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September 12, 2025

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America’s cold civil war heats up

Charlie Kirk tosses MAGA hats to the audience at his American Comeback event.

On Wednesday, the entire country witnessed the gruesome assassination of Charlie Kirk as he spoke before a crowd at Utah Valley University. His death was shocking both for the visceral nature of the gory footage and for the deep implications and ramifications it holds for America’s heated political moment.

Kirk was the cofounder of Turning Point USA, a group dedicated to converting and organizing Republican youth. He was a prolific and popular far-right commentator known for his abrasive debate style, which he typically employed against college students, as well as his enthusiastic support of President Trump and advocacy for Christian conservatism, both at the level of politics and the level of home life. 

At the moment he was killed, he was, coincidentally, debating American gun violence with an audience member – at virtually the same time as, next door in Colorado, America was hosting yet another school shooting. 

Obviously, there is something deeply wrong with this moment and with this country. No one can live here and not feel it if they have even a minimal level of awareness. 

So while this assassination speaks to multiple issues, including gun proliferation, it’s become a case study for our extremely elevated culture war rhetoric. And it all adds up to a grim reality: Whether we realize it or not, we are already in a cold civil war. It’s still up to us how hot it gets, but we are not currently on a course toward cooling tensions.

The pretext for increasing fascism

As of this writing, Kirk’s assassin is still on the loose. As far as we know, there is no suspect and no known motive, though that hasn’t stopped people from speculating. The natural assumption for many seems to be that one of Kirk’s political opponents committed the crime. President Trump quickly blamed “the radical left.” And while the killer may well turn out to be a leftist, Kirk had opponents on both the left and the right, including neo-Nazis. 

With only roaming speculation to go on, conservatives immediately called on Trump to dramatically escalate his war on “the left,” a collective that, depending on how you define it, could include literally half the country. 

  • Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer who has been in and out of Trump’s inner circle, instantly tweeted, “It’s time for the Trump administration to shut down, defund, & prosecute every single Leftist organization… Once and for all. The Left is a national security threat.” 
  • The X feed of another far-right influencer, Mike Cernovich, was filled with reactionary statements and veiled threats against “the left” broadly. 
  • The right-wing troll account, Libs of TikTok, tweeted, “THIS IS WAR”.
  • Far-right radio host Michael Savage called on Trump to revoke the broadcast license of MSNBC, essentially blaming their programming for Kirk’s assassination.

It’s not clear what crimes, exactly, Loomer wants prosecuted, and her vague phrase “Leftist organization” might include anything from the Democratic Socialists of America to the Democratic Party to a university, scientific or medical institution, or historical society. And since we have no idea at this point who the killer is, the declaration of war from Libs of TikTok could be aimed at just about anybody. In addition to these extremist takes, there have been innumerable calls for more violence from the right.

At this point, it almost doesn’t matter who killed Kirk. The stage is set, and it’ll be impossible to course-correct the narrative no matter what else we learn. But the fact that his assassination ratcheted up tensions so dramatically and so instantaneously speaks to the political moment we were already in long before he was killed — a moment Kirk himself contributed to. Some of us are simply chomping at the bit to go to war with each other.

The political violence that already surrounds us

We are in the midst of a violent political era. To take just one glaringly obvious point: President Trump has sent troops to occupy two major cities run by political opponents and regularly threatens more such actions, even using the imagery of the most brutal war movie ever made, Apocalypse Now, to describe how he plans to treat Chicagoans. 

Make no mistake: These are violent provocations. How long can Trump round up and deport people’s friends, neighbors, and coworkers, and intimidate citizens with armed troops, before some serious fighting breaks out? And if and when that happens, where will it lead? It will pour more fuel on the fascist fire, empowering Trump to reach and take a little more, necessitating ever-more forceful pushback from his opposition.

And how long can these occupations be combined with the white-hot rhetoric of the Loomers and Cernoviches of the world before something big ignites? How long before Trump decides to take their advice and declare everyone to the left of Sean Hannity an official enemy of the state, subject to searches, confiscations, imprisonment, or worse? It’s not that fantastical. His most high-profile supporters are calling for it. The shock troops are already in the streets.

