Presidential history expert Jeffrey Engel lays out the historical context of the term fascism in America as rhetoric labeling Donald Trump as having fascist characteristics has loomed.
As the 2024 presidential candidates ramp up their name calling in a tough battle to convince voters to put one or the other into the White House for the next term in office the term fascist has been thrown around.
But, does the word fit? Specifically in the case of Donald Trump, his policies and his ways of governing and using his power.
Just this week, Vice President Kamala Harris said she believes Trump is a fascist after his longest-serving former chief of staff John Kelly said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office.
The accusation and claim has given the Harris campaign some steam in using the strong word to try and sway certain segments of voters not to cast a ballot for the former president.
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Back to even just the 1930s, the 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was called a fascist.
Jeffrey Engel David Gergen director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University offered some historic context on the term and how its using in U.S. political discourse.
Engel says fascist is a “scary word and a nebulous word. Fascist at this point as a word has been so watered down from its political science definition to basically becoming just a synonym for somebody you don’t like. You can call them a tyrant you can call them an autocrat, you can call them a communist, you can call them a socialist.”