Trump now undeniably a ‘fascist’ after George Floyd response, say longtime sceptics
Reluctant critics finally relent as president delights in calling in the troops
As police officers across the country deployed brutal tactics in response to protests over the killing of
George Floyd, the former secretary of labour Robert Reich announced that his old vocabulary — crowded already with harsh words for
Donald Trump — was making way for a new addition.
“I have held off using the f word for three and a half years, but there is no longer any honest alternative,” Mr Reich tweeted. “Trump is a fascist, and he is
promoting fascism in America.”
Mr Reich wasn’t alone. Until last week, journalist Masha Gessen was also a sceptic. Mr Gessen had just published
Surviving Autocracy, a book which lists “fascism” among the words that get thrown about in the American political conversation without sufficient precision. The day after the book’s publication date, Mr Gessen wrote a short essay for
The New Yorker commenting on what it meant when the president — enamoured already of military parades and masked men in combat attire — told governors to crack down on protesters.
“Whether or not he is capable of grasping the concept,” Mr Gessen wrote, “Trump is performing
fascism.”
It was a notable turn. The word fascism is so loaded that even some of the president’s most vociferous detractors had long been reluctant to use it.
