What is Trumpism?
If anyone ever reads this article (dubious), I expect to end up on an “enemies list.” At my age, it would be a badge of courage. It’s 1933 in Germany, folks. Pull your heads out!
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In a 1990 interview with Vanity Fair, Ivana Trump, Donald Trump's first wife, said he kept a book of Adolf Hitler's speeches, “My New Order,” in a cabinet by his bed and read it from time to time.
When confronted about this, DJT acknowledged owning a copy of “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s Magnum Opus, but, as far as we know, he never admitted to studying Hitler’s speeches.
Anyone who views old films of Hitler’s raging speeches and compares them to Trump’s will see obvious similarities, except Hitler’s were more coherent.
This gives you some idea about the origins of Trumpism.
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Despite four years of DJT’s felonies and rape convictions, most of America lined up for more of Trump’s Kool-Aid.
When the metric of character to select our leaders died is unknown, but dead it is.
What is “Trumpism”? Who are these “Trumpsters”?[1]
For those of us who see the unmistakable echo of Nazi Germany and still hope we can thwart it, we must first define it for those who choose to avoid the inconvenient truths of life.
Trumpism 101
1. Trumpism appears to be a cult of personality with few definite principles other than the rule that being a good sycophant will be rewarded more than having a good moral compass.
2. While espousing a few basic concepts (see below), Trumpism luxuriates in ambiguity, slippery as pigeon shit on a wet sidewalk in Manhattan but much more lethal.
3. Trumpism appears to be a blend of fascism and oligarchy, an autocratic system in which voices of dissent are stifled with impunity (“You’re fired!”)
4. Trumpism redefines our traditional international political landscape; oligarchs and dictators, such as Trump, Musk, Putin, and Xi, now align to undermine democracies and dismantle the “old order” of Western Europe, NATO, and anyone who interrupts the flow of capital – to them.
Being a Trumpster
5. Borrowing from Hitler’s Aryan Race theory, Trumpsters oppose a pluralistic society; they want a predominantly, if not universally, white America with white male dominance over all minorities.
6. They might let African Americans play sports so long as they do not express their political views, like taking a knee during the national anthem.
7. Trumpsters have already all but killed DEI programs, causing a mass exodus of professors from reputable colleges like the University of Texas at Austin.
8. Trumpsters want “reparations” for white students who gave up their seats at the trough so that the descendants of slaves and the years of Jim Crow might get a tiny bite of prosperity.
9. Trumpsters want to diminish the role of women in our society:
a. Trumpsters want to take away many of the rights of women, the first being the right to make decisions about pregnancies.
b. Trumpsters can sexually assault women without consequences.
c. Indeed, some men can reach the highest pinnacles of government despite such offenses (witness the case of Justice Kavanaugh and the current case of Matt Gaetz).
d. Trumpsters discount flippant and arrogant bragging of sexual assault as “locker room talk.”
e. Trumpsters expect all women to look like “Barbies” (even their wives and daughters).
f. Their leader encourages Trumpsters to describe non-Barbies as “dogs” and “pigs.”
g. A valid defense to raping a non-Barbie is, “Judge, she was too ugly to rape!”
h. Hell for Trump would be an eternity with Mrs. Doubtfire and Rosie O’Donnell.
10. Trumpsters are xenophobic.
a. To assure white male dominance, Trumpsters use generalizations such as “these illegal immigrants are murders and rapists”:
i. without stating how they know that,
ii. without identifying any particular murderer or rapist,
iii. without enumerating whether they are talking about one or thousands,
iv. without comparing the number of violent criminal immigrants with the average number of violent criminals in, say, Chicago or East Saint Louis (i.e., there are a few bad apples in every basket, no matter from whence they come), and
v. without mentioning that white men commit most school shootings, mass killings at Synagogues, and serial killings.
b. Trumpsters use this as a fear tactic.
c. Did Hitler use similar tactics?
11. Trumpsters believe that good economic policy means the rich get richer, the middle class gets fewer social benefits, and, if you are impoverished: “It sucks to be you.”
a. Trumpsters do not address wealth inequality, expanding the middle class, breakfasts for school children, or government programs to assist the elderly or disabled.
b. They see life as a zero-sum game.
Them that’s got shall get,
and them that’s not shall lose. [2]
c. Dismantling Social Security, Medicaid, and Obamacare have been at the top of their agenda for years.
d. Less for the poor and the middle class; more for us.
e. Good economic policy to a Trumpster means:
i. no regulations restricting pollution,
ii. denying climate change,
iii. closing public schools, and
iv. opposing all social programs and non-profit businesses.
f. Trumpsters believe that taxes should be consistently lowered for the rich; we should have a laissez-faire economic system with no government oversight.
g. They ignore the lessons of history: the causes of the Great Depression, the real estate market crash of the Reagan years (about which little is said in the wake of contemporary historians’ lionization of Reagan), and, more recently, the sub-prime (sub-crime?) crisis orchestrated in part by George W. Bush’s belief that the function of the SEC was to do nothing.
h. Trumpsters blame inflation on the Fed or the Democrats and their social programs but never on profit gouging for the exclusive benefits of CEOs.
12. Science deniers, Trumpsters mock climate change and clear evidence of the efficacy of vaccines.
a. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Trumpsters preach that climate change is part of the natural order.
b. Raping the planet for its natural resource is man’s role in the natural order; that is what we predatory beings do.
13. Trumpsters lie.
a. Drinking Lysol will cure COVID.
b. Haitian immigrants will eat your pets.
c. Obama is not a citizen.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. [3]
14. Trumpsters have closed minds. Please don’t waste time trying to convince them of any of this. They have donated a large portion of their autonomy to be a Trumpster; once they drank the Kool-Aid (or took “the black pill”), it was game over naïve optimists who believe we can reason with anyone. Facts, evidence, and logic no longer matter.
Do we believe Trumpism will make America “great” (again)?
For those of you inclined to give up on the formidable popularity of Trumpism, remember that Washington survived the winter at Valley Forge and lost many battles before his victory at Yorktown, but, in the end, he prevailed.
Drilling Down
Fascism: A Very Short Introduction by Kevin Passmore (2014)
Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success by Michael D’Antonio (2015)
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder (2017)
America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee (2019)
Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat (2021)
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum (2024)
The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy by Federico Finchelstein (2024)
Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics by Elle Reeve (2024)
The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers by Zeke Hernandez (2024)
“He’s Alive” - Twilight Zone episode about the return of the spirit of Hitler who guides Peter Vollmer, played by Dennis Hopper, a wannabe autocrat. (1963). How prophetic is this? We will have to wait and see.
[1] I confess to choosing “Trumpster” because it rhymes with “Dumpster.” ‘Trumpers” = “Dumpers”? Nah!
[2] Billie Holiday.
[3] Adolph Hitler.