harris in 2024.
Fascism is an ideological term which refers to a broad set of aspirations and influences that emerged in the early 20th century, exemplified by the European dictators Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Francisco Franco; and includes elements of nationalism, enforcement of social hierarchies, hatred towards social minority groups, opposition to liberalism, the cult of personality, racism, and the love of militaristic symbols.
Since Trump was elected to office in 2016, many academics have compared Trump's politics to fascism. Several have pointed out that contrasts exist between historical fascism and Trump's politics. Many also argued that "fascist elements" have operated within and around Trump's ideology and movement. Following the January 6 United States Capitol attack, some voices within the academic community felt that things had changed and that Trump's politics and connections with fascism deserved greater scrutiny. According to an October 2024 poll held by ABC News and Ipsos, 49% of American registered voters considered Trump to be a fascist, defined in the poll as "a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights, and threatens or uses force against their opponents," while 23% considered Kamala Harris to be a fascist. Another YouGov survey from the same year reported that about 20% of Americans believed that Trump saw Hitler as completely bad; among Republican respondents, four in ten believed that Trump held such a position. The same poll reported that nearly half of Trump voters would continue to support a political candidate even if they stated that Hitler had done some good things, a position that was held by a quarter of all respondents.: "... poll respondents were asked what they would do if a candidate they supported said that Hitler had done some good things.... Among those who said they plan to vote for Trump this year, just under half said they would vote for the candidate anyway.... On the other hand, only a fifth of Americans think that Trump sees Hitler as completely bad — a percentage that's pushed up by the just under 4 in 10 Republicans who believe that's his position."
Comparisons
Anti-democratic sentiment and illiberalism
Trumpism has been likened to Benito Mussolini's Italian fascism by critics of Trump. Historians and election experts have compared Trump's anti-democratic tendencies and egotistical personality to the sentiments and rhetoric of Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism. Trumpism heavily features authoritarian elements, rather than fascist and neo-fascist ones. Several scholars have rejected comparisons with fascism, instead viewing Trump as authoritarian and populist.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump implied that he would not accept the election results if he did not win, preemptively claiming that he could only lose due to electoral fraud. Following his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election, Trump and other Republicans tried to overturn the results, making widespread false claims of fraud. Due to these false claims, in addition to the January 6 United States Capitol attack that Trump incited, political opponents have labeled Trump as a "threat to democracy."
By 2020, journalist Patrick Cockburn stated that Trump's politics risked turning the United States into an illiberal democracy similar to Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, and the Philippines. According to civil rights lawyer Burt Neuborne and political theorist William E. Connolly, Trump's rhetoric employs tropes similar to those used by fascists in Germany to persuade citizens (at first a minority) to give up democracy by using a barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, personal invective, xenophobia, national-security scares, religious bigotry, white racism, exploitation of economic insecurity, and a never-ending search for scapegoats. Some research has highlighted Trump's connections to neoliberalism and has argued that his policies represent an intensification of such policies as part of a "fascist creep" on American politics. Corporatocracy and plutocracy are concepts often used to describe corporate elitism associated with Trump.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump has made numerous authoritarian and antidemocratic statements.; ; ; Trump's previous comments, such as suggesting he can "terminate" the Constitution to reverse his election loss;: "In sum, Trump posted on Truth Social that, what he believed to be, election fraud in the 2020 presidential election allows "for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution." For that reason, we rated this claim "Correct Attribution."" his claim that he would only be a dictator on "day one" of his presidency and not after; his promise to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies; and his plan to use the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military in Democratic cities and states, have raised concerns over Trump's rhetoric.
Trump has stated that he would deploy the military on American soil to fight "the enemy from within," which he describes as "radical left lunatics" and Democratic politicians such as Adam Schiff. His political rhetoric since 2016 has been based on an us vs. them framework, with the in-group being defined as "real Americans" and the rival out-groups including Muslims, leftists, intellectuals, and immigrants. He has repeatedly encouraged weaponized chants at his rallies, including calls to imprison 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. He has promoted the conspiracy theory that Jewish philanthropist George Soros was responsible for a large influx of illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States. Since 2020, he has lashed out at school and college teachers deemed to be "marxists" controlling the American institutions. Philosopher Jason Stanley linked this strategy to former and current fascist statesmen who try to undermine democracy by replacing teachers with loyalists.
Trump has repeatedly voiced support for outlawing political dissent and criticism he considers misleading or challenges his claims to power. After General Mark Milley said that Trump would start persecuting his political opponents if he won the 2024 presidential election, Trump suggested that Milley should be executed for treason, with Republican representative Paul Gosar further stating that, in a better society, "sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung." Retired general Barry McCaffrey said, regarding Trump's statements, that "what we are seeing is a parallel to the 1930s in Nazi Germany." Trump's formal policy plan for a second term, Agenda 47, has been characterized as fascist.: "(...) In many ways, Agenda 47 is a continuation of the fascist and other authoritarian policies Trump put in place during his first regime but now made even more extreme and cruel. (...) But nothing about Agenda 47 is childish, innocent, or funny. Fascism in its various forms is a revolutionary project that draws inspiration from a fictive past and "golden age" in order to destroy the current order and replace with some type of ideal society based upon the authoritarian leader and the movement. Trump's Agenda 47 fits that model almost perfectly. (...)": "(...) Let's talk about what he'll actually do on day one if he wins, according to his plans outlined in Agenda 47, the comprehensive plans outlined by his allies working on Project 2025, and media reporting sourced directly from people in his campaign. (...) All of this can only be characterized as the agenda of a wannabe dictator. That's not hyperbole. Countless authoritarian experts have raised alarms, comparing Trump's rhetoric and plans to those of 20th-century fascists. (...)": "(...) More important, while Trump and his campaign staff have pointed out that Agenda 47 is their official policy platform for the 2024 presidential election, Project 2025 and Agenda 47 have a lot of overlap in terms of ideas and policy plans. They both contain plans for the reshaping of U.S. government and civil society that can only be described as "fascist." They both assert that the mission they serve is to rescue the country from the influence of the radical left. (...)" Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat stated that the similarities between the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and Mussolini's "Laws for the Defense of the State," which transformed Italy into a repressive regime, are "striking," citing the elimination of judicial independence and the strengthening of executive authority.
How Democracies Die author Daniel Ziblatt said that Trump's combined employment of false allegations against his political opponents and allusions of exacting retribution for American patriots is similar to tactics used by Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and 1930s European fascists. An analysis by NPR found that between 2022 and October 2024, "Trump has made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison, or otherwise punish his perceived opponents."
In February 2025, Trump posted a computer-generated image of himself wearing a crown, declaring "Long live the king!" Critics took this as evidence of Trump having monarchist tendencies. Trump said in January 2026 that "sometimes you need a dictator."
Political violence