Word

Donald Trump in front of an American flag. The confusion and the lack of ideological rigor in Trumpism, which some point to as proof of its ultimate impotence, ...

[Antifa](https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/an-intimate-history-of-antifa), to the degree it exists at all, loathes Biden and other liberal Democrats, and has been [denounced](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-antifa/2020/09/11/527071ac-f37b-11ea-bc45-e5d48ab44b9f_story.html%5D) by them. By contrast, as the January 6th committee has shown, when, during the first 2020 Presidential debate, Trump [called on the Proud Boys](https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/biden-and-trumps-first-debate-did-not-end-well) to “stand back and stand by,” he was calling on an actual organized paramilitary group—one of several that backed him, and continues to back him, to the hilt. There is, for the first time in a long time, a socialist wing to the Party, though it is of the most impeccably democratic kind: [Bernie Sanders](https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-importance-of-bernie-sanders-and-socialism), its leader, would be on the center-left in England; in the dead center in Scandinavia; and on the center-right in France (where a real far left does exist). The point to be made, then and now, is that fascism is a specific style and practice of authoritarian politics, which Trump then, and Trumpism now, re-creates—one that has specific character traits without having any axiomatic ideology, taking on new aspects in each new nation that it afflicts. [dynasty for the Jets](https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/the-jets-lessons-learned), and tipped America to the likelihood of [Michael Ignatieff](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/07/the-return-of-the-native-3) becoming Prime Minister of Canada—but I do claim a modest sum here, precisely because anyone who had read some history could see what Trumpism was. Who now recalls that Trump was found to have confessed, in the testimony of his chief of staff, as [reported](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/inside-the-war-between-trump-and-his-generals) by Susan B. [infield shift](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-lessons-of-the-shift) might be one, Twitter battles, perhaps, another—but, if forced, I will lay claim to having been among the first to use the F-word about [Donald Trump](https://www.newyorker.com/tag/donald-trump). What matters about identifying the Trumpist line as fascist is not that it allows for some kind of victory in name-calling. Fascism is, by its nature, chaotic and incoherent and chameleonic—that’s why it needs a strongman to organize around. I [wrote](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/going-there-with-donald-trump): This was in early 2016, before he was taken seriously as a candidate and long before it was thought that he could win, and a full six years before [Joe Biden](https://www.newyorker.com/tag/joe-biden) finally came out with it in August, describing [Trump and his movement](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/25/biden-trump-philosophy-semi-fascism-00053831) as “semi-fascism,” a formulation that brings to mind George Carlin’s old joke about “semi-boneless ham”—either the ham has a bone, or it doesn’t. At the time, the media was more inclined to “analyze” appeal and motives (“Why’d he takes those documents?”) than to outline potential crimes.