Delusional Donald Trump Quotes
Donald Trump is clearly delusional and the Trump quotes on this page prove it. Rand Paul once called Donald Trump a "delusional narcissist." Here are Delusional Donald quotes that prove him correct ...
Trump Faith Quotes
Trump Religion Quotes
Trump Christianity Quotes
Trump claims to be a Christian but said that he never asks God for forgiveness! Trump said that he "does not bring God into that picture" when he makes mistakes and just "tries to do better" and "make it right" on his own. Trump said he thinks of forgiveness in terms of "Let's go on and let's make it right [without God]." And that is, of course, completely counter to the Christian faith. In fact, it sounds like what the Other Guy would say.
Trump denigrated Holy Communion and the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ by speaking dismissively of his "little wine" and "little cracker." Trump even tried to put money in a communion tray at First Christian Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Again, he sounds more like the Other Guy than a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Trump loves to parade around with his Bible, as if that makes him a Christian. But when asked to cite his favorite Bible verse, Trump first quoted a verse that isn't in the Bible, then cited "an eye for an eye." But that Old Testament teaching was overruled by Jesus, who taught Christians to "turn the other cheek" and to return evil with good, as Jesus did himself. Jesus never took "an eye for an eye" and according to the gospels healed the ear of a Roman soldier who had come to unjustly arrest him. That arrest resulted in the excruciating torture of his crucifixion. So Jesus set a completely different example, through his own life and death.
Trump demonstrated his lack of knowledge of the Bible by calling Second Corinthians "Two Corinthians."
When asked theological questions, Trump's answers make no sense. For instance, when trying to explain who God is to him, Trump ended up talking about how he got a good deal on a golf course, where he is known to cheat and lie about his prowess! And it's obvious that Trump has absolutely no interest in the Bible or its teachings when he has affairs with porn stars and Playboy bunnies, when he lies repeatedly, when he uses his "charity" as a personal checkbook to buy pictures of himself, or when he rips off his subcontractors by not paying them for work they did for his companies.
Trump once promised evangelicals that he would make them proud of him: "I want to thank the evangelicals. I will never let you down." But of course no real Christian can be proud of Trump's arrogance, his constant boasting, his lies, his extramarital affairs, his ripping babies from their mothers' breasts, his preference for the super-rich over the poorest of the poor, etc.
Trump Military Quotes
“There's nobody bigger or better at the military than I am!” This from someone who used the "rich kid" excuse of "bone spurs" to avoid serving his country during the Vietnam War.
Cadet Bone Spurs claimed: "I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me."
“I’m the only person in the history of our country that could really decimate ISIS.” Forget about George Washington, Winfield Scott, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, Black Jack Pershing and Dwight D. Eisenhower! Cadet Bone Spurs knows more than the greatest American generals!
"Our boys, our young women, our men, they're all coming back, and they're coming back now!" Trump announced in a video declaring victory over ISIS on Dec. 19, 2018, as he began to reveal that he would withdraw American troops from Syria and Afghanistan. But this would prove to be yet another lie, or the fabrication of someone who knows far less than our generals about the wars in Syria and Afghanistan.
Cadet Bone Spurs said: "Everyone gives me credit for decimating ISIS!" But in reality no one in his own party is saying that, much less American generals and military advisers. General James Mattis, the US Secretary of Defense, resigned immediately after Trump declared a bogus "victory" over ISIS. With the White House facing criticism over Trump's impetuous decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria, National Security Adviser John Bolton announced that the drawdown would be conditioned on the defeat of ISIS and the safety of Kurdish allies. Trump himself contradicted his lie that ISIS had been defeated, by saying that the withdrawal would force Russia to fight ISIS and Saudi Arabia to bear the costs. One does not have to keep fighting an enemy who has been defeated. Trump himself later confirmed that he had lied about defeating ISIS by saying: "We won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone." That could take years, or decades.
"He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured." Cadet Bone Spurs, who avoided being captured by dodging the draft during the Vietnam War, insulted John McCain and every American POW.
