The rise of authoritarianism in the USA and Germany
Abstract[ENG]: The text analyzes current developments in the USA, Europe and Germany with regard to the rise of authoritarian and fascist tendencies. It describes how Donald Trump and other right-wing extremist actors are undermining democratic principles, dividing societies and building authoritarian structures. It becomes clear that fascism is not an exclusively historical phenomenon, but a continuous danger that can manifest itself in various forms. The author warns against the normalization of extremist thinking and strategies such as propaganda, mythologization, conspiracy narratives, social division and disinformation. The importance of early countermeasures is emphasized in order to prevent a repetition of the worst chapters of history. In conclusion, the text calls for vigilance, the defense of democratic values and the courage to resist the growing threat of fascism and authoritarianism.
Abstract[DE]: Der Text analysiert aktuelle Entwicklungen in den USA, Europa und Deutschland hinsichtlich des Aufstiegs autoritärer und faschistischer Tendenzen. Er beschreibt, wie Donald Trump und andere rechtsextreme Akteure demokratische Prinzipien untergraben, Gesellschaften spalten und autoritäre Strukturen aufbauen. Es wird deutlich, dass Faschismus kein ausschließlich historisches Phänomen ist, sondern eine fortwährende Gefahr, die sich in verschiedenen Formen manifestieren kann. Der Autor warnt vor der Normalisierung extremistischen Denkens und Strategien wie Propaganda, Mythologisierung, Verschwörungsnarrativen, sozialer Spaltung und Desinformation. Die Bedeutung frühzeitiger Gegenmaßnahmen wird betont, um eine Wiederholung der schlimmsten Kapitel der Geschichte zu verhindern. Abschließend ruft der Text zu Wachsamkeit, zur Verteidigung demokratischer Werte und zum Mut auf, sich der wachsenden Bedrohung durch Faschismus und Autoritarismus zu widersetzen.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Notes on the Authoritarian Developments in the United States of America
- Trump – an Example of an Authoritarian Character
- Time of the Destroyers: The Rise of a New Authoritarian Center
- Fascism as a Temptation and Political Possibility that Could Occur Anywhere at Any Time
- Epilogue
- “What We’re Seeing Now – That’s Fascism” – What does Research Say?
- Elements of the Normalization of Fascist Dynamics and Patterns in Germany
- Conclusion
Notes on the Authoritarian Developments in the United States of America
Few would have thought it possible before January 20, 2025 that a US president would only accept the judgments and punitive measures that he approves of? Or that a violent storming of the Capitol, which was essentially an attempted coup, would suddenly be reinterpreted as a “day of love”? That the aggressor is not Russia but Ukraine? This is Orwell 2.0. On Platform X, Trump writes: „He who saves his country does not violate any law. This is nothing other than an announcement that the law has been broken. That’s how dictators talk. Recently, Trump is not sure whether he is bound by the constitution. The US President explained this in an interview. After all, he is “not a lawyer” [2] [Clueless head of state].
On the day of his inauguration, Trump declares war on the “woke virus”: There are now only two genders in the USA, male and female. These are unchangeable and are based on a fundamental and irrefutable reality. Anyone who defines themselves differently no longer exists. Life as a woman in America has become more dangerous. Non-white and queer women in particular feel threatened. Trump’s victory signals that a conviction as a sex offender is no obstacle to being elected president. Trump also owes his election victory to young men under the age of 30, including the American-Romanian globally influential influencer and misogynist Andrew Tade; young men vote on the right twice as often as women of the same age. After the election victory, hatred against women increased on the internet. One in four women in America has experienced sexualized violence. The abortion extremists now see themselves strengthened. While maternal mortality is falling almost everywhere in the world, it is on the rise in the USA.[1]
Trump has the Department of Health’s programs for reproductive medicine and reducing maternal mortality cut almost without replacement. At the same time, he sees himself as the “father of fertilization”. Elon Musk considers the low birth rate to be a “national emergency”. After all, we also breed horses,“ says Musk. According to J.B. Vance, this is the fault of the “childless left”, by which he means independent and self-confident women. Trump behaves like an abusive partner in an abusive relationship [3] [Haas, M. 2025].
Donald Trump – the Anti-Roosevelt
Donald Trump’s presidency is not an accident of history, says America expert Annika Broschschmidt. Brockschmidt’s book Die Brandstifter was published in 2024. How extremists took over the Republican Party. In it, she argues that Trump’s rise is the temporary low point of a long ideological development within the Republican Party. This development began at the latest with the anti-communism of the McCarthy era in the 1950s. It becomes clear how porous the firewall between right-wing extremism and conservatism has always been in the USA. Trump did not fall from the sky, the party paved the way for him. The radicalization began 90 years ago – in the fight against Roosevelt’s New Deal. Radical conservatives joined forces with anti-communists and racists.[2]
The African-American Jackie Robinson was horrified after the Republicans chose the arch-conservative Barry Goldwater as their presidential candidate in 1964. Robinson noted:
„A new breed of Republican has taken over the GOP. It wants to sell Americans a doctrine as old as humanity itself – the doctrine of racial prejudice, the doctrine of white supremacy. I would say I now know what it felt like to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany“ [4] [Broschschmidt. 2025].
“The Trump camp is the result of a long-running mobilization strategy by the Republicans,” notes democracy researcher Daniel Ziblatt. The party has “played on nationalist themes and the resentments of white, Christian America for many years, and very successfully” [5] Ziblatt, D. 2021]. „The radicalization can only come as a surprise if you start from the premise that the USA has been a functioning democracy for 250 years. For a long time, it was only a democracy for white, Christian, land-owning men.“ [Brockschmidt. 2025]
According to the New York Times, Trump’s administration has done more damage to democracy “than anything since the fall of Reconstruction” [6] [Peters, R. 2025]. i.e. the period after the end of the Civil War in 1865. He is trying to run a presidency without control by Congress and the courts, which is an autocratic approach and would have displeased the founders of the USA.
Trump is attacking the cornerstones of democracy; only the rulings of the conservative Supreme Court are considered a limit for him. He claims maximum power in the executive branch. Trump is concerned with a hierarchical social order, the destruction of the core of the American constitution, the abolition of the separation of powers, universal suffrage, birthright citizenship and the elimination of equal rights for all – the destruction of a political order that has endured for more than 240 years.
