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.