Cadet Bone Spurs assured Americans that Vladimir Putin "is not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He’s not gonna go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down." But Trump was unaware that Russia had already annexed Crimea in a military invasion of Ukraine that left thousands dead. (July 31, 2016)
Cadet Bone Spurs claimed that he "fired" James Mattis, when the whole world knows that General Mattis resigned because he doesn't believe ISIS has been defeated, much less "decimated," and because he believes Trump is abandoning US allies in the region, including the Kurds and Israel.
Cadet Bone Spurs will retreat from Syria "very powerfully."
“When Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn’t be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water." Cadet Bone Spurs threatens to go to war with Iran over rude hand gestures. (Sept. 9, 2016)
Cadet Bone Spurs justified Russia's invasion of Afghanistan by claiming it was “because terrorists were going to Russia.” But in reality the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 in an effort to prop up a failing communist puppet government.
Cadet Bone Spurs claimed: "I know more about drones than anybody." More that the engineers who designed them, more than the manufacturers who made them, more than the people who operate them!
"I know more about offense and defense than they [American generals] will ever understand, believe me. Believe me. Than they will ever understand. Than they will ever understand."
Trump Gold Star Quotes
"His wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say. She probably—maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say." Trump smears Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star mother of a fallen American soldier, by implying that she was not allowed to speak, despite the fact that she has spoken publicly about her son's death. (July 30, 2016)
"'You do know you just attacked a Gold Star family?' one adviser warned Trump. But Trump didn’t know what a Gold Star family was: 'What’s that?' he asked." (per New York Magazine)
"I think I've made a lot of sacrifices." Cadet Bone Spurs replies to the charge of Gold Star father Khizr Khan, whose son died in Iraq in 2004, that Trump had "sacrificed nothing and no one." Trump was unable to name an actual sacrifice when pressed to elaborate. (July 30, 2016)
Trump Nuclear Weapon Quotes
"There is nobody who understands the horror of nuclear more than me." But Trump couldn't understand why the US pays to develop nuclear weapons that it chooses not to use.
"Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?" Trump asked a foreign policy adviser three times why the United States couldn’t use its nukes, according to Joe Scarborough.
Trump 9-11 Quotes
"40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan ... And now it’s the tallest!" Trump brags that 9-11 made his building the tallest in Manhattan.
"Yeah, I guess so." Cadet Bone Spurs told Howard Stern that he supported the Iraq war, despite the fact that he now claims he opposed it. Ironically, he supported the Iraq war on the anniversary of 9-11. (Sept. 11, 2002)
Trump Terrorism Quotes
"Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism." Trump brags about being right, following the Orlando shooting massacre. (June 12, 2016)
Trump Tax Quotes
Trump Tax Evasion Quotes
Dodging federal income taxes? "That makes me smart." But it is federal income taxes that pay our soldiers' salaries and weapons. Is is "smart" for the commander-in-chief to set such a terrible example? (Sept. 26, 2016)
Trump Europe Quotes
Trump claimed: "My relationship, I will tell you, with the leaders of Europe is very good!" That's why European leaders mocked Trump when he claimed to have done more than any previous American administration.
Trump claimed that he could be “the most popular person in Europe” and could “run for any office” there. But the reality is very different, as Mitt Romney pointed out in his recent op-ed: "In a 2016 Pew Research Centre poll, 84 percent of people in Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Sweden believed the American president would 'do the right thing in world affairs,' Senator Romney wrote. "One year later, that number had fallen to 16 percent."
Trump Egomania Quotes
"The beauty of me is that I'm very rich."
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay? It's, like, incredible." (January 23, 2016)
"I have absolute right to do what I want with the Justice Department."
"I know words, I have the best words." Not if you talk like that, you don't.
"I'm the one that saved coal."
"I know more about renewables than any human being on Earth."
"I know the details of taxes … better than the greatest CPA."
“Nobody knows more about taxes than me, maybe in the history of the world.” And yet Trump is obviously afraid to release his tax returns.
