Trump: America’s Mussolini

While Trump’s racist, misogynist running mate, JD “Shady” Vance, in 2016 called Donald Trump, “America’s Hitler,” (before he became a Trump sycophant) it was really a dictator too far. Trump, the racist felon and serial liar candidate for the US presidency, is far more like Benito Mussolini than Hitler in many ways. Of course, I realize their political careers are not parallel and that Trump has not yet managed to be the dictator he so clearly plans to be if re-elected (a dictator only on day one, he coyly suggested to the oleaginously subservient host Hannity on the American outlet for Russian State propaganda: Fox Newz). However, any comparison of the two politicians shows they have a lot in common in their views, their behaviour, their allies, their narcissism, and their public statements.*

And I’m not the only one who thinks so. For example, Professor Mark Bickard wrote in 2017:

Just as Mussolini took over the Fascist movement, Trump is exploiting and taking over the ultra-nationalism/alt-right movements. These are the power bases for two dictatorial personalities.

In his 2011 biography of Mussolini, R.J.B. Bosworth  wrote:

He understood that a totalitarian dictator had to be, or to seem to be, expert in everything… Cowing the press was only one part of building a totalitarian dictatorship.

Mussolini himself warned, “The press of Italy is free, freer than the press of any other country, so long as it supports the regime.” That could come from Trump himself and his accusations of “fake news” and his flurry of insults against anyone in the media who disagrees with or criticizes him.**

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who has written extensively on Mussolini, said this to Business Insider in 2020:

The clearest parallel is that Mussolini was prime minister of a democratic coalition government from 1922-1925. During that time, he slowly chipped away at democratic institutions, insulting the press, using violence against the left, joking that he would be in office for 20 years, establishing a militia and a legislative body (the Grand Council) loyal to him.

In his 2019 book, How to Be A Dictator, author Frank Dikötter describes the rise and fall of eight dictators in the past century, from Mussolini to Hitler and Stalin, to Mengistu. They all share one thing in common with Donald Trump: the cult of personality they cultivated. It is the platform of subservience and abject loyalty through which they co-opted their allies, their parties, their followers, and often even their competition to fall in line behind them. For example, Dikötter wrote:

Realising their own survival now depended on the myth of the great dictator, other party leaders joined the chorus, portraying Mussolini as a saviour, a miracle worker who was ‘almost divine.’ Their destinies were tied up with the Duce, the only one capable of holding fascism together…
Politics became the mass celebration of the individual. ‘Mussolini is Always right’ was thwe regime’s motto. Mussolini was not only sent by providence, but the very incarnation of providence. Blind obedience was now expected of every Italian.

Sound familiar? Blind obedience was a hallmark of Trump’s White House. How about this comment? It’s on Mussolini but could as easily be about Trump:

He had used the cult of the leader to debase his competitors, ensuring every potential rival… was edged out of the limelight. Those who remained were united in their devotion to the Duce, sycophants determined to outdo one another in praising his genius. They lied to him, much as he lied to them… He trusted no one, having no true friends, no reliable companion with whom he could speak frankly.

Hearken back to 2015 when sixteen candidates for the Republican nomination were squabbling for the brass ring against one another. Trump was described as “the party’s perhaps best-known — if reviled — candidate.” Five withdrew before the primaries, the other eleven by early May 2016. Despite their initial disgust towards him, and disdainful remarks, they all quickly fell into line to loudly back Trump, just as Mussolini’s challengers did for him. Most of them still do, despite his brutally bad term in office, his numerous personal and governmental failures, his firehose of lies and conspiracies, his open racism, and his accelerating cognitive decline on view in rallies now. He remains their ‘saviour’ even as he has turned the party into his own personal cheerleading organization.

Look next at the 2024 Republican nomination process. Twelve candidates; eight dropped out before the primaries, the remaining four during the primaries. Only two of the twelve failed to endorse Trump and make the proper obeisance to him. Even after they had campaigned against him, each one of the endorsees subsequently debased themselves shamelessly and publicly to gain crumbs of Trump’s approval, grovelling before him to avoid his wrath.

