Warning Signs of Fascism 💀

We are among the many millions of people who believe that the United States is rapidly heading  toward an authoritarian form of government often called fascism. 

Twenty years ago Syracuse Cultural Workers collaborated with Laurence W. Britt to create the poster Early Warning Signs of Fascism. Britt researched seven fascist regimes: Hitler's Nazi Germany; Mussolini's Italy; Franco's Spain; Salazar's Portugal; Papadopoulos' Greece; Pinochet's Chile and Suharto's Indonesia. We look at those principles in relation to current Trump administration policies and declarations.

Early Warning Signs of Fascism

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism 

• Trump has shown contempt for alliances, international law and institutions, implying that America is unique in its greatness and entitled to do as it pleases regardless of consequences.

• Anti-immigrant policies are grounded in racial nationalism that is akin to Nazi “Blood and Soil” ideology. Trump has repeatedly said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and that criminality is “in their genes.” Trump and MAGA identify American greatness with a white Christian nation.

Disdain For Human Rights

• Immigrants, People of Color and non-English speakers are racially profiled, rounded up, denied basic constitutional rights and incarcerated under inhumane conditions. Undocumented people are brutalized, their families are separated and their livelihoods destroyed. Hundreds have been summarily deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador.

• On Trump’s orders, alleged “narco-terrorists” have been murdered at sea by the US military without even the pretense of judicial process. 

Identification of Enemies As a Unifying Cause

• Trump has likened Democrats, liberals, and leftists to “vermin” to be eradicated.  He has emphasized that he “hates” his political opponents.

• A White House national security document (9/25/2025) demonizes Trump’s political opponents, alleging that they belong to a vast network of organizations and individuals promoting political violence and terrorism.

Supremacy of the Military

• Secretary of “War” Hegseth fired top military legal officers who he sees as obstacles to the “lethality” of the military rather than as guarantors that the military follows the law. Trump recently told assembled generals to refocus military power on “the enemy within,” saying,  “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.” Using legally dubious pretexts, he is currently deploying troops to major American cities.

Rampant Sexism

• Trump, who was recorded bragging about sexual assault, has been found legally responsible for sexually abusing E. Jean Carrol, and has been accused of sexual misconduct by 27 women.

• Project 2025, the MAGA policy blueprint, calls for a nationwide abortion ban. 

• Trump revoked a 60-year non-discrimination order for federal contractors and eliminated the White House Gender Policy Council.

• MAGA has directed special venom at transgender and other gender non-conforming people and sought to eliminate all protections for them.

Controlled Mass Media

• Trump vilifies independent news media as “enemies of the people” and encourages MAGA hostility toward reporters. He has sued many media outlets seeking to control their coverage.

• Trump’s FCC chair, Brendan Carr, threatened ABC/Disney if the network failed to censor late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel, a frequent Trump critic. 

• Hegseth’s War Department is denying access to media outlets that don’t submit to Pentagon censorship.

Obsession With National Security 

• Trump’s national security policies have focused largely on the border and immigration and often ignores basic constitutional protections such as due process and long-established domestic and international laws. 

Religion and Government Intertwined 

• Trump has appointed overt Christian Nationalists (Vance, OMB head Vought, Hegseth and others) to key posts and created a White House task force to eradicate alleged “anti-Christian bias.”

• Project 2025 calls for the government to promote a “biblically based” definition of marriage and the family, and policies to increase public funding for religious organizations.

Corporate Power Protected

• Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill expanded tax cuts that disproportionately benefit corporations and the super-wealthy. 

• Under the leadership of Elon Musk’s DOGE and Vought, crippling cuts to federal regulatory agencies enhance corporate power in relation to workers and consumers.

Labor Power Suppressed 

• Trump has attacked the staffing and independence of the National Labor Relations Board, the primary agency tasked with defending collective bargaining rights for American workers.

• Trump’s executive order terminated collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal workers and seeks to destroy the civil service system.

Disdain For Intellectuals and the Arts 

• Trump has withheld federal grants to extort policy changes from Columbia, Harvard, and other universities, directly attacking longstanding norms of free speech and academic freedom. 

• Trump took direct control of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, naming himself Board Chairman, and calls for censorship and purging of Smithsonian exhibits. He has called for drastic cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts.

Obsession With Crime and Punishment 

• Trump has used false allegations of rampant crime to justify deployment of troops in American cities, despite clear evidence of falling crime rates. He falsely accuses undocumented immigrants of being rapists, murderers and traffickers to justify his massive expansion of ICE.

Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

• The United Arab Emirates invested $2 billion in a crypto-currency business involving the Trump family. Qatar donated a luxury Boeing 747 that US taxpayers will pay to retrofit as Air Force One. The Trump family and partners opened a private Washington, DC club where members pay half a million dollars annually to curry favor with the Trumps. Trump’s net worth has increased several billion dollars so far in 2025.

• Trump’s Department of Justice shut down an investigation into bribery allegations against border czar Tom Homan despite video evidence that he accepted $50,000 in exchange for future government contracts.

Fraudulent Elections

• After his 2020 election loss, Trump engaged in a conspiracy to overturn the election results, spread the Big Lie of widespread election fraud, pressured state election officials to alter vote tallies, created slates of fake electors to disrupt the Electoral College, and incited his followers to attack the Capitol and prevent the certification of the election.

• In addition to passing a variety of voter suppression measures, GOP dominated State legislatures are engaged in highly unusual mid-decade gerrymandering of Congressional districts to maintain control of Congress.

Despite these frightening trends, masses of people engaged in thoughtful, well organized strategic action, can protect one another and democracy. 

Andy Mager is a longtime community organizer and the coordinator of Syracuse Cultural Workers. Mark Rupert is a retired political science professor from Syracuse University with expertise in right wing populism.

PS: We urge you to join that effort, starting with participating in the No Kings protests on Saturday, October 18. Information about over 2,200 protests in all 50 states.