"Nobody knows more about debt. I'm like the king. I love debt."
"Nobody knows banking better than I do."
Trump said that he knows Wall Street bankers "Better than anyone." And that may be true, since he stocked his White House swamp with so many Goldman Sachs banker-donors.
I understand money better than anybody." Better than Paul Krugman, a Nobel-winning economist!
Trump Trade War Quotes
“Nobody knows more about trade than me.” Trade wars, perhaps.
"Trade wars are good, and easy to win." Try telling that to a stock market suffering its worst year-end since the Great Depression.
Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping "likes me" and "has treated me better than anybody's ever been treated in the history of China. But China has countered Trump's tariffs with tariffs of their own which have thrown American markets into an epic tailspin and now threaten a major recession, with American farmers taking the brunt.
Trump Jobs Quotes
"Nobody knows jobs like I do!"
Trump Infrastructure Quotes
"Nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump." So where are the much-vaunted infrastructure improvements?
Trump Racism Quotes
"Dwyane Wade's [sic] cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!" Trump uses the murder of Nykea Aldridge, cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade, to boost his campaign. (Aug. 27, 2016)
"Look at my African-American over here!" Trump sounding like a plantation owner at a campaign rally. (June 3, 2016)
"I have a great relationship with the blacks." Not if you call them "the blacks," you don't.
"I have people that have been studying [Barack Obama's birth certificate] and they cannot believe what they're finding." Trump, as usual, was lying. His "people" didn't find anything. He was the world's most famous "birther" ... just one more example of his plantation mentality.
“There’s nobody that’s done so much for equality as I have.” Not Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., not Gandhi, not Nelson Mandela, not Frederick Douglas, not Harriett Tubman, not Sojourner Truth!
Trump Border Wall Quotes
Trump Wall Nut Quotes
Trump Immigration Quotes
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems...they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists." But this is fake news, because real-world statistics show that Mexican immigrants have a lower crime rate than the native population.
During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Trump admitted to the New York Times editorial board: “You know, if [a rally] gets a little boring, if I see people starting to sort of, maybe thinking about leaving, I can sort of tell the audience, I just say, ‘We will build the wall!’ and they go nuts.”
"Happy Cinco de Mayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!" Trump "loves" Hispanics and poor people the way he "loves" crying babies: fleetingly.
“Nobody builds better walls than me.” And yet Mexico hasn't paid for the border wall, which Trump has downgraded to a see-through fence with huge "nature gaps" that still hasn't been built.
"Nobody knows the [visa] system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. Nobody knows it better than me." So Trump knows how to import immigrants that his wall will do nothing to prevent.
"I’ve been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage." Trump accuses U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was presiding over the fraud case against the fraudulent Trump University, of being biased against him because of his Mexican heritage, despite the fact that he is a U.S. citizen who was born in Indiana. (June 5, 2016)
Trump Government Quotes
Trump Politics Quotes
"Nobody knows the system [of US government] better than I do." And yet he can't get his wall built and has shut down the US government multiple times.
"I know more about [political] contributions than anybody." And yet he "didn't know" that it was illegal to set up an LLC and pay to buy the silence of porn stars and Playboy bunnies!
"Nobody knows politicians better than Donald Trump."
"Our movement is a movement built on love." Megalomaniacal self-love, perhaps.
Trump Women Quotes
Trump Sex Quotes
“No one respects women more than me. No one reads the Bible more than me.” And yet Trump bragged about grabbing women by their genitals and said that he never asks God for forgiveness!