As author and editor at The Atlantic David Graham explains, Trump has the plan of a right-wing conservative think tank: “Project 2025”, an almost 1000-page blueprint from the Heritage Foundation, long prepared for Trump’s second presidency. Trump wants to transform the USA into an authoritarian, Christian-conservative society. “The most important thing I see,” says Graham, “is the turn towards a conservative family structure.” And: “We are moving very quickly towards an extremely strong executive, possibly towards an authoritarian regime” [7] [Graham, David A.].
The central goals of Project 2025 are: the enforcement of traditional gender norms, the decimation of the civil service, the implementation of mass deportations, the reduction of corporate regulation and worker protection. Trump’s aim is to represent the interests of wealthy Americans and his own and his family as effectively as possible. A state that imposes low taxes on the wealthy, dismantles the social welfare system, destroys trade unions, cracks down on migration at the border, equalizes universities, restricts freedom of speech and curtails the rights of women and sexual minorities. In several executive orders, Trump curtails the rights of transgender people in the army and the funding of medical care for transgender young people.
Trump and Musk can do what they want. The Trump administration is now banning hundreds of words, such as sex, racism, gender, climate, equality, justice, inclusion or diversity, not only in research proposals but also in its agencies as part of its fight against “wokeness”. Supposed free speech culture warriors, such as J. B. Vance, are turning into censors. A US Attorney close to Trump, the right-wing extremist and defender of the storming of the Capitol, Ed Martin, is questioning Wikipedia’s non-profit status. Trump and Musk can influence what we can know and are allowed to read. JD Vance: „We need to honestly and aggressively attack the universities of this country. […]. The professors are the enemy.“ Even during the election campaign, Trump propagandized that the universities were dominated by “Marxists, lunatics, lunatics” [8] [Wald, C. 06.02.2025].
Christopher Rufo, Trump’s education advisor, who dreams of a white, Christian, authoritarian America, sees a danger in the gender studies of critical theory and the thinkers of the Frankfurt School. Their criticism of traditional gender concepts, systemic racism and authoritarian power systems undermines the American identity. „Some of their colleagues, such as Herbert Marcuse and Theodor Adorno, stop teaching representatives of critical theory out of caution. Even Hannah Arendt is currently being shunned in the humanities,“ reports Marianne Hirsch, professor emeritus at Columbia, who comes from a Jewish family whose parents survived the Holocaust. „This is terror! Everyone here is afraid!“, explains Hirsch, adding: ”The arrests, the ban on speaking, the absolute surveillance and control – it’s straight out of the autocrats‘ textbook“ [9] [Wald, C. 08.05.25].
Former mixed martial arts fighter Jake Shields announced to his 800,000 followers on X: “I don’t believe a single Jew died in a gas chamber.” When the Southern Poverty Law Center criticized him for this, Shields replied: “Historians are under pressure to lie because of obnoxious people like you” [10] [Rehfeld, N.]. Among the masculinity bros, it has long been good form to think Hitler was cool.
Trump – an Example of an Authoritarian Character
Trump is turning himself into a victim and avenger.
Donald Trump’s childhood was “a nightmare with trauma, destructive relationships and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse.” When her father, Donald Trump’s brother, Fred, Jr., was dying, he went to the movies. Trump’s ego is “an extremely fragile barrier between him and the real world” – this has “always been the case,” writes Mary Trump, a doctor of psychology and niece, in “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man”.[3] Ethical principles and moral values are alien to Donald Trump and he is the “most dangerous man in the world” [11] [Mary Trump, cited in Marshall, C.]. She describes the US president as a “mendacious and cold-hearted narcissist”. In the book, Mary Trump compares her uncle to a three-year-old who knows that he has never been loved. Donald Trump’s ego must always be supported “because he knows deep down that he is nothing like what he pretends to be” [12] [Tagesspiegel. 08.07.2020]. In an audio recording, Mary Trump also talks to her aunt about Donald Trump’s application tests at the University of Pennsylvania. Trump was only accepted to the university because someone else took the exams for him, says Trump Barry. She also remembers the man’s name: Joe Shapiro. When asked by Mary Trump what her brother had read, Trump Barry says: “He doesn’t read” [13] [Der Spiegel. 23.08.20]. Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, also complained about her brother’s “goddamn tweets and lies”. “Donald is cruel,” [14] [Schäuble] says the 83-year-old former judge.
For the American philosopher Jason Stanley, the fascist dynamic also includes „the desire for spectacle, for humiliation. Fascism was never just horror. It was always entertainment. That’s why Trump works. Because he’s a sadistic clown.“ [14a] [ Interview by Michael Hesse]. His fans love him not despite, but because of his crudeness. They laugh when others cry. They cheer when someone is led away in handcuffs. The White House posts such pictures itself. It’s an aesthetic of humiliation. Including the like button“ [15] [Weiß, V.].
Trump cannot think politically, is uneducated; for him, everything is a cost-benefit calculation and a matter of sympathy. He admires dictators and despises the weak. “Fascists are sadomasochists!” The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm followed Sigmund Freud in seeing sadism and masochism as two sides of the same coin [16] [Fromm, E. 1977/1992, S. 330]. Whether the behavior of the authoritarian character displays one or the other of these strivings depends on whether it relates to a stronger or a weaker person as an object.
Are we on the cusp of an authoritarian age?
Time of the Destroyers: The Rise of a New Authoritarian Center
The world of yesterday has come to an end. The star of liberalism seems to be in decline. We are witnessing the death of public reason and the law, the rise of pop star figures in the digital world and the rise of myth. The assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 14, 2024 and the iconic image mark the end of yesterday’s world. The image is a symptom of a toxic polarization of the USA and a harbinger of unleashed violence in the form of political purges. After the assassination, Trump is increasingly revered by his supporters as a divine figure. The image symbolizes the regression from logos to myth, the power of images and emotions over words.
