Why Trump is a Fascist (EXTENDED VERSION)

Donald Trump is being called a fascist – by his former appointees and his opponent Kamala Harris.

On Sunday, in a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, Trump and his allies traded in crude and racist insults, amplifying the nationalistic rhetoric his camp has become known for. The event drew stark comparisons to another gathering at the Garden–a 1939 "Pro-American Rally," put on by the German-American Bund, a pro-Nazi group, with 20,000 of its members in attendance. 

The MAGA rally, for some, was the tipping point for calling Donald Trump a fascist. For others, it was simply another piece of evidence placed atop an already very tall stack.

Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. He first warned about Trump’s fascist rhetoric in 2018, and explains why it's more important than ever to call it by its name.

A portion of this interview originally aired in our October 25, 2024, program, Fascism, Fear and the Science Behind Horror Films.

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