"When you’re a star ... you can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything." Trump in an interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush (2005)
At the third presidential debate: "Nobody respects women more than me." Three minutes later, Hillary Clinton is "such a nasty woman." (Oct. 19, 2016)
"I think the only card she has is the women's card. She has got nothing else going. Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she would get 5 percent of the vote. (April 26, 2016)
"If she gets to pick her judges—nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second Amendment people. Maybe there is. I don’t know." Trump hints that gun rights advocates should assassinate Hillary Clinton. (Aug. 9, 2016)
"Women: You have to treat them like shit." (New York Magazine, 1992)
"When I come home and dinner's not ready, I go through the roof." (ABC News, 1994)
"Vagina is expensive." Donald Trump, confided to Howard Stern at Trump's wedding to Marla Maples (1993)
"Heidi Klum? Sadly, she's no longer a 10." (New York Times, 2015)
"I sorta get away with things like that." Trump on bursting into beauty pageant dressing rooms to ogle teenage girls in the nude.
"You know, it really doesn`t matter what [the media] write as long as you`ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass." (Esquire, 1991)
"You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever." Trump suggests Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was "on the rag" over questions she asked during the first Republican primary debate. But al she had done was quote things he had said publically about women, when he called them "pigs," "dogs," "disgusting animals," etc.
“I know where she went—it’s disgusting, I don’t want to talk about it. No, it’s too disgusting. Don’t say it, it’s disgusting." Trump on Hillary Clinton taking a bathroom break during a Democratic presidential debate. Evidently male urine is less disgusting than female urine, according to Trump.
"Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?" Trump on Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. Women should be judged solely by their attractiveness, not by their intelligence, character or accomplishments.
"If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?" A female president has to be good in bed.
"All of the women on 'The Apprentice' flirted with me—consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected."
"I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I'm more honest and my women are more beautiful."
Trump called a black woman, Omarosa Manigault Newman, a "dog" and a "lowlife" after she accused him and his White House administration of racism. So Trump replied to an accusation of racism with a grotesquely racist tweet, proving that Omarosa was correct in her accusation.
Trump called Stormy Daniels "Horseface."
Trump Marriage Quotes
Trump Children Quotes
"I like kids. I mean, I won’t do anything to take care of them. I’ll supply funds, and she’ll take care of the kids." Raising children is strictly a "woman thing." Men just help pay the bills and take no other responsibility.
“Actually, I was only kidding. You can get that baby out of here. Don’t worry. I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I’m speaking. That’s OK. People don’t understand. That’s OK." Trump boots a mother and her crying baby from a rally moments after saying "I love babies!" (August 2, 2016)
Trump Sex Quotes
"He referred to my hands, if they're small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee it." Trump brags about his penis size after a comment about his small hands by Marco Rubio at a GOP presidential debate. (March 3, 2016)
Trump "Love" Quotes
"I love the poorly educated" ... but later ... poor people are "morons." (Nov. 28, 1999)
"It's a love fest. These are love fests." Trump talking about violence at his rallies, where peaceful protestors were repeatedly manhandled and sometimes assaulted for exercising their constitutional rights of free speech, assembly and dissent.
Trump "love" is a curious thing:
Does he care for our kids half as much as his bling?
—Michael R. Burch
Trump Handicap Quotes
“Now, the poor guy—you've got to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don't know what I said! I don't remember!'" Trump mocked reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a physical disability called arthrogryposis that limits flexibility in his arms, by jerking his arms spastically in front of his body.
Trump Protestor Quotes
Trump likes to hit "little guys" for speaking their minds peacefully: "You know what I wanted to. I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard. I would have hit them ... I was gonna hit one guy in particular, a very little guy. I was gonna hit this guy so hard his head would spin and he wouldn’t know what the hell happened ... I was going to hit a number of those speakers so hard their heads would spin, they’d never recover." (July 29, 2016)
"I love the old days, you know? You know what I hate? There's a guy totally disruptive. Throwing punches, we're not allowed punch back anymore ... I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell ya." Trump wants to punch peaceful protesters. (Feb. 22, 2016)
"Knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. OK? Just knock the hell—I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees." Trump will pay for his supporters to mug protestors. (Feb. 1, 2016)
Trump Russia Collusion Quotes
Trump Campaign Quotes
Trump Poll Quotes
"Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press." Trump calls for Russian espionage services to intervene in the U.S. election and help sabotage Hillary Clinton. Trump had previously said he thinks the emails contain sensitive intelligence, meaning that Trump was hoping Russia would gain access to classified government information. (July 27, 2016)
“I've had a beautiful, I've had a flawless campaign. You'll be writing books about this campaign.” Yes, there will be many books written about Trump's collusion with Russia. (July 29, 2016)
Trump claimed "my base is stronger than it's ever been." Not true. Trump was the least-popular first-year president in the history of polling. He started off with terrible polls and has since slipped to new lows below 40 percent.
