Is Trump a fascist? Winthrop history professor weighs in

Ever since he launched his presidential campaign last year, Donald Trump has been called the F-word.

While many words have been used to describe the New York real estate tycoon’s unusual run for the Republican presidential nomination – with its brash style of conservative populism, its fiery rhetoric on immigrants and global trade, and its proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States – one description has enamored his political opponents and perplexed political scientists: Can Trump fairly be called a fascist?

The question irks David Pretty, who teaches European history at Winthrop University, with a focus on the rise of fascism in the early 20th century.

“I put it this way: Donald Trump is a fascist in the same way Bernie Sanders is a socialist,” Pretty said. “Only an American would think either one.”

Pretty said that compared to the fractious politics of most European countries – either historically or today – Americans actually have a narrow range of political opinions, steeped in a broad political consensus on the legitimacy of democracy, free enterprise and individual liberties. In an address on “categorizing Donald Trump” at a monthly meeting of the York County Democratic Party, Pretty said the country had never shown itself to be susceptible to the kind of far right or left movements that rose to power in Europe during the time period he covers.

“In America, we all believe in progress through competition,” he said. “Some are more concerned about the purity of the competition, and others are more concerned about everybody getting a chance to compete.”

Some have criticized parts of Trump’s platform, like his immigration stance and anti-Muslim rhetoric, as “racist.” Pretty even described some of Trump’s positions as “an obvious appeal to a kind of white nationalism.”

That perception has stoked strong reactions from Trump opponents and supporters alike. When Trump drew 6,500 people to a rally at the Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill last month, several protestors were removed while wearing yellow stars labeled “Muslim” – a reference to markers Jews were required to wear in Nazi Germany – including Charlotte flight attendent Rose Hamid, who stood in silent protest while wearing a hijab headscarf and a T-shirt saying “Salam. I Come in Peace.”

But the Winthrop professor argues fascism contains more elements than simple racism.

Instead, fascists in countries such as Germany and Italy that were damaged by participation in World War I focused on the need to succeed in “national competition,” Pretty argues, to the suppression of competing political parties, classes and belief systems within the nation itself.

“Even the American fascists of the 1930s didn’t believe in all of that,” he said. “It was an ideology that appealed to the small farmer and shopkeeper who worried the socialists would take away their property, but also worried that bigger farms or the stockmarket would outcompete them and take away their property, too.”

Trump hasn’t adopted the same level of nationalistic or anti-democratic rhetoric as European fascists, Pretty said, and “he’s not a fascist just because he draws a big crowd.”

If anything, there may be a danger in labeling Trump a fascist, he said, and to prove it he points to the success of the self-declared “democratic socialist” Sanders in this year’s Democratic primary. While voters old enough to remember the Cold War might find the label off-putting, Pretty argues the younger voters to whom Sanders appeals have a different association.

“For seven years, they’ve heard Barack Obama called a socialist,” he said. “So they think, ‘if that’s socialism, it’s not that bad.’”

That analysis got some support from York County Democratic Party chairwoman Amy Hayes, who said in the past she’s seen Winthrop’s campus socialist club draw more members than the college Democrats.

“I’ve seen young people on Facebook post pictures of Stalin,” she said, “and then I’ve messaged them to say, ‘no, you are not a Stalinist.’”

Calling Trump’s brand of populism “fascist,” Pretty worries, could help to soften the word if something closer to the movements the professor has studied arise on American soil in the future.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Is Trump a fascist? Winthrop history professor weighs in."