No one has understood this new era of synthetic culture as well as Donald Trump. Trump himself is an art and media product of a digital revolution that has made him an influential TV personality in a television reality show and powerful as a Twitter autocrat. Trump sees himself as a “killer”, a “winner” who thinks nothing of truth but a lot of fake news. Trump and Musk have cracked the power of the traditional media. In a country characterized by radical individualism, extreme religiosity and Hollywood with its superheroes, Trump is the ideal entertainer who no longer focuses on facts but on fantasy, on politics as a reality show.
Many voters no longer realize the difference between lies and truth and only use propaganda and the media to dumb things down. Trump is the result of the destruction of what was once called “bourgeois culture” and enlightenment. As early as 1904, Max Weber considered it possible that America’s cultural spirit was escaping from society, no longer needed by victorious capitalism.
Thomas Jefferson seems to have been right in his fear that America would gradually develop into a plutocracy. The survival-of-the-fittest ideology put an end to Roosevelt. It is the rule of the ultra-rich few, the rule of the broligarchs, the rule of tech capitalism. The self-proclaimed emperors of the “new Rome”, so Musk, [17] [Janzen, C.], who see themselves as “sovereign individuals”, rise above the law and democracy.[4] Those who have land, money and power do not need a state – they make themselves a state.
The irony of history: Trump, the incarnation of unleashed capitalism, stages himself as a “labor leader”, disguises himself as a false prophet and wins the hearts of the disoriented, disenfranchised and humiliated. Trump’s promise of salvation is: „I see you! I will make you great again! The golden age has begun.“ Trump has created himself as a symbol. The magical thinking voters elect a magical thinking entertainer who promises prosperity for all but delivers scapegoats, social Darwinism and even more social inequality. Donald Trump – in facial expressions, gestures, clothing, iconography and rhetoric – means nothing other than this “want to have”: sexuality, power, wealth, land “all mine”: every child understands this meaning, which so baffles “the adults in the room”.
American conservatives have been calling for an ‘American revolution’ for decades, and now it’s here. The egomaniac Donald Trump, who, according to reports from his niece Mary, “behaves like a three-year-old child deprived of love”, is a representative of the authoritarian narcissistic[5] sadistic character who finally wants to show the liberal and intellectual elites he despises. Deeply offended himself and always stylizing himself as a victim, he makes himself the avenger of millions of socially marginalized and left behind. He confirms and fuels their resentment and emotional neediness.
Economic liberalism is also dividing democratic societies in the West, which are also in danger of succumbing to the authoritarian temptation. This would mean the end of social and liberal liberalism and the enforcement of authoritarian nationalism. Trump’s victory has triggered a tremor in the transatlantic West. The global right is triumphant. First and foremost Putin’s mastermind, Alexandr Dugin. „So we have won. That is decisive. The world will never ever be like before. Globalists have lost their final battle. The future is finally open. I am really happy“ [18] [Meduza].
“Trump 2.0” has a ‘system’ and an ideology, “everything has turned into the opposite”, rejoices the Russian radical nationalist and Putin’s mastermind, Alexandr Dugin. Dugin praises the American “revolution” and extols the “collapse of the liberal world order” [19] [Schmidt, F.]. “With Trump, the little guys are the bargaining chips – including us Europeans,” [20] [Schäuble. 10.03.2025] notes Claudia Major, Senior Vice President for Transatlantic Security Initiatives at the German Marshall Fund. A new geopolitical epoch in history is beginning. What we are currently experiencing is the destruction of the rules-based world that was painstakingly built up after 1945. Trump is in the process of restructuring the financial system. Crypto could enable a new, authoritarian, post-state order in the long term, as authoritarian states use cryptocurrencies in a similar way to criminals. If Trump wants to make the USA the “crypto superpower” of the world, he has his eye on windy speculation surrounding Donald and Melania Trump’s crypto coin in particular.
The United States has changed sides and is a partner of nationalist autocrats. For the historian Heinrich August Winkler, „we are in the initial phase of a new East-West divide, with authoritarian to neo-totalitarian states and liberal democracies facing each other. […] We are at the beginning of a highly dangerous phase in world history“ [21] [Winkler, H.A.]. Autocrats, Trump and Musk also want to export their authoritarian system to Europe. The US government has now sharply condemned the decision of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution to classify the entire AfD as “assuredly right-wing extremist”. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X that Germany is “not a democracy, but a tyranny in disguise” when the “domestic intelligence service” monitors the opposition. AfD and Putin cheer.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are currently at the center of global authoritarianism, which aims to restructure Western democracies and destroy the EU. The AfD plays an important role in this for Trump. On May 30, 2020, the co-chair of the AfD, Alice Weidel, praised Viktor Orban as a “beacon of freedom” at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Hungary in Budapest. She announced that she would follow Hungary’s example in the event of AfD participation in government. The meeting in Budapest takes place annually and operates as an offshoot of the right-wing conservative American CPAC conference. Orban uses the event to promote networking between international right-wing populists and the ultra-right. What they all have in common is a greater or lesser proximity to Russia. US President Donald Trump sent a video-recorded greeting.
According to an October 2024 ABC News poll, 49% of American registered voters considered Trump a “fascist”, defined in the poll as “a political extremist who tries to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses violence against their opponents” [22] [Langer. G., Sparks, S.]. Former White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, a retired Marine general, told the New York Times on Oct. 22, 2024, in published interviews that Donald Trump’s desire for unfettered power and other characteristics fit the “fascist” label. Over a dozen former Trump administration officials had agreed with the assessment of former Chief of Staff and top adviser to Donald Trump John Kelly in a letter.[6] Olivier Mannoni, presented a critical new translation of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf in 2021. When Mannoni hears Donald Trump speak, he feels reminded of Hitler’s language. Trump repeatedly draws on Mein Kampf. Like Hitler, he refers to political opponents as “vermin”. Trump also uses the terrible word “exterminate”. He also claims that migrants are “poisoning American blood” [23] [Dillmann, D.]. Hatred links Trump and Hitler.
