Wayne O'Leary

The Trump International

The deeper we get into Donald Trump’s First Reich (excuse me, first administration), the farther down the road to genuine neo-fascism the country appears to travel. The events surrounding the stifled Mueller report, including Trump’s arrogant claim of blanket executive privilege and the refusal of his minions (attorney General Barr et al.) to testify before the House of Representatives, have highlighted the drift toward autocratic rule.

It’s considered bad form and risky, I know, to draw present-day analogies to the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. Nevertheless, up to a point, the similarities are striking. Here’s historian Alan Bullock, whose “Hitler: A Study in Tyranny” (1960) is still considered the gold standard on the subject, summarizing the German dictator’s fixed beliefs: “contempt for the ideals of democracy, internationalism, equality and peace; a preference for authoritarian forms of government; an intolerant nationalism; a rooted belief in the inequality of race and individuals, and in the heroic virtues of war” — to which may be added, as Bullock does, no use for free speech or a free press. Trump shares these classic fascist convictions almost without exception.

The analogy is imperfect; Hitler also hated Jews, which Trump evidently does not. It would be hard to him to make that leap considering his two foremost consiglieries, Jared Kushner and Steven Miller, are Jewish, one an in-law. Notwithstanding the Jewish exception, however, the fascist analogy comes near to completion when you substitute Muslims or Mexicans for Jews; it’s racism, just of a different sort.

As bad as Donald Trump’s influence on American life and institutions has been — and there’s nothing to compare with it in the nation’s history — his negative influence on the world has been, if anything, worse. The fascistic right-wing “populism” surging throughout Europe and elsewhere around the globe owes much of its impetus and inspiration to our 45th president.

Countless countries grappling to devise a response to the dislocations of economic globalization, as well as the lingering aftereffects of the worldwide financial crash and post-2008 recession (and the mass population migrations caused partly as a result), have looked here and found their model. Its creation wasn’t all Trump’s doing; he had precursors, France’s Le Pen and Britain’s Brexiteers in particular. But Trump was the first leader of a major power to transition from extremist right-wing agitation to actual governance.

Things didn’t have to turn out this way. Authoritarian populism, or neo-fascism if you like, wasn’t the only available political option, but the spent forces of the center-left in the Western democracies had already sold their souls to untrammeled global capitalism in the 1990s and 2000s, beginning with Clinton and Blair in the US and UK, and culminating with Hollande in France. Corporate liberals all, they and their successors (notably Obama) couldn’t shift gears and convert to a needed left-populism, and so the worldwide political system threw up Donald Trump and his acolytes instead.

Trump-like authoritarians can now be found subverting democracy everywhere around the globe — from Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines and Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But several seem especially tethered to Trump by virtue of approach, mindset, and rhetoric. Call them members of the Trump International.

Three are elected officials: President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Two others are powers behind the throne, essentially directing governments they don’t formally head: Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s Law and Justice Party (known as the Boss), and Matteo Salvini, Mussolini-quoting vice premier and interior minister in Italy’s coalition government (known as the Captain).

The resemblance to their role model is uncanny, starting with language. Bolsonaro wants to “make Brazil great again.” Salvini believes in “Italians first.” Bolsonaro, Kaczynski, and Netanyahu all use the pejorative “fake news.”

Another commonality is that, like Trump, all are anti-immigrant, some viciously so. Bolsonaro calls immigrants “scum.” Orban accuses them of an unwillingness to assimilate and, referring to Muslims, a threat to “family values.” Salvini says immigrants “steal, rape, and deal drugs.” He favors their mass expulsion from Italy as part of a “cleansing” policy and, as interior minister, has blocked Italian ports to ships bearing rescued migrants.

Like Trump, his overseas counterparts distrust transnational organizations, such as the European Union and the United Nations; dislike (and, in some cases, actively persecute) ethnic, racial, sexual, and religious minorities; seek to control the press and the independent judiciary; abuse democratic norms; and disdain international environmental movements. On the other hand, they (again like Trump) favor nepotism in government and accept, indeed encourage, public corruption at the highest levels, especially if family members benefit.

Much of this is standard conservatism as presently constituted, but the neo-fascists carry it one step further, seeking to solidify permanent one-party rule through illegitimate means. As Hungary’s Orban, the first European leader to endorse Trump in 2016, put it, “We only have to win once, but then properly.” He himself has gerrymandered political districts, rewritten the national constitution, banned the opposition from state-owned media, and packed the courts.

These time-honored fascist techniques are reinforced by unsubtle threats of violence. Donald Trump set the tone, hinting that he had bikers and the military on his side, just in case, and supporters ready to go into the streets, should he be deposed. Gun laws have been loosened by both Bolsonaro and Salvini, the latter making assault weapons readily available while demonizing “do-gooders.” Violence has already bubbled to the surface. In Poland, where Charlottesville-like marches have occurred, the mayor of Gdansk, an opposition liberal, was assassinated. In Hungary, anti-Orban legislators were assaulted after defending press freedom.

The Trump International’s ties that bind have been so far unaffected by such externalities. Trump has visited Warsaw, hailing the Kaczynski government there. In turn, the president has hosted Netanyahu, Orban, Bolsonaro (“The USA is with you”), and Prime Minister Conte, figurehead of Italy’s Salvini-dominated coalition, who offered to be his interlocutor in Europe.

But who’s that vaguely familiar, unkempt figure lurking in the shadows? Why, it’s Stephen K. Bannon, former White House Svengali. Far from gone, he’s formed a new right-wing foundation, The Movement, to provide strategy and policy direction for the international neo-fascist network. He strategizes with Orban, advises Salvini, and arranged Bolsonaro’s visit to Washington. In Trump World, bad pennies always turn up.

Wayne O’Leary is a writer in Orono, Maine, specializing in political economy. He holds a doctorate in American history and is the author of two prizewinning books.

From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2019

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