Amid Talk of Fascism, Trump’s Threats and Language Evoke a Grim Past

The New York Times ^ | Oct. 27, 2024 | Peter Baker

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Plenty of presidents have been called dictators by their political opponents, but none until now has been publicly accused of being a “fascist” by his own handpicked advisers.

When former President Donald J. 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.”

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.

While presidents have pushed the boundaries of power, and in some cases abused it outright, no American commander in chief over the past couple of centuries has so aggressively sought to discredit the institutions of democracy at home while so openly embracing and envying dictators abroad. Although plenty of presidents have been called dictators by their opponents, none has been publicly accused of fascism by his own handpicked top adviser who spent day after day with him in the Oval Office.

Mr. Trump does not use the word to describe himself — in fact, he uses it to describe his adversaries — but he does not shrink from the impression it leaves...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

President Trump imprisoned zero political opponents during his four years in office.

The FJB/Harris regime imprisoned thousands of political opponents during their 3.75 years in office.

Any questions?

[MtnClimber]

Projection from the left.

[Terry L Smith]

just another spitwad that does not stick to the Don@

[Sicon]

Does the NYT actually have this many different “journalists” to write this crap, or are there just a handful, using aliases/made-up names?

[rktman]

Yup! I’ve noticed quite an uptick in the naughtZee rhetoric in the last few days to a dangerous level. At least in my opinion. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. is out of bounds for the extreme left wing nut bags out there. Obviously.

[Red in Blue PA]

Because everyone knows all fascists throughout history have supported Gun rights for citizens and other individual rights regarding property etc/s

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Does the NYT actually have this many different “journalists” to write this crap, or are there just a handful, using aliases/made-up names?

You need a tag-team to jam that much gaslight, Astroturf, projection, innuendo and lies into such a small space.

[cgbg]

My read of this is the leftist media knows the White House is lost—at this point they are just trying to get more hard core leftists to vote and save House seats for the Democrats.

[odawg]

There was nothing grim about the FBI raiding Trump’s home with about thirty heavily armed men with orders to use lethal force?

[catnipman]

“Does the NYT actually have this many different “journalists” to write this crap, or are there just a handful, using aliases/made-up names?”

could be special NYT AI tuned to churn out articles chock-a-block with random lies to attack trump ... and yes, said fake articles could have fake by-lines too ...

[Red6]

Peter Baker: what a grotesque hit job.

It is articles like this that have made the NYT’s the joke it has become.

[catnipman]

NYT pulls out all the stops and goes 100% orange-man-bad articles on EVERY page of their scurrilous rag ... that probably makes their few remaining subscribers feel tingles up their legs, but otherwise i doubt their smear efforts have much effect on voters ...

[Retain Mike]

The NYT just keeps pounding on the same people.

[Jim Noble]

Is there anyone who calls Trump a “fascist” who knows what “fascist” means?

[datricker]

Yeah at a certain point nyt has gone so into the tds driven propaganda tank it’s no longer an accurate barometer of what the leftist are thinking or up to. It’s just gibirish laced with lies. They have driven themselves insane. Hadn’t considered the AI definitely a possibility

[goodnesswins]

Has anyone asked AI to define fascist?

[Honorary Serb]

“All the news we fit to print.”

[tony549]

The last concentration camps I recall from history were when Japanese Americans were imprisoned during WW2. FDR, a democrat, ordered that.

[dfwgator]

“Who built the cages, Joe?”

[PeterPrinciple]

The last concentration camps I recall from history were when Japanese Americans were imprisoned during WW2. FDR, a democrat, ordered that.

---

A point of clarification. That was at the request of the Japanese govt to have their citizens returns.

We made the same request to Japan to have our citizens returned.