section_path: Comparisons/Anti-democratic sentiment and illiberalism
section_name: Anti-democratic sentiment and illiberalism
paragraph_text: Anti-democratic sentiment and illiberalism
  
  Trumpism has been likened to Benito Mussolini 's Italian fascism by critics of Trump. Historians and election experts have compared Trump's anti-democratic tendencies and egotistical personality to the sentiments and rhetoric of Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism. Trumpism heavily features authoritarian elements, over the prevalence of fascism and neo-fascism within Trumpism. Several scholars have rejected comparisons with fascism, instead viewing Trump as authoritarian and populist.
  
  During his 2016 campaign, Trump implied that he would not accept the results of the 2016 United States presidential election if he did not win, preemptively claiming that he could only lose due to electoral fraud. Following his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election, Trump and other Republicans tried to overturn the results, making widespread false claims of fraud. Due to these false claims, in addition to the January 6 United States Capitol attack that Trump incited, political opponents have labeled Trump as a "threat to democracy".
  
  Journalist Patrick Cockburn stated that Trump's politics risk turning the United States into an illiberal democracy similar to Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, and the Philippines. According to civil rights lawyer Burt Neuborne and political theorist William E. Connolly, Trump's rhetoric employs tropes similar to those used by fascists in Germany to persuade citizens (at first a minority) to give up democracy, by using a barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, personal invective, xenophobia, national-security scares, religious bigotry, white racism, exploitation of economic insecurity, and a never-ending search for scapegoats. Some research has highlighted Trump's connections to neoliberalism and has argued that his policies represent an intensification of such policies as part of a "fascist creep" on American politics. Corporatocracy and plutocracy are concepts often used to describe corporate elitism associated with Trump.
  
  During his 2024 campaign, Trump has made numerous authoritarian and antidemocratic statements. Trump's previous comments, such as suggesting he can "terminate" the Constitution to reverse his election loss, his claim that he would only be a dictator on "day one" of his presidency and not after, his promise to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies, and his plan to use the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military in Democratic cities and states, have raised concerns over Trump's rhetoric.
  
  Trump has stated that he would deploy the military on American soil to fight "the enemy from within", which he describes as "radical left lunatics" and Democratic politicians such as Adam Schiff. His political rhetoric since 2016 has been based on an us vs them framework, with the in-group being defined as "real Americans" and the rival, out-groups including Muslims, leftists, intellectuals and immigrants. He has repeatedly encouraged weaponized chants at his rallies, including calls to imprison 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and has promoted the conspiracy theory that Jewish philanthropist George Soros was responsible for a large influx of illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States.
  
  Trump has repeatedly voiced support for outlawing political dissent and criticism he considers misleading or challenges his claims to power. After General Mark Milley said that Trump would start persecuting his political opponents if he won the 2024 presidential election, Trump suggested that Milley should be executed for treason, with Republican representative Paul Gosar further stating that, in a better society, "sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung". Retired general Barry McCaffrey said, regarding Trump's statements, that "what we are seeing is a parallel to the 1930s in Nazi Germany". Trump's formal policy plan for a second term, Agenda 47, has been characterized as fascist. Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat stated that the similarities between the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and Mussolini's "Laws for the Defense of the State", which transformed Italy into a repressive regime, are "striking", citing the elimination of judicial independence and the strengthening of executive authority.
  
  How Democracies Die author Daniel Ziblatt said that Trump's combined employment of false allegations against his political opponents and allusions of retribution by American patriots is similar to tactics used by Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and 1930s European fascists. An analysis by NPR found that between 2022 and October 2024, "Trump has made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents."
  
  In February 2025, Trump posted a computer-generated image of himself wearing a crown, declaring " Long live the king! " Critics took this as evidence of Trump having monarchist tendencies.