Don’t let Republicans use this moment to gaslight you into thinking political violence is unique to, or primarily a feature of, the left. This is the party that turns killers like George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse into heroes. This is the party that worked on a series of bills in states around the country to protect drivers who run over protesters. This is a party that has run a 24/7 news operation for 30 years straight with some of the most incendiary, zero-sum rhetoric in the history of propaganda. Year after year, crime data is clear: right-wing extremism accounts for far more violence in America than the left.

Even beyond politics, America is an extraordinarily violent nation that visits carnage upon people all around the world. We have normalized genocide in Palestine, revealing ourselves as a nation that just doesn’t care much about the worst form of violence imaginable. And at home, we have all but grown accustomed to regular massacres of our schoolchildren. Even Kirk once said, in a quote that went viral after his assassination, “I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”

Just who was Charlie Kirk?

Because of some of his past remarks, some observers found Kirk’s end poetic. You don’t have to look too hard to find people openly celebrating on social media. I won’t do that, but I also won’t write a fawning eulogy for a man whose impact on the country, and the world, was so toxic and grim.

Kirk’s operation, TPUSA, was funded by dark money from oligarchs, fossil fuel companies, and big business. His function as a propagandist was to inflame the tensions of culture wars, goading working-class people into bitter fights with one another over trans bathrooms or “traditional marriage” while shielding the high-level crimes of power — things like looting the lower and middle class, shredding our social safety nets, and bankrupting our national trust through global imperialism and war.

Kirk died doing what he loved best: debating a liberal. And he was debating him in his usual style, injecting polemic rhetoric to confuse and frustrate his interlocutor. He was pushing an idea that trans mass shooters are a major problem, and in the process inciting more hatred for trans people, despite them committing a vanishingly small proportion of mass shootings in America. 

Even in this one example, the last words of his life, we can see that Kirk did not engage in good-faith debate. He was not in the business of productive dialogue that brings Americans together. In the wake of his murder, outlets have been compiling some of his greatest hits, including:

  • On the military occupation of America’s streets: “We got to go hard. We got to go big league. We’re talking National Guard, tanks – every street, you need military.”
  • On affirmative action and successful Black women: “You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to be taken somewhat seriously.”
  • On the civil rights movement: “MLK was awful… This guy is not worthy of a national holiday,” and, “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”
  • On the role of women: “Maybe one of the reasons that Taylor Swift has been so annoyingly liberal over the last couple of years is that she’s not yet married, and she doesn’t have children… Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.”
  • On the genocide in Gaza: “They brought it upon themselves.”
  • On trans people, a favorite and perennial target: “Against the natural law… A throbbing middle finger to god.”

One could go on and on. And, to be fair, if you comb through thousands of hours of recorded dialogue from almost anybody, you will find some nuggets that look ugly. But the picture is consistently clear, and this rotten philosophy has undoubtedly contributed to hate and division in America.

What comes next?

Trump has called on the nation to fly flags at half-mast in honor of Kirk’s memory. This is another provocative, political move. Kirk was the victim of a terrible act of violence, yes. He was also a bad-faith propagandist who put mental poison into the world. Both things can be true, and neither one changes the other. We can condemn violence without compelling people to mourn someone who called their existence an abomination. If you’re conflicted about it all, remember Kirk’s own words: “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage.”

We should not let Kirk’s death ignite more violence. Sadly, we have a president who is possibly the poorest-equipped person in history to provide a steady hand and guide us to calmer waters. Instead, he could use it as justification to ramp up his occupation of American cities, recruit more angry conservatives to his masked army of ICE agents, restrict voting and speech rights, and make other fascistic moves. Plenty of his most fervent acolytes are already pushing him in this direction.

I see nothing good in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. His rhetoric harmed this nation and the marginalized groups he targeted, and that deserves to be his legacy. But his murder does nothing to address the wrongs they face. It only rockets tensions through the roof and brings this country closer to an extremely ugly and dangerous edge. It empowers the worst, most fascistic impulses of an already dangerous administration. 

Things may simmer back down, but this is not a stable equilibrium for a nation to be in. Maybe something needs to break. Returning to normal is not an option. Normal is what brought us here. For my entire life, “normal” has been a relentless march toward increasing inequality and nonstop war. That’s nothing to look forward to for a society in the midst of a fundamental transformation. 

But it would surely be in everyone’s best interest not to erupt into a full-scale civil war. Your imagination is as good as mine at conjuring the horrors that might entail. The best thing is for people to realize their common interests, let one another live in peace and dignity, and oppose the forces in America that are selling our futures down the river — forces for whom Charlie Kirk was a devoted and effective sower of division.

