Trump’s Threats and Language Evoke a Grim Past

“When former President Donald Trump’s longest serving chief of staff said the other day that his old boss ‘falls into the general definition of fascist,’ Mr. Trump let loose with the insults, assailing his onetime right hand as a ‘total degenerate,’ a ‘LOWLIFE’ and a ‘bad General,’” the New York Times reports.

“What Mr. Trump did not do, at least at first, was actually deny that he was or aspired to be a fascist.”

“Any other politician might consider that a damning denunciation worth rebutting. Only when asked days later did he directly dismiss the idea. But in the nine years that he has been running for or serving as president, Mr. Trump has regularly evoked the language, history and motifs of fascism without hesitation or evident concern about how it would make him look.”