EDITORIAL: Let’s stop pretending, THIS IS FASCISM

Trump's authoritarianism isn’t hypothetical—it’s unfolding now, in plain sight

We need to stop pretending. We need to stop tiptoeing around reality, as though naming it will summon something worse. The truth is, what we are seeing under Donald Trump in 2025 is fascism—not the caricature from World War II documentaries, but something modernized, camouflaged in patriotism, sanitized for prime time, and adapted for a nominally democratic system. No, this is not 1930s Germany. There are no gas chambers. But fascism doesn’t always come with jackboots. Sometimes, it arrives in a tailored suit, with a teleprompter, a grin, and a military parade.

That parade happened last weekend: a $45 million taxpayer-funded spectacle for Trump’s birthday, complete with tanks, troops, and a fleet of attack helicopters. This was not just pageantry. It was political theater designed to display dominance, to warn critics, and to lay the groundwork for escalating authoritarianism. Trump’s message was explicit: if you protest, not riot, not destroy property, just protest—you will be met with “very heavy force.” That is a quote. That is where we are.

Think he’s bluffing? Look at Los Angeles. After ICE raids sparked demonstrations, Trump took the extraordinary—and illegal—step of deploying 700 Marines and thousands of National Guard troops into an American city. He did this with no request from Mayor Karen Bass, no approval from Governor Gavin Newsom, and no legal invocation of the Insurrection Act. It violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a post-Reconstruction law meant to keep the military from being used against civilians. These Marines were trained for warzones like Afghanistan, not American streets. They had no clear rules of engagement. Even the LAPD, hardly a bastion of liberal resistance, said it opposed the move and hadn’t been notified in advance.

This is how fascism works. Not all at once, but piece by piece. It chips away at norms and laws, criminalizes dissent, and consolidates power. ABC News just fired veteran journalist Terry Moran for referring to Trump and Stephen Miller as "haters." Governors who push back against unconstitutional overreach are threatened with arrest. Speaker Mike Johnson even suggested Gavin Newsom should be “tarred and feathered.” Dissent is equated with disloyalty. Protest becomes treason. This isn’t just dangerous rhetoric—it’s the architecture of authoritarian rule.

The Trump administration, if we can still call it that, is not reinventing anything. It is imitating—and in some cases, quoting—global autocrats. Mussolini had his military parades. Erdogan used nationalism to crack down on press freedoms. Putin stages crises and blames foreign agitators. Stephen Miller, Trump’s longtime adviser, helped engineer a deliberate strategy: provoke protests, escalate militarily, then use the backlash to justify more state violence. It’s a vicious loop designed to end with power centralized and resistance crushed.

If this seems familiar, it should. This is how democratic decline happens around the world. Slowly. Then all at once.

This is no longer about policy debates. It’s not about whether you prefer a flat tax or Medicare for All. This is about whether democracy itself survives. And if you think Trump will stop at California, you haven’t been paying attention. He escalates every time he’s threatened—by a court loss, a drop in the polls, a critical news story. His instinct is not to recalibrate, but to punish. Violence is no longer a side effect of his politics—it is now baked into the system.

So what do we do? We name it. Clearly. We stop rationalizing this as “Trump being Trump.” We call it fascism. And we show up—not just in the streets, but in the ballot box, in local government, in the media, in our communities. The GOP is enabling this slide toward authoritarianism, and we can’t stop it by being passive observers. Everyone has a platform, and it must be used. Because fascism thrives on silence, confusion, and normalization. The more we excuse it, the more it grows.

This is not theater. This is not satire. This is real. It’s happening right now. And we can still stop it—but only if we abandon the illusion that it can’t happen here. It is happening here.

This is the moment when clarity matters. Speak up. Stand up. Because if we wait until the military is knocking on every city’s door, it will be too late.