In November 2023, Trump said at a campaign speech: “We promise you that we will eradicate the communists, Marxists, fascists and radical left-wing thugs who live like vermin in the borders of our country, who lie, steal and cheat elections”. Historians were horrified. Richard Spencer, one of the heads of the Alt-Right movement, greeted Donald Trump’s election with shouts of “Sieg-Heil” and gave a speech on the decline and rebirth of the American nation.[7]
Governor Gavin Newsom has sharply criticized US President Donald Trump in light of the current escalation in Los Angeles and called him a dictator. After Trump had already attempted to control Congress and attack disagreeable judges, the boundaries between civilian politics and military power are now becoming blurred. Newsom warned: „It won’t end here. Other states are next. Democracy is at stake.“ He added: “The moment we feared has arrived.” Newsom is thus putting himself at the head of the opposition, which has so far lacked a clear leader. “We must all rise up now,” [24] [Burghardt, P.] he said.
Fascism as a Temptation and Political Possibility that Could Occur Anywhere at Any Time
The global rise of nationalist, authoritarian movements has been accompanied by a renewed interest in the concept of fascism. Fascism is a constant temptation for Jason Stanley. For the American philosopher Jason Stanley, who taught at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut until the end of March 2025, fascism is a constant temptation. What Stanley warns against is not the return of historical fascism, but of “fascist tactics”.[8] The characteristics he outlines are the lowest common denominator of fascist movements. Umberto Eco, who grew up under Mussolini, drew up a similar list of 14 characteristics, the core of primitive fascism[9], which correspond to those of Stanley.
For Stanley, fascism is a “spectrum concept” [25] [ Horntrich, P. M]. This means that a political ideology can be more or less strongly fascist, depending on how many characteristics of fascism it combines. Whether Orbán in Hungary, Putin, Trump in the USA, Bolsonaro in Brazil or Chrupalla and Weidel in Germany – even if the policies of the aforementioned differ in detail, they are all fascist or at least fascistoid policies. According to Stanley, Putin is the clearest example of a fascist since Hitler and Mussolini.
Stanley’s aim in his work is to de-historicize fascism and instead understand it as a political possibility that could occur anywhere at any time. This transforms the term fascism into a concept of political theory that allows for the analysis of very different political developments. Dealing with the truth ultimately determines whether fascist policies have a chance of success or not.
Stanley’s point is that we recognize this pull early on – that we resist the pull of its normalization. The vote on 29.01.25 in the German Bundestag was possibly such a day of normalization. Friedrich Merz (CDU): „I don’t care who goes down this path politically. I won’t go any other way“. Migration and crime among refugees are the favorite topics of some media and from conservatives to the far right. This directly targets voters‘ emotions and resentments. That’s how you can win elections. Now almost all parties are outbidding each other to see who can deport the best? We know where this ends! What the AfD has never managed to do, the CDUCSU and FDP have now managed to do: split the middle class. This could also be the beginning of the destruction of the CDU/CSU. The problems seem to be just beginning, especially when the law no longer applies and civil society organizations are pushed into the vicinity of a “deep state”.[10]
In the updated foreword, even before Donald Trump’s re-election as president, Stanley says that his “lessons from back then” have “achieved an urgency today” that he “could not have foreseen himself” [19]. “Behind this transnational, ultranationalist movement”, says Stanley, are “the forces of capital”. Technology giants as well as the media profited from the dramatic clash between “friend and foe”. [28] At the same time, “oil companies are happy when ultranationalist movements portray climate protection agreements such as the Paris Agreement as a threat to state sovereignty”. “The weaker individual countries and international treaties become, the greater the power of multinational corporations grows” [27].
Stanley’s thesis is that fascism “is not a new threat, but rather a constant temptation” [29]. When Stanley speaks of “fascism”, he does not equate it with German National Socialism, but means an “ultra-nationalism of any color (ethnic, religious, cultural) […] where the nation is represented by an authoritarian leader who speaks in its name.” “Fascist politics” also “does not necessarily have to lead to an explicitly fascist state;” nevertheless, it is “dangerous” [33].
It encompasses „a multitude of different strategies. Individual elements are “legitimate and sometimes justified”, but when they come together in a party or political movement, they are dangerous, especially when they dehumanize parts of the population [34].
“The most calculated symptom of fascist politics” is “division”. Communists focus on “class differences, fascists on ethnic or religious differences” [35]. For Stanley, dealing with the truth ultimately determines whether fascist policies have a chance of success or not. Ultimately, fascist politics, with the help of historical revisionism, mythical narratives, propaganda and anti-intellectualism, create “a state of unreality in which conspiracy theories and fake news replace reasonable debate”. Stanley analyzes ten strategies of fascist politics.
The Glorification of a Mythical Past, Propaganda Without Regard for Truth, Anti – Intellectualism Directed Against Elites and Academia, The Construction of an Unreality, The Emphasis on Social Hierarchies, Emphasizing one’s own role as a victim, The Constant Call for Law and Order Away From the Constitutional Rule Of Law, Playing on Sexual Fears and Rape Fantasies, Sodom and Gomorrah: The Glorification of Rural Life and Contempt for Decadent Cities, »Work Makes You Free« The Division of Society Into the Supposedly Industrious and the Lazy.
Epilogue
At the end of his study, Jason Stanley makes it clear how far normalization has already progressed [195]. Social science research shows “that assessments of normality” […] “are influenced by what people consider to be statistically unremarkable” [196]. The social environment and the media play a major role in this.
We are currently witnessing „how governments around the world are declaring the brutal treatment of refugees and undocumented workers to be common practice. […] Normalization“ is ”transforming the morally extraordinary into the ordinary“ [197]. This cognitive distortion has a highly political effect. What was disturbing yesterday is perceived as normal through constant repetition. Migrants are “portrayed as a source of terrorism and danger instead of generating empathy.” That even the most vulnerable can still be portrayed as a “fundamental threat” is testament to the “misleading power of the fascist myth” [199]. Stanley emphasizes that despite our flaws and different perspectives, we have the ability to empathize and work together. It is a plea for humanity and solidarity, reminding us that we should not fall into extremism and intolerance, but should strive to build bridges with each other – “but we are not devils” [200].
“What We’re Seeing Now – That’s Fascism” – What does Research Say?