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South Park cracks the code for dealing with fascists

President Donald Trump as Francisco Scaramanga and JD Vance as Nick Nack.

For ten years, opponents of President Donald Trump have struggled to adequately deal with his myriad abuses and scandals. When you run through the litany of crimes, lies, Constitutional violations, and cover-ups, you can’t help but sound like a complainer. Many Americans simply tire of hearing about it all, while MAGA supporters retreat to their own impenetrable infotainment ecosystem.

Maybe, then, the answer isn’t to give more persuasive arguments, but to simply show the Trump Administration for what it is, using the most grotesque, over-the-top caricatures possible.

That’s exactly what South Park has been doing in its new season. The second episode, “Got a Nut,” goes straight for the jugular with numerous high-ranking MAGA officials. It includes depictions of:

  • Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as a puppy-shooting ghoul with a melting face.
  • ICE as a masked, bumbling goon squad violently rounding up innocent people for explicitly racial reasons.
  • MAGA propagandist Charlie Kirk as an obnoxious racist obsessed with “master-debating” college girls.
  • Vice President JD Vance as the James Bond villain Nick Nack, a completely servile troll.
  • President Donald Trump as the crime boss behind it all, hiding out in his Florida palace with underage masseuses and his lover, Satan himself.

South Park doesn’t call these people names or point out their crimes in an articulately worded essay. It shows them in action doing despicable things, providing a window for MAGA, if they care to look, into how everyone who’s not inside the cult views these monsters.

Showing, not telling

The South Park approach is far more potent than the fact-based appeals journalists have made. As multiple scholars and thinkers have observed, such facts are ineffective against fascists like Trump for the simple reason that the fascist appeal is not to truth or logic in the first place, but to base emotion. This is why MAGA is primarily a coalition built around vague fears and anxiety over the loss of some intangible cultural quality (read: “traditional values,” typically a stand-in for whiteness, straightness, or some other perceived “normal” thing). Information doesn’t change their mind, because their beliefs aren’t rooted in truth.

For instance, it wouldn’t matter to a fascist that the vast majority of immigrants, documented or otherwise, are law-abiding, contributing members of society. The MAGA base simply does not want them here, and they aren’t interested in anybody’s circumstances or story or what the evidence says. So Trump is building a massive, secret army to round up dark-skinned immigrants in brutal ways, terrorizing communities by dragging people from their homes and public spaces in front of children and others, sending them off to foreign concentration camps in places like El Salvador. 

Words can’t adequately express the horror of this. It’s more poignant to convey the horror by showing it. And right now, only South Park is showing it in the truly ghastly way it needs to be shown. 

In the latest episode, a squad of untrained ICE goons raids a Dora the Explorer Live show, and even Heaven itself, to remove every last brown person. When new ICE recruit Mr. Mackey insists his job isn’t to “round up Mexicans” but rather to “detain foreigners who might be illegal,” the man he’s talking to sarcastically says, “OK!” – as in, “Sure, whatever you say, pal!” Kristi Noem’s face constantly melts off, only to be repaired by a makeup team in time for a photo op, underscoring MAGA’s obsession with superficial aesthetics. She also shoots every puppy she sees. Cartman and Clyde act as stand-ins for Charlie Kirk, abrasive, dimwitted pricks who win debates through nonstop verbal diarrhea. And poor Dora winds up massaging a creepy old billionaire at Mar-a-Lago, a decadent den of sin and corruption staffed mostly by teenage girls.

Without pulling a single punch, South Park executes the most cutting satire of MAGA yet, with plenty of humor and a good story throughout. It’s not even showing these people at their worst, it’s showing them for what they are. People inside the cult can’t see it. Even if they could, many wouldn’t care, and would support even more explicitly racist and violent policies. But for the few who can be reached, this is a visceral way to do it.

The call from inside the house

South Park has another advantage that makes it the perfect vehicle for this satire. The show has long been viewed, rightly or wrongly, as right wing-coded. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone aren’t wishy-washy, whiny, bleeding-heart liberals. They’ve always been politically incorrect, which has made South Park a rare common ground for both thoughtful social critics and boorish right-wing assholes alike.

