Democrats, enough with the fascism propaganda about Trump
It’s the go-to phrase for Democrats, accusing President Trump and anyone who supports him as “fascist.” Their favorite insult, thrown around like so much confetti, makes it hard to figure out which media personalities are engaged in dishonest propaganda and which ones really believe it. But such use of the term only reveals their complete ignorance of what “fascism” really means.
Fascism is the centralization of governmental authority in the executive with no checks and balances. Fascist governments seek to create centrally planned command economies, subordinating private capital to the government. Racism and nativism are central tenets.
On all these counts, Trump comes up far short.
When it comes to centralizing authority, the president has definitely been on a binge in promulgating executive orders. The number and breadth of his orders are greater than past presidents’, but not illegal (not to mention that Democrats could have curtailed the executive powers of the presidency when either Barack Obama or Joe Biden were in the White House, but apparently they were too busy enjoying the perks of power. Oops.). And Trump still pressed forward with his omnibus “big beautiful bill” through legislative channels.
Trump has criticized, often harshly, judges when they rule against him. But the Trump administration has not defied court orders and injunctions (it has appealed them), nor has it ignored court rulings.
Despite Democrats loudly proclaiming their support for the rule of law, Trump could reasonably be called the most steadfast presidential supporter of the rule of law in decades, given his administration’s determination to enforce immigration laws — laws that have been routinely ignored by six previous presidential administrations (including Trump's first term). At the same time, Democratic states and cities are routinely ignoring federal law by refusing to cooperate with federal law enforcement, even releasing convicted criminals.
Not only are checks and balances intact, so are elections. Trump has not cancelled any votes — and dozens have occurred since his inauguration — nor has he forced any Democrats off the ballot. Of course, these facts have not prevented Democrats from continuing to claim Trump will do so in the future.
The fascist policy of centralizing government control over the economy and society is also starkly absent. The Trump administration has been on a mission to shrink the government and its regulatory apparatus, not grow it. The same progressives who shout about fascism are in court suing to maintain the size and reach of the federal government. That’s backwards.
Inseparable from fascism is racism and nativism — meaning opposition to immigrants. Even on this score, the epithet fails. Under Trump, naturalizations (i.e., legal immigration) were higher than under Obama. Trump’s first term totaled 2,941,013 new immigrant citizens, or an average of 735,253 per year — and that’s including a significant fall during COVID in 2020. Obama averaged 716,490 for his two terms, and in both terms fewer immigrants were naturalized. Statistics are not available for 2025, but naturalization ceremonies continue.
It's also worth noting that current legal immigrants mostly originate from Latin American and Asian countries. If Trump were running a fascist, nativist, racist immigration policy, he would have put in the old immigration quota system by country — a system not unique at all in the world. But Trump has not done so, or indicated any intent to do so.
What Trump has targeted is illegal immigration and illegal immigrants, with an emphasis on those who have committed criminal acts — of which there are thousands of violent offenders, even according to the late Biden administration. And there is no court that has upheld any right for a person who entered the United States illegally to remain.
It may be that the Democrats are shouting fascism as loudly as possible due to their own losses among minority voters in 2024. Trump scored significant vote gains among Latino and Black voters not only over his previous campaigns but over past Republican candidates as well. Among Black men and Latino men, Trump had the best result since the 1972 Nixon landslide.
Their fascism claims really have little to do with Trump and more to do with clicks and money. Everyone in the media and on social media is desperately trolling for attention. And the way to get attention is by using as much incendiary hyperbole as possible.
But this chase for short-term attention and the economic gain that follows (and political fundraising) is a long-term loser. The shock value wears off, and when it turns out the sky is not falling, the public turns away. After fascism, where can you go to get more shock value?
Fundamentally, the problem with propaganda in an open society is that it hurts the perpetrators more than the targets. Democrats are slowly finding that out. As the country tires of their fascism fascination, they have nowhere to go.
Keith Naughton, a longtime Republican political consultant, is co-founder of Silent Majority Strategies, a public and regulatory affairs consulting firm, and a former Republican political campaign consultant in Pennsylvania.