“The correct term for this type of politician and party is fascism,” says Jason Stanley in the STANDARD interview. They are anti-democratic, nationalistic and make certain groups the target of their agitation. Stanley is referring to the entire spectrum of autocrats, from Vladimir Putin to Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump, as well as other European counterparts, who are usually referred to as right-wing populists.[11] “We have to think of fascism as a continuum, not as black and white,” he says. „Putin is as clearly a fascist as Mussolini and Hitler. Orbán doesn’t kill journalists, but he doesn’t respect democracy either, and neither does Trump. And many men beyond Trump would describe themselves as fascists“ [31] [Horntrich, Paul M.].
Many academics are extremely critical of the first few months under US President Trump. There are many nuances on the scale between a perfect democracy and a pure dictatorship. Researchers tend to agree that the USA is on the way to becoming an autocracy.[12]
For most historians, the term fascism is blurred and worn out, as it has lost its clarity due to excessive polemical use, for example in the GDR or by the 1968 student movement. This new digital authoritarian type of rule seems to have little to do with historical fascism. Jürgen Habermas speaks of a “kind of libertarian abolition of politics”; [32] [Habermas, J.] politics as a form of management controlled solely by new technologies – free from civil servants, administration, laws, valid social norms and democratic institutions – free from politics. The sovereign 2.0 only programs, collects data and controls – a dream of autocracies.
Now, as the New York Times reports, after DOGE has siphoned off all your personal data from government agencies, it is being passed on to Peter Thiel’s Palantir. According to Thiel’s world view, states do not need elected parliaments and heads of state, but rather supervisory boards, CEOs or monarchs. Since only monopolies can create something new, a political monopoly is needed. Alliances such as the UN, EU and NATO are enemies of freedom. Peter Thiel, intellectually influenced by the programmer, libertarian blogger and neo-fascist Curtis Yarvin, dreamed of a dictatorship for decades and patiently built up his “political project” [33] [New York Times. 30.05.25] to seize power – the blogger who once wrote that a “humane alternative to genocide” had to be found for “unproductive” people. Yarvin is convinced that libertarianism is doomed to failure without authoritarianism. It is better to have a king-dictator-CEO than this disorderly democracy. Trump and Vance owe their political careers to Thiel.[13] They are the heads of the anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic movement that Curtis calls “dark enlightenment”.
For the philosopher and mathematician Rainer Mühlhoff, the “new fascism” differs from its historical role models in many respects, but nevertheless remains a form of fascism. It is characterized by the fact that it uses the possibilities of data analysis and AI technology to overcome the rule of law and replace it with lean, automated and pre-emptive control. What was already to be found in the strategies of the NSDAP is being taken up again here: The goal is control over the state, not a specific political orientation. This fascism is based on close cooperation between political regimes and the tech industry, which leads to a new form of social hierarchies, exploitation, oppression and persecution – including deportations and murders.[14]
A new fascism in the 21st century does not have to look like that of the Nazis. For literary scholar Carolin Amlinger and Basel-based sociologist Oliver Nachtwey, the term fascism still has analytical relevance today. However, “the use of the term as a category for everything that is considered undesirably authoritarian” is questionable. For example, Kamala Harris referred to Trump as a fascist several times during the election campaign, but used the term in a “historically unspecific”, rather general way, in the sense of autocrat. The philosopher Jason Stanley, for whom the USA is already fascist, takes a similar view. The Democrats are not yet being persecuted as an opposition and their representatives have not yet been abducted by militiamen. There is still a separation of powers, free elections for all citizens – “elements that would be inconceivable in a fascist society.” “It would be more convincing and make more sense for the fascism debate if he simply spoke of ultranationalism,” explain the two Basel sociologists. „The historical fascists wanted to destroy democracy. Today’s fascists are more pragmatic. That is the dangerous banality of the fascism of our time. It takes place in the normal course of parliamentary democracy,“ [34] [Amlinger, C., Nachtwey, O. Jacobin], say Amlinger and Nachtwey.
Historical research into fascism has evolved in recent years and has become more open to new approaches. The historian Sven Reichardt proposes a division into seven stages of development. They made the process from “small intellectual circles” to the “total dissolution of genocidal politics” more visible [35] [Universität Konstanz]. According to Reichardt, in the fourth phase, the stage of conquering power, fascism was characterized by the brutal elimination of political opponents and a dictatorial synchronization of social institutions, coupled with unregulated repression and terror.[15] The different fascist movements can be compared more precisely than with earlier models. It is particularly important to understand fascism as an ongoing process and to view it from a global historical perspective. Although elements of propaganda are reminiscent of fascism, according to Reichardt, it is important to examine whether similar social conditions exist again today. The findings are worrying: the constellations are comparable and offer similar opportunities.[16]
Recent research has questioned the historical limitations of fascism. According to political scientist Zeev Sternhell, fascism was an integral part of the 20th century and not just an eruption of the interwar period. Fascist mentalities have never completely disappeared, but are part of our civilization, born out of the crisis at the beginning of the 20th century. They remain a constant threat to liberal and social democracy in the spirit of the Enlightenment.[17]
The eminent American historian and fascism expert Robert Paxton had long spoken out against calling Trump a fascist. Now, he has changed his assessment.[18] Paxton recognized numerous elements of fascist rhetoric in Trump’s language and staging as early as 2016, under the first Trump administration. Paxton defines fascism as “a form of political behavior” that is determined by an “obsessive preoccupation with the decline, humiliation or victimhood of a community and by compensatory cults of unity, strength and purity”. In doing so, a “mass-based party of determined nationalist activists, in uncomfortable but effective collaboration with traditional elites, surrenders democratic freedoms” and pursues “goals of internal cleansing and external expansion by means of violence glorified as redemptive and without ethical or legal restraints” [36] [Paxton, R.O. p. 319]. Paxton emphasizes „that Trump, in contrast to historical fascism, does not want a strong welfare state and does not command uniformed paramilitaries: ‘this is not the style of Americans’. “In this,” says Reichardt, “he is in agreement with most German historians” [37] [Reichardt, 2025].