Yet by then, Trump was a convicted felon, facing even more criminal charges and court cases, including election tampering, inciting insurrection, sexual assault, defamation, fraud, and stealing classified documents. And that doesn’t even begin to cover his numerous business failures, bankruptcies, lies, adulteries, racism, and scams. That’s who Repugnicans in the MAGA cult see as their moral guide, the best person to run the economy, the best to deal with international leaders, the best to tell the truth to the American people.

Elected party sycophants stood in front of the New York courthouse where Trump was tried and openly and knowingly lied to Americans about their nation’s justice system, about the court officers, about the judge, about the state, about the venue, about the charges, just to try to squeeze a little nod of approval from Trump.

Dikötter wrote in general, that dictators are, as Trump is daily shown to be, paranoid, suspicious, and living in their own bubble:

The cult of the personality demanded loyalty to the leader rather than fait in a particular political programme. It was deliberately superficial… Tyrants trust no one, least of all their allies … Detached from reality … surrounded by the sycophants and liars they had promoted over the years, they had come to believe in their own cult.

Which is certainly true of Trump. And writing about Mussolini, Dikötter adds:

The cult was tinged with superstition and magic… people projected onto Mussolini feelings of devotion and worship characteristic of Christian piety. There were holy sites, holy pictures, pilgrimages, even the hope of a healing touch from the leader. His photograph was sometimes used as a talisman, carried around to bring good luck.

Again, the parallels are eerie: Trump’s hired “spiritual advisor” (a con artist who promotes the “prosperity gospel,” which teaches that her god bestows health and wealth on true believers, particularly those who donate money to ministers like her), his support from the Talibangelists and Christofascists, the memes and NFTs he sells showing him with a halo or angel wings, or cavorting with images of their deity, the (alleged) pieces of his “debate suit” being sold as talismans, his grift sales of printed-in-China bibles (a desperate attempt to associate himself with religious people, despite his utter ignorance of its contents).***

Trump in the White House was deferential to Putin the same way Mussolini in Rome was deferential to Hitler. As Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s former press secretary told the story:

…as the media prepared to enter the meeting room, Trump – who declared it “a great honor to be with President Putin,” even though US intelligence was convinced Russia had been systematically attacking US elections to undermine democracy – leaned over and told Putin, “I’m going to act a little tougher with you for a few minutes. But it’s for the cameras…you understand.”
…Reporters walked in and asked Trump if he was going to warn Putin to keep his hands off the upcoming election. Trump turned to Putin and said, “Don’t meddle in the election, please.” When Putin’s translator told him what Trump said, the Russian president laughed out loud.

Trump himself has retweeted quotes from Mussolini and in 2016 defended doing so, saying in an interview, “Chuck, it’s OK to know it’s Mussolini. Look, Mussolini was Mussolini. It’s OK to — it’s a very good quote, it’s a very interesting quote, and I know it, I saw it. I saw what — and I know who said it. But what difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else? It’s certainly a very interesting quote.” The only surprise here might be that he actually read something and remembered it. But, of course, he has been in a steep dive in mental acuity since then, so perhaps he was much sharper in the past.

And then there were the “assassination” attempts against Trump, one where a piece of shrapnel grazed his now-miraculously-healed ear, another where he wasn’t even fired at. It must be coincidental that these attempts magically deflected media attention from his crushing defeat in the debate with Kamala Harris, his totalitarian Project 2025 plans, his undignified Arlington Cemetery stunt, his puerile tweeting he hates Taylor Swift, his lies about immigrants eating cats and dogs, his failure to condemn bomb threats by his followers against schools and government buildings in Springfield, and his relationship with conspiracy cultist and extreme racist Laura Loomer…

Similarly, in 1926 Mussolini was the target of an assassination attempt: a shot grazed his nose and he paraded around for days with an oversized bandage on it.Sound familiar? Mussolini used the attempt to consolidate power, make himself appear a martyr saved only by god, and blame his opponents for the attempt (as Trump has done, despite both shooters being MAGA devotees and Trump voters). Trump has blamed the two attempts on “the enemy from within” — a familiar trope of totalitarian leaders — and said “dangerous fools” listen to what Democratic leaders say and react to “what he has claimed, falsely, is an orchestrated attempt by the White House to use the justice system to persecute him.”