Of course, Trump is also politically incorrect. It is surely politically incorrect to racially target human beings for extraordinary rendition, grab unwilling women “by the pussy,” be best friends with Jeffrey Epstein, and attempt an insurrection at the Capitol when you lose an election. But does that make these things good? Parker and Stone, perhaps unlike MAGA, realize that the answer is no.

Until now, MAGA may have thought Parker and Stone were on their side. This new season shows, definitively, that they’re not. They clearly see the Trump Administration as a rank, criminal cabal that has gone so far off the rails that they have no idea where the rails even are anymore. This is what MAGA supports: psychopaths who shoot puppies, racist goons eager to abuse anyone with darker skin than Ed Sheeran, and a reckless authoritarian running the nation from a decadent compound in Florida.

The show probably won’t get through to anyone in MAGA or change any minds, simply because minds in America don’t change easily. Some will laugh it off and ignore the meaning behind the jokes. Others will just say South Park has gone woke. But it’s inspiring to see creators tackle the Trump era in this way. It may sometimes be petty, and it may sometimes be juvenile, but let’s not forget who we’re dealing with here. They deserve no better.

I’ve been writing about politics since before the Trump era, and I’ve tried to give a balanced assessment from the beginning. And the balanced assessment is: He’s an absolute monster. Sometimes I get tired of researching and writing articles, of presenting facts that MAGA is programmed to ignore anyway, and I just want to scream: “This is a sleazy, corrupt toad of a man surrounded by lying, shameless sycophants and stupid, violent bigots, and I am rapidly losing patience and respect for anyone who can’t see it.” What I struggle to express in a journalistic essay, South Park makes plain as day with their utterly savage satire. They have truly captured the essence of this administration, revealing it for the depraved, demented carnival it is.

Satire and ridicule are far more effective weapons against fascism than reasoned arguments. We need far more of it. Since these people do not engage ethically or honestly, the best way to deal with them is with mockery and contempt. Forget trying to reach MAGA with kindness or understanding. Hold the mirror up to them instead. If there’s any humanity left, they won’t like what they see.

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July 20, 2025

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Trump, Epstein, and MAGA’s greatest test of faith

After more than 10 years skating over every controversy and scandal, something sinister from President Donald Trump’s past appears to be catching up with him: His longtime friendship with the wealthy pedophilic sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Ever since Epstein’s 2019 arrest and suspicious death in custody, he has been a fixture of conspiracy theories. The most prominent theories allege that Epstein was an intelligence asset, working for either the US, Israel, or both, and that his function was to gather blackmail on powerful figures. Whether that’s true or not, two things are undisputed: Epstein was a pedophilic human trafficker who committed bizarre sex crimes on his private island, and he associated with numerous high-profile figures, including former President Bill Clinton, megabillionaire Bill Gates, and President Donald Trump.

Until recently, though, Trump has largely escaped scrutiny over his ties to Epstein. His MAGA base, which had been so obsessed with the story, put on blinders when it came to the two men’s relationship. They elected Trump, in part, because of their belief that he would blow the Epstein conspiracy wide open and incriminate their political enemies in an international sex trafficking ring. The “Epstein files,” as they’ve been dubbed, would be a smoking-gun list of names, financial transactions, and crimes perpetrated by prominent people in government and business, perhaps with photographic evidence. This belief was pushed by Trump Administration officials like FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both former podcasters.

But when it came time to publicize information on the Epstein case, the Trump Administration began changing its tune. They reversed multiple promises to release the files and have shifted their story numerous times. Over the last several weeks they have claimed variously that they can’t release the files because they need to protect the victims, that there is actually nothing of any interest in the files anyway, and now, that the entire thing is a hoax.

Exactly what Trump means by “hoax” is unclear. He claims that the so-called “Epstein files” were written by high-level and deep-state Democrats, presumably to damage him. If that’s the case, it’s unclear why Democrats sat on the file for so long instead of using it against him in the 2024 election. The hoax line is more likely Trump’s attempt to prepare his supporters to reject anything that may implicate him in the case.

This line isn’t working yet, at least not on everyone. While the MAGA backlash has been overstated by some wishful-thinking media figures, some members of the coalition are having their faith tested by Trump’s reversals and erratic response, including his insistence that “nobody cares about” the Epstein case and that supporters who do care are falling into a trap laid by his Democratic enemies.