Trump is the Greatest President of All Time Quotes
“I can be more presidential than anybody. I would say more presidential, and I’ve said this a couple of times, more presidential other than the great Abe Lincoln.” So Trump is more presidential than JFK, FDR, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson!
The new Democratic majority in the House "really could be a beautiful bipartisan situation." Yep, the Dems are going to be your best buds while they figure out how to either get rid of you or neuter you because of all the irrational, highly dangerous things you do.
"I'm also honored to have the greatest temperament that anybody has." (November 3, 2016)
"I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created." How many Americans will lose their jobs due to Trump's trade wars and favoring of billionaires over working Joes and Janes?
"I don’t think I’ve made mistakes."
“Nobody is better on humility than me.”
Fascists of a feather
flock together.
—Michael R. Burch
Will the fascist Donald Trump follow in the footsteps of Benito Mussolini, destroying the United States the way Mussolini once destroyed Italy? Benito Mussolini was once Hitler's yes-man. Donald Trump is now Putin's yes-man. What happens when nations start doing the bidding of fascists like Hitler and Putin? History suggests that subservient nations also become fascist, with citizens losing their individual freedom and most basic rights in the process.
The first striking parallel is that Mussolini and Trump appear to be identical twins, if not the same person (evidence of reincarnation, perhaps?) Please keep in mind that Trump's wispy forelock is entirely artificial. He would be as bald as Mussolini if not for cosmetic surgery ...
If we picture Trump without that bit of fluff surgically attached to his scalp, the resemblance is astonishing ...
The second amazing parallel is their nicknames: Il Duce and Ill Douche!
Other fascists to whom Donald Trump has been compared include Adolph Hitler, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev, Vladimir Putin, Ivan the Terrible, Nicholas II, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-Un, Kim Jong-Il, Mao Tse Tung, Ho-Chi Minh, Chiang Kai-Shek, Papa Doc Duvalier, Idi Amin, Fidel Castro, Emperor Hirohito, Hideki Tojo, Koki Hirota, Rodrigo Duterte, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Augusto Pinochet, Napoleon, Leopold II, Francisco Franco, Andrew Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Robert Mugabe, Yakubu Gowon, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Ismail Enver Pasha, Omar al-Bashir, Yahya Khan, Genghis Khan, and Attilâ the Hun
According to Dr. Mark Bickhard, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Cognitive Robotics and the Philosophy of Knowledge at Lehigh University, the parallels between Trump and Mussolini are even stronger than those between Trump and Hitler. In fact, Dr. Bickhard wrote an article called "The Scary Parallels Between Trump and Mussolini." Traits of Mussolini cited by Dr. Bickhard include: (1) "arrogant ignorance and incoherence" and only seeming to know rather than actually knowing, (2) pretending to be an expert on every subject, (3) cowing the press while being a "man of the banner" himself, (4) having pretensions to be able to "enter the hearts and minds of his subjects" in a kind of "political religion," (5) "readjusting" his personal history, (6) being more of a "gangster" than a real leader, (7) responding to criticism with extreme anger, (8) combining thin-skinned ignorance with arrogant contempt, (9) being a fraud in every conceivable way, (10) and being a "a vain, blundering boaster without either ideas or aims."
As a result, like Mussolini before him, Trump has destroyed his country's reputation and standing in the world. In a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, 84 percent of people in Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Sweden believed the American president would “do the right thing in world affairs.” One year later, with Trump in the White House, that number had fallen to shocking 16 percent.
