The Allure of Fascism (Vol. II), Part 13
With the support of his libertarian-fascist coalition, Trump staged an incredibly unlikely political comeback in 2024. Shortly after he announced his intention to run for president in late 2022, Trump posted on Truth Social, writing: “with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”1
Motivated by his “Big Lie,” Trump telegraphed his increasingly violent, undemocratic, and illegal intentions as his campaign progressed. On March 4th, 2023, Trump stated that vengeance would be the motivating force behind his second presidency. Relying on his repeated lie that the 2020 election was stolen, Trump said, “I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”2 “Never surrender” became a campaign slogan later that year after he was indicted for election interference. After presenting himself for arrest in Georgia, he wrote that he “walked into the lion’s den with one simple message on behalf of our entire movement: I WILL NEVER SURRENDER OUR MISSION TO SAVE AMERICA.”3
Alongside his longstanding paranoid attacks on migrants and leftists, Trump’s accusations of establishment lawfare became central to his platform. At a rally on Veterans Day in November 2023, Trump claimed: “The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.”4 “We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs,” he continued, “that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”5 The following month, he made a similar claim he would repeat several times, saying that “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation. They’re coming from prisons, from mental institutions—from all over the world.”6 Trump also promised to use the military against these enemies if re-elected: these “enemies” would “be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”7 “There are a lot of bad genes in our country right now,” he said only a month before he won the election.8
“I said I want to be a dictator for one day,” Trump stated in late 2023.9 Across his election campaign, a steadily rising chorus of critics began to accuse Trump of “fascism.” In October 2024, even Kamala Harris claimed he was a “fascist” who sought “unchecked power.”10 The MAGA movement would cynically seize upon these statements, blaming them for the escalating political violence in the US that resulted in two assassination attempts on Trump in 2024 alone: “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” JD Vance wrote in July 2024. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”11 Such claims may have inspired violence. But given Trump’s statements and the far-right coalition supporting his election campaign, they were also not wrong.
Trump’s platform in 2024 was overtly undemocratic, openly authoritarian, and secured by conspiracy fictions and paranoia. But on November 5th that year, more people voted for him than ever before. Raising his total vote tally from 62 million votes in 2016 and 74 million in 2020, Trump received 77 million votes in 2024. Trump won the Electoral College and received more votes than his Democratic opponent; Republicans also won both the House and the Senate. It was the most convincing popular mandate for MAGA yet. With more momentum, coordination, and extremism than ever before, and supported by a far-right majority in the Supreme Court and an army of loyalists ready to take up posts in government bureaucracy, Trump and the MAGA movement would take hold of the instruments of government at the start of 2025 with little to oppose them.