„Is Trump a fascist? There is one answer to the question and only one correct answer: yes, he is a fascist. I don’t think there is a reasonable definition of fascism. But I don’t know of any that would exclude Trump,“ [38] [Snyder, T., 2025] explains the American historian and fascism researcher Timothy Snyder, one of today’s leading public intellectuals.[19] Trump, Snyder continues, places „will above reason. He is a practitioner with a big lie. He revels in conspiracy theories. He is a direct opponent of the rule of law, the state and constitutionality. He is fond of the idea of a state of emergency. He treats globalization as a matter of conspiracies rather than real forces in the world. I don’t think the debate is closed“. All those who have held the position for several years that Trump is not a fascist have all given up. Because the answer is right in front of us in the world. The Trump government is sado-populist. It offers people the opportunity to experience someone else’s pain as a voyeur. “That’s what I think is so popular,” explains Snyder. The spectacle of pain. „That’s their style. Like the attacks on Selensky or the rejection of anyone who tries to do anything positive in the world. The government doesn’t really work, and all they can do is dismiss, hurt, harass, deport and monitor others.“ There is a policy of sadism.
According to author and America expert Anita Brockschmidt, „the fascism debate has largely been settled among most researchers who have participated in it in the USA in recent years. From Stanley to Snyder to earlier critics of the fascism thesis such as Corey Robin, Robert Paxton and Samuel Moy“, [39] [Brockschmidt. 2025] despite all the differences in detail, everyone now largely agrees: it is fascism.
It leads to a dead end to force new fascist movements into old definitions and historical examples of fascism; even to equate fascism with National Socialism. National Socialism is not equated with the definition of fascism in research, above all because it omits its eliminatory anti-Semitism. There is no single definition of fascism because there is no one historical fascism. Instead, there are various forms of fascism that differ in their form; nevertheless, some relevant criteria can be found in all common definitions of fascism.
Even if one cannot yet speak of an established fascist system, the characteristics of fascist movements and strategies mentioned by Stanley apply to Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition. When asked by Der Spiegel about the “checks and balances”, Stanley said that this term obscures the history of discrimination and violence in the USA. A fascist party could also be successful in Germany, despite intensive efforts to come to terms with the past. This is also the reason “why Germany is so important to Elon Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance, which is why they supported the AfD in the election campaign” [40] [Der Spiegel. 30.03.25]. If fascism is possible again in Germany, it could arise anywhere. What has already happened in Russia is now happening in America, perhaps soon in Europe – the path to authoritarianism. “We are a good indicator of where the world is going,” [41] [Graham, D. 23.04.25] says award-winning editor at The Atlantic David Graham.
Elements of the Normalization of Fascist Dynamics and Patterns in Germany
In Germany, too, right-wing extremist ideas have been normalized for decades. This is shown by the Leipzig Authoritarianism Study[20] and the Center Study[21]. The social taboo on voting for far-right parties, adopting their narratives and concepts or inviting them into talk shows, as was the case with the NPD, has long since disappeared. Authoritarian-nationalist and libertarian politics and the xenophobic ideas associated with them are successful everywhere in Europe. Social decline processes and insecurities caused by the increasing complexity of crises are the breeding ground for right-wing extremist promises[22]. Since 2014, it has been said that the fears of “concerned citizens must be taken seriously”. The rhetorical figure was used as part of the reactions to the ‘Pegida’ demonstrations in order to trivialize their racist basic tenor. Thilo Sarrazin’s book Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany is abolishing itself), published in 2010, is a standard bearer of the “concerned citizens” and a point of reference for the New Right and the AfD.
As early as the end of the 1990s, new-right ideologues castigated the alleged “terror of virtue”, the “moral dictatorship” and the “language police” of the left and the Greens in order to spread their inhuman vocabulary. It is now common practice for the Springer press and conservative and right-wing media to rail against ‘cancel culture’, ‘wokists’ and ‘social tourism’. Since the 2021 elections, the CSU and CDU have also adopted the right-wing extremist narratives[23] imported from America as part of their culture war, which they primarily use against the Greens. One day after the AfD won a district council election in Sonneberg, Friedrich Merz declared the Greens to be the “main opponent”, who are in coalition with the CDU in six federal states instead of confronting the real enemies of democracy. On 29.01.24, Merz used fact-free emergency rhetoric: “He wanted to go ‘all in’ with his push on migration policy,” he said. What followed was a dangerous poker game with parliamentary democracy and the law. The AfD celebrated the result as historic. A new era was beginning here and now. AfD Parliamentary Secretary Bernd Baumann said that the vote was “truly a historic moment”. Like other Western countries, Germany was now experiencing “the end of the red-green dominance” – “forever”. The AfD, he shouted, was now leading Germany and mockingly addressed Merz directly: “You can follow if you still have the strength” [42] [∫Baumann, B.].
Finally, on 22.02.25, Merz declared almost verbatim at his closing rally „The left is over! […] And now, dear friends, we will once again make policy for the majority of the population […] For the majority who think straight and still have all their wits about them […] And not for some green and left-wing nutcases in this world!“ [43] [Focus. 24.02.25]. Merz has paid into the AfD’s account. Merz has voluntarily made himself a hunting object and raised doubts as to whether he can lead this country safely and reliably from the democratic center. We know from party research: Anyone who copies the rhetoric and policies of right-wing extremists destroys democracy. If the CDU copies and cooperates with right-wing extremists, as other conservative parties in Europe have done before, it threatens to sink into insignificance and the path to autocracy seems inevitable. The CDU and CSU must not forget that they play a decisive role in maintaining liberal constitutional democracy. The new right-wing fighting terms that have been circulating in the German media for decades are right-wing extremist distortions that have little to do with reality, but are currently being used as ideological weapons by Trump and Musk in their destruction of the Ministry of Education and university institutions.