Such similarities have not gone unnoticed, because other popular (or unpopular) Trump nicknames include Casino Mussolini (coined by Samantha Bee), Hair Mousse-olini, Mango Mussolini, Cheeto Benito, Cheat-o Benito, Benito Cheetolini and Benito Trumpolini.
Trump is putting the X back in Xmas by X-ing out refugee children and their mothers. If baby Jesus and Mary showed up needing shelter, Trump wouldn't provide them with even a lowly manger. Instead, he'd order American soldiers to drive them back into the wilderness at gunpoint. Meanwhile, this is what the satanic festivities at the White House looked like the past two years: Trump Christmas.
There are also a large number of disturbing parallels between Donald Trump and Damien Thorn of the OMEN movies.
The third parallel is how they operate. Mussolini founded the Italian version of Fascism as an "anti-establishment" outsider movement, claiming that existing political parties were "broken" and posed grave threats to the people. A "mercurial hothead," Mussolini "reveled in his role as a political disrupter." He trafficked in "contradiction and paradox." He used the media to seduce multitudes of gullible people into swallowing his nonsense and accepting his rule. Sound like anyone you know?
Like Mussolini, Trump demands loyalty to his person, rather than to the nation.
Like Mussolini, Trump threatens and humiliates anyone who opposes him.
Like Mussolini, Trump attempts to discredit and cow the legitimate press.
Like Mussolini, Trump becomes enraged when criticized.
Like Mussolini, Trump exhibits "thin-skinned ignorance combined with arrogant contempt."
Like Mussolini, Trump is a "man of the banner headline" who is quickly bored by details, discussions and strategy.
Like Mussolini, Trump takes all the credit when things go right, but none of the blame when things go wrong.
Like Mussolini, Trump is what Umberto Eco called "a beehive of contradictions."
Like Mussolini, Trump lacks any philosophy: he has only rhetoric.
Like Mussolini, Trump gives the impression of talking directly to the people, while presuming to speak for them.
Like Mussolini, Trump pretends to be an expert on every subject while in reality being incredibly incompetent and uninformed.
Like Mussolini, Trump is closer to a Mafia don or gang lord than a democratic leader.
Like Mussolini, Trump has had multiple wives, several mistressses and scores of adulterous affairs.
Like Mussolini, Trump is working to strengthen laws against abortions, forcing girls and women to bear children they don't want or can't afford.
Here's an eerie coincidence: Mussolini appointed his son-in-law as foreign minister; Trump has appointed his son-in-law as his primary foreign minister in the Middle East, the source of 9-11 and two bloody, trillion-dollar wars.
And here's another eerie similarity, in an excerpt from The New Yorker:
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an American-born professor of Italian history at New York University, specializes in male menace. What interests her is the manufactured drama of world-historical strongmen—their mannerisms, speech patterns, stagecraft, and mythomania. Late last year, Ben-Ghiat had just published a book called Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema, about the years of Benito Mussolini, when another spectacle wrested her attention. One of the candidates for the American Presidency was looking a lot like her principal academic subject. As President Obama put it, the United States now had its own “homegrown authoritarian.” Earlier this week, Ben-Ghiat sat at a table in her office, at N.Y.U.’s Casa Italiana, on Twelfth Street, inspecting two signatures on the screen of her laptop. One of them belonged to Donald Trump, the other to Mussolini. The scrawls—loopy, cursive, steepled—looked so similar that they seemed to blur together.
Mussolini was taken to be a sheep in wolves' clothing, until he proved to be a real wolf. Many Americans seem to believe that what Trump says cannot be taken seriously. But Ben-Ghiat disagrees about Trump: "He means everything he says. Authoritarians never pivot."
According to Ben-Ghiat, Mussolini described himself as an anti-politician, coined the slogan drenare la palude ("drain the swamp") and promised to make Italy great again. Ring any bells?
Other Parallels
They both were "problem children" and bullies who were sent to boarding schools as young men.
They both were megalomaniacs, obsessed with themselves.