Most MAGA propagandists, though, have heard the call from the leader and fallen in line – quite literally. Charlie Kirk, who called on the Department of Justice to release all Epstein files on July 11, reversed himself days later after a phone call with Trump, saying on July 14 that he was “done talking about Epstein.” Ben Shapiro and Steve Bannon have similarly urged people to move on. Trump has meanwhile escalated attacks on supporters who want Epstein answers, calling them weaklings and saying, “I don’t want their support anymore!”

For now, Trump has settled into a lane of calling the case a hoax and trying to wash his hands of accountability. He has recently made superficial gestures toward allowing the release of anything pertinent or credible. Of course, it will be up to Charlie Kirk’s trusted “friends in the administration” to decide what is pertinent and credible before releasing anything.

Trumpstein’s Monster

Despite all the oxygen the case has received in conservative media, they’re still glossing over the elephant in the room: the myriad ties Trump himself has to Epstein. There may be good reasons for Trump to be nervous about the file and to try playing it off as a hoax. Below are just a handful of highlights of both his confirmed and credibly alleged ties to Epstein, along with some other creepy behavior and suspicious circumstances.

  • Numerous photographs and video show Trump and Epstein hanging out. In one of these videos, Trump and Epstein are dancing together and ogling some girls.
  • Trump previously gushed with praise for Epstein to the media, including this statement from a 2002 interview that hasn’t aged well: “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy… He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
  • Epstein claimed that he and Trump were best friends for more than 10 years and provided other salacious details in a 2017 interview with Michael Wolff.
  • Trump’s name appears seven times in the flight logs for Epstein’s private jet, the Lolita Express.
  • When Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s head recruiter of underage girls and the right hand of his operation, was arrested in 2020, Trump simply said, “I wish her well.” 
  • Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s more famous victims, met and was recruited by Maxwell while she was a teenager working at Mar-a-Lago. Giuffre committed suicide in April 2025.
  • Trump owned both adult and teen beauty pageants, and once boasted that he felt free to barge into the dressing rooms of contestants whenever he felt like it.
  • In the infamous Access Hollywood tape, Trump bragged he could approach any woman and “grab them by the pussy” due to his star power.
  • More than 16 women have credibly accused Trump of sexual assault. One of these, E. Jean Carroll, was awarded $5 million in 2023 by a jury that found Trump liable for sexual assault. Another woman alleges Trump and Epstein tied her to a bed and raped her in 1994 when she was 13, but she withdrew her lawsuit after receiving unspecified threats.
  • The Wall Street Journal uncovered a cryptic, creepy message Trump wrote for Epstein’s 50th birthday in which he doodles a naked woman and writes about a “wonderful secret.”
  • Epstein’s second arrest, as well as his mysterious death in prison which sparked so much conspiracy theorizing, occurred during Trump’s first term.

None of Trump’s public associations with Epstein directly implicate him in anything criminal. And, according to all available knowledge, the two fell out around 2004, after which they had little if any contact. Nonetheless it’s a damning picture, one of an amoral man who feels entitled to take liberties with women’s bodies. This is someone who we shouldn’t be shocked to learn harbors even deeper, more depraved secrets that he wants to keep hidden.

The inevitable kiss-and-make-up

Of course, this isn’t the kind of thing MAGA wants to hear. Epstein was supposed to be their vehicle to take down the Clintons and the Democrats, not Trump. And as Trump tries to regain hold of the narrative around Epstein, his supporters do seem to be going along. Despite sensational media headlines reporting an enormous fracture in MAGA over Trump’s bizarre handling of the Epstein case, there is scant evidence of an irreparable rift. One poll even shows Trump has gained support from his base during this saga.

Indeed, it may all end up working out in Trump’s favor. As the negative news from hated media sources piles up, supporters will rally to his side. Even if the worst was revealed, the level of cope and self-delusion MAGA will put themselves through is seemingly limitless. They’ve been perfectly trained to reject anything anti-Trump instinctively, with a consistency that would be the envy of any dictator in history. As with so many toxic relationships, this little quarrel may only strengthen their commitment.

Of all the people known to have associations with Epstein, none seem to have had a more intimate or longer-lasting friendship than Trump. And he’s undeniably been proven wrong about one thing: People do care about this case and they do want to know the truth. Unfortunately, with Trump in charge of what does and doesn’t get leaked, and with he and his propagandists on FOX News and YouTube working at warp speed to muddy the waters, we are in probably the worst possible position to ever actually learn that truth. 