Unreflective dissemination of right-wing extremist terms and narratives leads to the normalization of right-wing extremism. The AfD achieved ‘only’ 12.6% in the 2017 federal elections, now it has 20.8%. In the new Bundestag, the AfD is the second largest parliamentary group with 152 MPs, including avowed neo-Nazis. Where the AfD is celebrating major electoral successes, people are publicly declaring their support for the party. On the other hand, the global normalization of fascist or far-right ideas, in particular Trump’s renewed presidency, is having an impact on Germany. The extreme right feels vindicated in its positions. Can we still resist the “pull of normalization”? Germany could experience an authoritarian government in a few years, says historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk. He fears that the AfD’s globalization will also spread to western, southern and northern Germany.[24]
Jason Stanley warns us about the process of normalizing fascist tactics, dynamics and patterns, the ‘it-will-never-be-so-bad’ or ‘it-always-was’ mode. The late Margot Friedländer repeatedly reminded us that the greatest atrocities start small when it comes to the new modern forms of dehumanization. All too often, refugees were dehumanized across the board and exaggerated as a threat. Instead of reassuring ourselves, we should fight against normalization – if only to strengthen our own resilience and broaden our horizons of knowledge and expectations. Theodor W. Adorno calls for critical self-reflection and enlightenment, the strength to not participate so that Auschwitz is not repeated. Adorno identifies emotional coldness and manipulative characters as dangers. “Barbarism persists as long as the conditions that brought about that relapse essentially persist.” [44] [Adorno, T.W., 2003]. We can counter the seductive power of the ‘normal’ above all through knowledge, also through the defense of democratic values and public protest. Through the courage to contradict.
German history teaches us that the voter is not always right. That is why our Basic Law restricts them. Human rights and Article 1 of the Basic Law are above the majority rule. “Treating the AfD as a normal party would be a fall from grace,” [45] [Levit, I.] notes Igor Levit. The party of neo-fascism, the “party of the dehumanization of minorities”, stands for everything that Friedländer fought against. The AfD is „not a normal party. “Fascists want to destroy”, they are “enemies of democracy”, says Levit and continues: “Democrats should have the strength and courage – this is also a legacy of Margot Friedländer – to fight them as hard as they deserve, if necessary by banning them.”
Sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer considers the term “protest voter” to be completely trivializing. “This is how institutionalized politics has always tried to calm itself down” [46] [Heitmeyer,W.].[25] For many years, a normalization of positions against the open society and liberal democracy has been stable in these circles. Politicians and journalists often treat citizens like children or consumers and take responsibility away from them; also out of fear of not being elected. Politicians must now “deliver”. The current government is “the last cartridge of democracy” [Markus Söder CSU]. The Prime Minister of Saxony recently wrote on Instagram: “A political system that does not deliver is not attractive” [47] [Kretschmer, M.]. Politics is reduced to the social, people to passive consumers. Standing up for freedom then becomes secondary. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and Germany’s energy-policy embrace have made it clear: freedom, security and dignity are lost if we confuse prosperity with freedom. The population must also pay, not just the state. Like indulgent parents, we treat AfD voters with our ‘understanding’ instead of standing up to them. We should demand more responsibility from voters and not attribute the rise of authoritarians solely to economic or political conditions. The vocabulary of liberal thinking often gets you nowhere with intolerant, prejudiced people. You can decide for or against more climate protection, you don’t have to vote for an extreme right-wing party if you feel threatened by economic decline, don’t like gender stereotyping or want to limit migration. Rather the Orbánisation of Germany than an open and modern society is not a good alternative.
Conclusion
The Italian writer and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi stated as early as 1974 that “every age has its own fascism”. [48] [Levi, P.] „Whether we are in the founding phase of new dictatorships today and whether they will then take steps similar to those of historical fascism is unclear. It is not impossible“ [Reichardt 2025], Reichardt notes. The Argentinian historian Federico Finchelstein, who has been researching fascism at the New School for Social Sciences in New York for years, believes, like “Stanley, that the transition from authoritarian tendencies to a complete dictatorship is a gradual process” [Reichhardt 2025]. We are currently seeing how Trump is apparently trying to establish a fascist dictatorship – whether he succeeds remains to be seen.
For Stanley, politics and society in the USA are clearly developing in the direction of fascism. “We’re already there – in the early years,” he explained in an interview with Deutschlandfunk on 28.05.25, citing as „examples the arrest of students or the use of corresponding narratives, such as the alleged threat to the nation from immigrants. This is a faschist ideology that attacks democracy“ [49] [Stanley, 28.05.25]. Stanley is concerned that we recognize the myths of fascism early and resist the pull of its normalization.
Author:
Dr. phil., philosopher and political scientist with teaching assignments at TU Berlin, MHB Brandenburg, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and FU-Berlin. Lectures on medical ethics, medical identity formation, philosophical anthropology, the Frankfurt School, Ernst Cassirer, Karl Popper, Hannah Arendt and the Conservative Revolution and National Rebellion. His main areas of research and work include: Political Philosophy, Ernst Cassirer, Hannah Arendt, Karl Popper, Philosophy of Enlightenment, Critical Rationalism, Philosophy of Science and Critical Theory of Society. He gives lectures and is the author of essays and reviews in philosophical, psychological and political journals. Book publications: Yugoslavia’s Confrontation with Stalinism: Historical Preconditions and Consequences (Berlin writings on politics and society under socialism and communism, (Peter Lang 1989). ‘Where is our open society going? 1968′ – Its Legacy and its Enemies (Logos Verlag Berlin 2019). „Rethinking freedom with Hannah Arendt. Dangers of the self-destruction of democracies, (transcript 2023).
Abbreviations
pa = Deutsche Presse Agentur, afp. = Agence France Press
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[22] ABC News, Langer. G., Sparks, S., October 25, 2024, 12:07 PM, Half of Americans see Donald Trump as a fascist: POLL, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-fascist-concerns-poll/story?id=115083795
[23] Dillmann, D., Donald Trump is once again using Adolf Hitler’s vocabulary. Frankfurter Rundschau 15.01.2024.
[24] Burghardt, P., Fellmann, F., Political theater to Trump’s taste, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 11.06.2025, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/trump-gavin-newsom-verhaftung-duell-li.3267215?reduced=true
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[26] Horntrich, P. M., The ten characteristics of fascism. Der Standard, 02. 09. 2024,
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[27] Habermas, J., For Europe. SZ 22./23.03.2025, p. 16 f.
[28] Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans – The New York Times, 30.05.25, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html
[29] Amlinger, C., Nachtwey, O., Democratic fascism. Jacobin 01.05.2025, https://jacobin.de/artikel/demokratie-faschismus-oliver-nachtwey-carolin-amlinger
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[31] Paxton, R.O., Anatomy of Fascism. Munich 2006.