They both had books published.
They both denounced military interventions, only to later advocate and order military interventions.
They both had children before they were married.
They both had affairs while married.
They both organized disparate right-wing groups into a cohesive political force.
They both blamed their nations' economic problems on other nations that acted unfairly.
They both advocated an aggressive foreign policy to arrest a purported national decline.
They both painted a picture of a society in crisis that needed a strong leader to save it (i.e., them).
They both stoked racial animosities and grievances of the majority against minorities.
They both favored the "stick" over the "carrot" in dealing with unwanted "inferior" people.
They both favored deportation of "inferior" people.
They both saw darker-skinned people as "inferior" to white people.
They both enlisted working-class voters against the left.
They both mocked people they perceived as weak.
They both glorified strength, power and "winning at all costs."
They both claimed that only they could restore order and "save" their nations.
They both became cults of one.
They both denounced legitimate presses while employing propaganda lavishly themselves.
They both demanded public displays of loyalty (in Trump's case, everyone saluting the flag during the national anthem).
They both called for large sums of money to be spent on public works.
They both supported their nation's dominant religion and were supported in return by religious leaders and their flocks.
They both used the term "love" while sowing discord, hatred and intolerance.
They both were wildly inconsistent; they said whatever suited "the mood of the moment."
They both had no time or use for scruples.
They both were patently unfit to hold any office, yet held the highest office nonetheless.
Trumpism is eerily similar to fascism.
Is Trump a Fascist?
by Michael R. Burch
As an editor, publisher and translator of Holocaust poetry, I am understandably very concerned about any possible resurgence of fascism in the modern world. But to be honest, I never imagined that it could happen here in the United States. That assurance, however, was shattered when I heard some of the things Donald Trump said during his presidential campaign. Knowing what happened to millions of Jews, Gypsies, Slavs and other “undesirables” during World War II and the Holocaust, I shudder to think of fascism taking control of the world’s most powerful military, not to mention thousands of nukes. Is it possible that Trump is a fascist, as has been suggested by articles in New Republic, The Nation and other reputable publications? Where there is considerable smoke, may there be fire as well? But how can we tell? Socrates would tell us that before we enter into a debate, we must define our terms. So what, exactly, is fascism?
In his essay “Ur-Fascism” (or “Eternal Fascism”), Umberto Eco listed fourteen general properties of fascist ideology. Eco said that “it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.” Thus, the presence of just one fascist trait can be very dangerous. Let’s see how many of the fourteen seem to apply to Donald Trump ...
(1) “The Cult of Tradition” is characterized by cultural syncretism, even at the risk of internal contradiction. When all truth has already been revealed by Tradition, no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement.
Trump is so “traditional” that he equated homosexual marriage with new-fangled golf putters! (Never mind that odd-looking putters and gay marriage do no harm to anyone.) Trump is popular with evangelical Christians—four out of five voted for him according to exit polls—because he embraces the “wisdom” of their received Tradition. Never mind that the Bible endorses slavery, sex slavery, infanticide, matricide and the stoning to death of children! Trump demands that everyone accept the tradition of standing during the national anthem. Trump shows no evidence of ever questioning how he “knows” what he “knows.”
(2) “The Rejection of Modernism” views the rationalistic development of Western culture since the Enlightenment as a descent into depravity.
Trump’s evangelical supporters reject homosexual marriage and a woman’s right to choose as “depravity.” They also claim that Islam is a “false” and “depraved” religion, while ignoring the many very similar verses in the Bible and Koran.
(3) “The Cult of Action for Action’s Sake” dictates that action is of value in itself, and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.
Trump’s mindless attacks on the EPA, the Climate Action Plan and the Paris Accords are cases in point.
(4) “Disagreement Is Treason” devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action, out of fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in a syncretistic faith.
Trump did not allow peaceful protests at his political rallies and said that he longed for the days when protesters ended up in the hospital, going as far as to say that he would like to punch protesters himself. He joined in chants of “lock her up” after Hillary Clinton confronted him with intellectual and fact-based arguments that exposed the errors and contradictions in his theories and plans.
