section_path: Criticism of the comparison
section_name: Criticism of the comparison
paragraph_text: Criticism of the comparison
  
  In response to multiple authors claiming that the then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was a fascist, a 2016 article for Vox cited five historians who study fascism, including Roger Griffin, author of The Nature of Fascism, who stated that Trump either does not hold or even is opposed to several political viewpoints that are integral to fascism, including viewing violence as an inherent good and an inherent rejection of or opposition to a democratic system. In 2020, Vox contacted a group of experts on fascism for their view, with most rejecting the comparison but expressing concern about Trump's authoritarian and violent tendencies, including historians Roger Griffin and Stanley Payne. Historian Richard J. Evans also rejected comparisons to fascism. In 2018, he wrote a negative review of both Albright and Snyder's books as having a "vague and confused" view of what defines fascism. A paper in International Critical Thought stated in 2017 that the Trump's administration was not hegemonic nor fascist, but that it signaled the rise of a right-wing nationalist movement. Benjamin R. Teitelbaum has stated he "unequivocally reject using the term" fascist to describe Trump on epistemological and pedagogical grounds, viewing it as "an end of inquiry". Roger Griffin also argued that Trump displayed some but not all traits of fascism, and that his actions on January 6 were not those of a fascist leader but of an " ochlocrat ".
  
  In a 2024 Guardian column, Jan Werner-Müller argued that rejecting the label can be done while acknowledging the dangers Trump creates to democracy. Geoff Boucher, writing for The Conversation in 2024, argues Trump represents instead a 'new authoritarianism' that relies on administration instead of paramilitaries to subvert democracy, a definition seconded by The Herald. Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, a historian at Wesleyan University, in an interview with Historian Joshua Zeitz, stated while he thought Trump had an authoritarian and illiberal vision, he was unsure if Trump was a fascist, but that by "not framing him this way, it does not at all mean that he is not a threat". Griffin has since caveated this with the following statement that "in standard academic terms, he (Trump) is not one (a fascist), he is something worse". In Brazilian Portuguese, the term biliocracia ('rule by billionaires') was used to describe his administration and ideology.
  
  Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, some Republicans including JD Vance, Stephen Miller, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argued that comparing Trump to a fascist or a Nazi could incite violence. Susan Benesch, founding director of the Dangerous Speech Project, has called such comparisons " a pot calling the kettle black ", and noted that Trump's continued use of inflammatory rhetoric against Democrats has not stopped. In response to John F. Kelly and Mark Milley calling Trump a fascist, Vance dismissed their claims and characterized them both as "disgruntled former employees".