But for one, brief moment, Trump showed a bit of wobbliness. His grip on some of his supporters weakened and he lashed out at them like a petulant child. Maybe it opened some eyes. And perhaps, if the news gets bad enough and unavoidable enough, the loyalty of his supporters may not be as absolute as he once imagined.

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The depths of depravity of Donald J. Trump

As the 2024 election speeds to a close, Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’s closing argument against former President Donald Trump is this: He’s a fascist, a threat to democracy, and too dangerous to elect.

That argument holds a lot of weight, but it has two big problems. One is that Democrats have been making this argument for nine years, with mixed results at best. Two is that Trump served as President for four years and did not become a full authoritarian — though not for lack of trying.

With the election apparently so close, it may feel like political malpractice to trot out the same unpersuasive argument and allow Trump to come so close to the White House again. But in all the furor and focus on his latest politically incorrect outrage, it can be easy to lose sight of the simple truth: This man is extremely dangerous and corrupt, and he must not be allowed back into the White House.

The “fascist” question

Almost everyone, including historians and political scientists, have slightly varying definitions of fascism, and even historical fascist societies differed in certain meaningful ways. In modern American political dialect, it basically means, “Anyone who makes me do something I don’t like,” from filing taxes to stopping at red lights. This makes calling Trump a fascist problematic, even if the shoe fits.

Nonetheless, there are a few distinguishing features that most conceptions of fascism share.

  • Authoritarian rule. Power concentrated in a leader with a devoted cult of personality, in whom people see a living embodiment of the nation
  • Police state. A militarized society, including citizen militias and police suppression of protests, speech, and other forms of dissent
  • Propaganda. Rampant propaganda that is rife with lies, conspiracy, and dehumanizing language
  • Censorship. Dissent or open disagreement with official narratives and state policies may be outlawed and punished violently
  • In-group vs. out-group. Hatred of “others,” such as immigrants, the LGBTQ community, leftists, or academics
  • National and cultural mythology. Desire to preserve or attain “purity” of culture, language, and/or race and ethnicity, often through appeals to a mythical past
  • Hyper-capitalism. The merger of the state with corporations and business leaders
  • War. Jingoism and an aggressive foreign policy

Any honest, informed person can see how much of this applies to Trump. His authoritarian ambitions and cult of personality are no secret. He uses dehumanizing rhetoric on his enemies and on immigrants, calling them “vermin,” “scum,” and “the enemy within” that is “poisoning the blood of our country.” He has threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of news organizations critical of him. On January 6, 2021, he incited a mob to attempt to halt the peaceful transfer of power after losing an election. And despite his talk of peace, he pursued a hawkish foreign policy rife with war crimes.

Of course, America itself is fascistic in many ways. We are a right-wing, corporate-run nation with a militarized police force that protects ruling class interests. We wage, fund, and arm more war than any other nation, with nearly unanimous, bipartisan support. Our media and education systems exalt American exceptionalism while stoking reactionary paranoias about declared enemies.

But with his overt hostility toward criticism, utter amorality, and willingness to do anything to stay in power, Trump pushes the fascist envelope further than any conventional American politician. And there is every indication he is ready and emboldened to go even further if he gets back into office. Whether he’s a textbook fascist or not is beside the point. He is a Trumpist, and that is plenty dangerous enough.

Corruption, loud and proud

If one key component of fascism is the merging of corporations and the government, Trump is the personification of it. A walking, talking brand brought to life, he’s blurred the lines between business and state like none before him — often flaunting his open corruption of public institutions. He put corporate donors in charge of the very parts of government they most wanted to destroy, including climate change denier Scott Pruitt at the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, for-profit school fanatic Betsy DeVos in the Department of Education, and Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

Some of the signature moments of Trump’s 2016 campaign came when he acknowledged his first-hand dealings with the corruption of Washington— by bragging that he paid off politicians and used loopholes to dodge his taxes. It felt like a populist moment, as if Trump was saying, “I’ve been inside the belly of the beast, so I know how to fight it.” But Trump didn’t see the light and become Robin Hood. Before, during, and after his presidency, he has been one of the most crooked and corrupt people in history.

Not only does Trump not pay his taxes, he doesn’t pay his bills, either. There are hundreds of stories of contractors, workers, and professionals claiming they were stiffed by Trump. His campaign doesn’t even pay the venues and cities where it holds rallies. Just as one example, they currently owe the city of Albuquerque more than $444,000.