[32] Reichardt, S., What is post-fascism? 08.05.25, Soziopolis, https://www.soziopolis.de/was-ist-postfaschismus.html
[33] Snyder, T.: „People are running away from Trump. But I didn’t run away”. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 26./27. April 2025, p. 16/17.
[34] Brockschmidt, A., Not calling Trump’s regime “fascism” is a denial of reality. Squealer of the people, 14.04.2025, https://www.volksverpetzer.de/analyse/trumps-faschismus-nennen/
[35] Ein Interview mit Rapp, T., “It’s just the beginning”, Der Spiegel 30.03.2025, https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/faschismus-forscher-stanley-ueber-trump-und-seinen-abschied-von-yale-es-ist-erst-der-anfang-a-29a1ab6a-7b22-4c15-9b2e-fb00b3001693
[36] Graham, D., „The Project. How Project 2025 is reshaping America“, Spektrum News, 23.04.2025, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/podcasts/2025/04/22/david-graham—the-project–how-project-2025-is-reshaping-america-
[37] German Bundestag. Stenographic report. 209th sitting. Berlin, Wednesday, January 29, 2025, p. 27084, https://dserver.bundestag.de/btp/20/20209.pdf
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[39] Adorno, T.W., Education after Auschwitz, in: Gesammelte Schriften , Bd.10/2, Frankfurt/Main 2003, p. 674.
[45] Levit, I.: In the end, she was disappointed. Die Zeit, 15. Mai 2025, p. 51.
[40] Piorkowski, C.D., Sociologist Heitmeyer on the AfD’s high poll numbers. Tagesspiegel 14.06.23, https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/soziologe-heitmeyer-uber-afd-umfragehoch-der-begriff-protestwahler-ist-komplett-verharmlosend-9967674.html
[41] Kretschmer, M., Instagram, 19.04.25, https://www.instagram.com/p/DInp4ipofkt/
[42] Levi, P.: The Past We Thought Would Never Return [1974], in: ders, The Black Hole of Auschwitz. New York 2005, S. 31–34. The text was originally published in “Corriere della Sera” in 1974.
[43] Trump. Philosopher Jason Stanley sees the USA on the road to fascism. Deutschlandfunk, 28.05.25, https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/philosoph-jason-stanley-sieht-die-usa-auf-dem-weg-in-den-faschismus-100.html
[1] Cf. Levitsky, S., Ziblatt, D., The Tyranny of the Minority. Why American democracy is on the brink and what we can learn from it, Munich 2024.
[2] Cf. Berg, M., The House Divided: A History of the United States from 1950 to the Present, Stuttgart 20254.
[3] Trump, M. L., Too much and never enough. How my family created the most dangerous man in the world. Munich 2020.
[4] Trump wants to change the US constitution – in the style of Viktor Orbán, Hugo Chávez and Rafael Correa, who have already rewritten their constitutions in the first year of their autocratic rise to power. Cf. Scheppele, K. L. [2025]. Trump’s counter-constitution. https://verfassungsblog.de/trumps-gegenverfassung/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-de-de
[5] Cf. Kohut, H., Narzißmus, A theory of the psychoanalytic treatment of narcissistic personality disorders. Frankfurt am Main, 1976.
[6]New York Times, As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator, 22 October 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/us/politics/john-kelly-trump-fitness-character.html
[7] Weiß, V., New Right and Ideological Tradition, in: From Politics and Contemporary History: (Anti-) Fascism, APuZ 42-43/2017, p. 6.
[8] Stanley, J. (2018). How fascism works. Westend Verlag.
[9]Grünn, V., 14 Elements of primitive fascism according to Umberto Ecco. 17.10.2017, Presenzza, https://www.pressenza.com/de/2017/10/14-merkmale-des-ur-faschismus-nach-umberto-eco/
[10] Open letter on the occasion of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s minor interpellation on the political neutrality of state-funded organizations, 04. March 2025, https://verfassungsblog.de/offener-brief-kleine-anfrage-union/
[11] Applebaum, A., The lure of authoritarianism. Why anti-democratic rule has become so popular, Munich 2021.
[12] Peters, R., Researchers agree. The USA is sliding towards autocracy, but how far? 09.05.2025, https://www.n-tv.de/politik/USA-unter-Donald-Trump-rutschen-in-Richtung-Autokratie-aber-wie-weit-article25754828.html
[13]Steffens, F., A guest in the mainstream. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 09.05.2025, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/curtis-yarvin-harvard-laedt-neofaschist-ein-110467236.html
[14]Mühlhoff, R., Trump and the new fascism, Verfassungsblog. 09.02.2025, https://verfassungsblog.de/trump-und-der-neue-faschismus/
[15] Reichardt, S., GLOBAL HISTORY OF FASCISM, New Research and Perspectives, in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte APuZ 42-43/2017, p. 11.
[16] Reichardt, S.: What is post-fascism? 08.05.25, Soziopolis, https://www.soziopolis.de/was-ist-postfaschismus.html
[17] Sternhell, Z., About fascism. “Fascist mentality was never dead.” Interview by Feddersen, J. Tageszeitung, 26.09.2016, https://taz.de/Zeev-Sternhell-ueber-Faschismus/!5339974/
[18]Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Chances His Mind. The New York Times Magazine, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/magazine/robert-paxton-facism.html
[19] Cf. Snyder, T., The Road to Unfreedom. Russia, Europe, America, Munich 2018.
[20] https://www.boell.de/de/leipziger-autoritarismus-studie
[21] https://www.fes.de/referat-demokratie-gesellschaft-und-innovation/gegen-rechtsextremismus/mitte-studie-2023
[22] Cf. Reckwitz, A., The end of illusions: Politics, economics and culture in late modernity. Berlin 2019.
[23] Cf. Daub, A., Cancel Culture Transfer. How a moral panic is gripping the world, Berlin 2022
[24] Cf. Schäfer, A., Zürn, M., The Democratic Regression, Berlin 2021.
[25] Heitmeyer, W., Authoritarian temptations. Berlin 2018.
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