Trump’s pseudo-Christian followers also say he was saved by “divine intervention.” Trump claimed he was targeted on behalf of his followers and he quickly offered for sale “assassination” running shoes to capitalize on their emotions and gullibility. For Mussolini, like Trump, each attempt was “fodder for his personality cult by seeming to prove his macho toughness, resilience and invincibility.”

Mussolini used the assassination attempt to create the “Laws for the Defense of the State” which, as historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat wrote is eerily similar to the recent corrupt Supreme Court decision that gave Trump immunity from his crimes because it:

…transformed Italy from a democracy to a regime. Grounded in a huge expansion of the powers of the executive branch at the expense of the judiciary and parliament, Mussolini and his Fascist Party ended press freedom, banned all opposition political parties, prohibited strikes and non-Fascist unions, created the notorious OVRA secret police, and more. The laws made it clear that any attack on the leader would be considered an attack on the state and on national unity… Mussolini expanded the power of the executive in December to give it authority for all state functions; in January 1926, he made executive orders effective without approval of parliament, creating a governmental situation in which his will could not be challenged.

As the Princeton philosopher Jan-Werner Müller wrote, “Right-wing authoritarian populists ultimately reduce all political questions to questions of belonging.” You are either in Trump’s camp or an enemy. He has no neutral ground, no place for objective observers. It’s his way or his retribution for anyone opposing him. So it was with Mussolini.

But let’s not take the analogies too far. Trump is not merely a resurrected Mussolini no matter how many similarities we can list. The tactics and strategies of the early 20th-century dictators are not those of today’s rightwing populists and demagogues. This isn’t your parents’ or your grandparents’ fascism. It wears new clothes, is more sophisticated, works in the shadows more craftily. Andrew Marantz said it best in the New Yorker: “Don’t think armband insignias, tanks in the streets, and martial law; think lawfare, sophisticated cronyism, surveillance, and counter-majoritarian restrictions on reproductive rights and voting access and academic freedom.” And that’s certainly what we’re seeing with Trump and his cronies right now.

Notes:

* Yes, there are also parallels between Trump and Hitler, but Hitler took much of his early tactics from Mussolini. Aside from their shared racism and misogyny, both Hitler and Trump had coordinated plans to take over every aspect of their country subservient and loyal to the leader first then the party second: the courts, education, social organizations and clubs, libraries, police, the armed services, churches, sports… the Nazis called theirs Gleichschaltung; MAGA cultists call theirs Project 2025. The effects of Hitler’s chilling plan are detailled in the second book of Richard Evans’ trilogy: The Third Reich in Power. I recommend reading it to see the sort of devastation to democratic life and freedom Trump’s Project 2025 would have on the USA.

** While this quotation is widely shared online (mostly on clickbait “quotation” sites), I have yet to find a site that cites a proper source such as a speech or article. Trump has made many accusations about and threats to the American media, denigrated reporters, and lied about them. Including: “he press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.” and “The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.” Both are from 2017.

** Talibangelists and Christofascists are often called Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists, but they are actually pseudo-Christians trying to establish an authoritarian, patriarchal theocracy to displace democracy. They are not concerned with faith, but rather with their own greed, attaining power, and controlling others. They never quote Jesus or the Beatitudes, but always find some oppressive law, misogynistic or homophobic quote to justify restricting the lives of others, or better yet, punishing them.

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