In an interview with Italy’s La Repubblica published Wednesday, Applebaum said: “I don’t use the word ‘fascism’ lightly... but I fear this time it’s appropriate.” She pointed to “an administration that glorifies violence, has created a paramilitary group acting with impunity, and believes it can ignore laws and the Constitution.”
She referenced incidents in Minneapolis where federal officers were involved in two fatal cases. While warning of an authoritarian drift, Applebaum noted that the U.S. remains a functioning democracy, with freedom of speech, protest rights, and an independent judiciary.
She described former President Donald Trump as lacking ideology, but surrounded by groups with authoritarian aims. “There are Christian nationalists seeking a Bible-based state, white nationalists who want segregation, and a tech-world faction often called the techno-right,” she said. “All of these lead toward autocracy—power concentrated in the hands of a few.”
Applebaum said Trump’s second term would be marked by greater radicalism than his first. “From the start, he used language never before heard in U.S. politics [...] calling immigrants ‘parasites’. He even used a phrase taken directly from Hitler's speech - speaking about immigrants who poison the blood of the American nation, exactly as the Fuehrer wrote in "Mein Kampf" about German blood poisoned by the Jews,” she said.
She emphasized that Trump likely didn’t write such lines himself but accused his speechwriters of deliberately using dehumanizing rhetoric to radicalize his base.
Asked how democracy can be saved, Applebaum urged societal engagement, protest against injustice, and bipartisan efforts to protect institutions. “Flattering Trump in hopes of swaying him doesn’t work,” she said. “What democratic governments must do is find ways to cooperate and act together.”
(jh)
Source: PAP