(5) “Fear of Difference” is used to stir up racist sentiments against foreigners and immigrants.
Trump shot to the top of the polls when in his first campaign speech he portrayed illegal immigrants as being “rapists” and “drug pushers” with only a few exceptions. Of course that was very far from the truth, since illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes, on a percentage basis, than the general population.
(6) “Appeal to a Frustrated Middle Class” who fear economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.
One may postulate that this is primarily how Trump won the election: by focusing on Rust Belt “swing” states where the white middle-class have lost jobs and their employment prospects are far from optimal.
(7) “Obsession with a Plot” and the hyping-up of an enemy threat.
Has there ever been an American presidential candidate with more “theories” about plots against his person? Trump has also hyped all sorts of “threats” against the United States, which—according to him—only he can save us from.
(8) Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as “at the same time too strong and too weak.” On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites to encourage in their followers a sense of grievance and humiliation. On the other hand, fascist leaders point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness in the face of an overwhelming popular will.
Trump at times portrayed Hillary Clinton as old and feeble, but at other times as so powerful that she alone was personally responsible for everything that went wrong in the Middle East!
(9) “Pacifism is Trafficking with the Enemy” because “Life is Permanent Warfare” and thus there must always be an enemy to fight.
Trump has exaggerated both dangers abroad and dangers at home. Those “dangers” make a “man of action” like Trump a necessity, if we are to believe him.
(10) “Contempt for the Weak” is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. Eco sees in these attitudes the root of a deep tension in the fundamentally hierarchical structure of fascist polities, as they encourage leaders to despise their underlings, up to the ultimate Leader who holds the whole country in contempt for having allowed him to overtake it by force.
Trump frequently shows his disdain for people around him, including his employees. For instance, a reporter noted that Trump called his pilots “idiots” when he experienced bumpy landings. But Trump at times lauds his followers, claiming that he “loves” them and they “love” him. There does seem to be deep tension, as one gets the impression that Trump disdains nearly everyone and only compliments people who agree with and obey him. Thus Steve Bannon is “my Steve” when he agrees with Trump but “Sloppy Steve” and someone who has “lost his mind” when he disagrees with Trump or criticizes him.
(11) “Everybody is Educated to Become a Hero” in the embrace of a cult of death. As Eco observes, “the Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.”
Trump seems willing to send many people to their deaths—including completely innocent refugee children and their parents. But I see no evidence that Trump longs for death himself, so perhaps this point does not fully apply.
(12) “Machismo” sublimates the difficult work of permanent war and heroism into the sexual sphere. Fascists thus hold “both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”
I cannot remember an American presidential candidate ever speaking of women with such disdain, or bragging about kissing and groping them without their consent. Nor can I remember any politician in any sphere who bragged so publicly about his sexual conquests.
(13) “Selective Populism” in which the People, conceived monolithically, have a Common Will, distinct from and superior to the viewpoint of any individual. As no mass of people can ever be truly unanimous, the Leader holds himself out as the interpreter of the popular will (though truly he dictates it). Fascists use this concept to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of “no longer representing the Voice of the People.”
Trump has been leading the American public down the dark path of racism and xenophobia. According to him, all other American politicians have been incompetent and only he can speak for the People, and lead them back to the Promised Land of American greatness.
(14) “Newspeak” in which Fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.
Trump’s tweets are a rather obvious case in point here. Also, Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon have warned the American media to “shut up” and not question Trump. Trump had journalists quarantined in pens at his campaign rallies. One of Trump’s main goals seems to be forcing the media to stop criticizing him.
In conclusion, according to Umberto Eco’s fourteen-point definition, it really does seem that Donald Trump is a fascist. And that makes him a very dangerous person, since he is now commander-in-chief of the world’s most powerful military and the nuclear codes. In my opinion only on the question of a personal death wish is there any question about Trump's fascist roots.
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