'Made violence his brand': Scholar warns of 'uniquely dangerous' Trump second term

A leading expert on far-right, oppressive governments around the world is warning that former President Donald Trump would usher in fascism in the United States if he wins a second term this fall.

In a detailed interview with Guardian reporter Alice Herman, scholar and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat — a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University whose work focuses on fascism — said November's election represents a "democratic emergency" with Trump as the GOP's presumptive nominee. She said his openly stated plans to be a "dictator" on "day one" combined with the Supreme Court's recent ruling guaranteeing presidents absolute criminal immunity for "official acts" is a recipe for authoritarianism.

"At its most basic, authoritarianism is when the executive branch of government domesticates or overwhelms or politicizes the judiciary, critiques and tries to silence the press, and when the leader has a party that he’s made into his personal tool, and in general, seeks to remove or neutralize any threats to his power," Ben-Ghiat said. "Authoritarianism is about replacing the rule of law with rule by the lawless."

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"Trump is also uniquely dangerous because he has long indulged in fantasies of violence, and he made violence his brand," she continued. "This is someone who started off his campaign saying he could stand on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any followers. And he has used his rallies for almost 10 years now to preach that violence should be seen in a positive light. He’d say in the old days, you could beat up people, and that violence is necessary, sometimes, to 'save the nation'."

When Trump's lawyers were making the case for him to have absolute immunity before a D.C. Court of Appeals panel, attorney John Sauer posited that Trump would be protected from even assassinating political opponents. While the D.C. Circuit rejected that argument, the former president successfully got the Supreme Court to overturn it in July's 6-3 Trump v. United States decision.

"This is someone who talks about executions," she added. "The reason he admires foreign leaders such as Xi [Jinping of China] and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is that they have the power to execute people and pay no consequence."

Ben-Ghiat's assessment is not hyperbolic. In her dissent, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the Court's six conservative appointees effectively legalized extrajudicial murders so long as a president declared it to be an official act.

"Today’s decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the Presidency," Sotomayor wrote. "Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune."

Ben-Ghiat, who has studied Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's reign in depth, said Trump is engaging in 'classic authoritarian maneuvers' by demonizing immigrants, attacking the free press and framing himself as a victim of political persecution. She compared him to both previous far-right world leaders, and identified his contemporaries in Hungary and Turkey.

"For Mussolini, the enemy of Italy – which was a poor nation – was the League of Nations. Today, Trump says the enemy is the deep state. [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan talks about witch hunts. [Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi talked about witch hunts by the press and prosecutors. It makes people get on board with any aggressive actions that this leader takes, because it becomes self defense," she explained. "From Putin to [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán, all these authoritarians say that democracy is the real tyranny, and they present their way – whether it’s fascism or Trumpism – as the way to free the people. And so this idea that Biden is a threat to democracy – this is part of it."

Click here to read Ben-Ghiat's interview with the Guardian in its entirety.