Perhaps most prominently, he was convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records earlier in 2024. In 2016, shortly before assuming office, he was ordered to pay $21 million in restitution to Americans defrauded by his Trump University scam. Trump’s charity was shuttered and a court ordered him to pay $2 million for misusing its funds to, among other things, purchase a portrait of himself. Since leaving office Trump has sold his name to NFT and cryptocurrency scams, collectors’ coins, and even a line of Chinese-made Trump bibles.

Even more seriously, Trump took money from foreign governments throughout his presidency, including Saudi Arabia, China, Qatar, Turkey, and others. According to a congressional letter investigating these payments, “Each of these countries sought — and in many cases obtained — favors and specific policy outcomes from [Trump and his] Administration while they made these payments.” Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, accepted a whopping $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia. More recently, Trump all but openly sold the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, a position in his administration after Musk pledged to donate $45 million a month to Trump’s campaign.

As one final matter in Trump’s long saga of dishonesty and criminality, there is his close association with convicted pedophile and sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. Some details are sordid and unsubstantiated, but Trump’s history of sexual abuse allegations, photos showing him at parties with Epstein, and public comments he’s made about Epstein being a “terrific guy” who likes girls “on the younger side” are certainly disturbing. It’s a testament to Trump’s political prowess and control over his supporters that MAGA, which is usually obsessed with Epstein stories and celebrity pedophilia, completely looks the other way.

This is a man who has lied and ripped off Americans his entire life. His primary reason for seeking office appears to be shielding himself from the civil and criminal investigations his fraudulent behavior has kicked up — as well as enacting the far-right agenda of his fascistic, corporate enablers.

Second time around

Trump was already president for four years, and although he did enormous damage, the nation survived. Plenty of pundits therefore argue that hysteria over a second Trump term is unwarranted. That may be so. Nobody can predict the future. But there is also plenty of reason to expect him to be much worse this time around: unleashed, emboldened, and screaming for vengeance.

There’s little doubt Trump would’ve liked to follow his fascist instincts further in his first term. Dozens of former Trump Administration officials attest to this, including prominent ones like General John Kelly and former Vice President Mike Pence. Pence, for instance, refused to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. And when Trump phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to “find” enough votes for Trump to win the state, Kemp likewise refused.

But those guardrails, whether they be “normal” bureaucrats, courts, or other institutions, only barely held. Trump surrounded himself with people willing to kowtow to him and carry out most of his worst orders — but many of them had at least a minimal consideration for the appearances of a civil democracy. Trump himself has no regard for those appearances, nor, seemingly, does JD Vance or the cadre of far-right extremists on board the campaign this go-round. MAGA also has a much better sense of what they can get away with now. Guardrails are only really maintained by people. Those people won’t be there this time.

Reelecting Trump will give him a mandate, and he will see it as validation for his worst impulses, which have been on full display during the campaign — such as his amplification of a neo-Nazi hoax that Haitian immigrants eat neighborhood cats and dogs in Ohio. A potential blueprint for a Trump Administration can be found in Project 2025, a far-right fever dream of authoritarianism, corporatism, and retrograde theocracy. He’s also expressed a desire for more extreme forms of fascism, including rounding up and deporting millions of human beings and interning them in detention camps.

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of Trump is the devotion he inspires in supporters. After nine years, they still believe his every lie. They want him to go further. They are willing to storm the Capital and perhaps far more on his behalf. He’s impervious to facts; any criticism, including this entire article, can be easily shrugged off by a built-in defense mechanism that reassures supporters that any negative story is a liberal media lie.

Reading about Trump’s runaway criminality and abuses is exhausting. This article only scratches the surface, and it’s tempting to simply tune out. For nine years Democrats have failed to present a positive alternative. The media, too, have largely failed by focusing more on petty drama and personal flaws. But the odiousness of Trump is, in fact, the best argument against him. He is an amoral, fascistic, crooked, serially unfaithful, and pathologically dishonest man. Apart from his reprehensible character, his corporatist, militarist policies and authoritarian ambitions will be immensely destructive to the working class, the environment, and the world.

Felony convictions can’t take him down. His supporters cannot be swayed. The ballot is America’s best hope of ridding Trump from the conversation — at least for the next four years.