In the closing days of the 2024 Election, Donald Trump's fascist inclinations could do him in.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday found that 49% of registered voters view Trump as a fascist, which the pollsters described to respondents as "a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents.”
That poll was mostly conducted before The New York Times published a story in which retired Gen. John Kelly, Trump's longest-serving White House chief of staff, went on the record explicitly calling Trump a fascist who admired Adolf Hitler.
Kelly told The New York Times that Trump “prefers the dictator approach to government,” adding that when he was president, Trump believed he had the “ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted.”
And Kelly said he worried that in a second term—in which Trump would likely be surrounded by yes-men—Trump would make good on his promise to use the military against American citizens whom Trump views as disloyal.
“I think this issue of using the military on—to go after—American citizens is one of those things I think is a very, very bad thing—even to say it for political purposes to get elected—I think it’s a very, very bad thing, let alone actually doing it,” Kelly told The New York Times.
In true Trump fashion, Trump called Kelly a “degenerate” and a “LOWLIFE.”
But Politico reported on Friday that more than a dozen former Trump White House officials wrote a letter saying they backed Kelly and believed he is telling the truth about his interactions with Trump and his assessment of the danger a second Trump term presents.
“We applaud General Kelly for highlighting in stark details the danger of a second Trump term,” wrote the former aides, who include former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews; former assistant secretary of homeland security Elizabeth Neumann; former press secretary to former Vice President Mike Pence Alyssa Farah Griffin; and former Pence national security adviser Olivia Troye.
“Like General Kelly, we did not take the decision to come forward lightly. We are all lifelong Republicans who served our country. However, there are moments in history where it becomes necessary to put country over party. This is one of those moments” their letter stated. “Everyone should heed General Kelly’s warning.”
Vice President Kamala Harris is drawing attention to the Republican warnings of Trump’s authoritarian ways. She gave a speech at her residence on Wednesday after Kelly's remarks were published.
"Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions,” Harris said. “Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there and no longer be there to rein him in.”
She also said at a CNN town hall on Wednesday that she believes Trump is a fascist.
And now she is using Kelly's warning about Trump's fascist tendencies in two new ads in the run up to Nov. 5.
The ads use the audio of Kelly’s interview with The New York Times and ends with a written warning: “Donald Trump is unhinged. Unstable. In pursuit of unchecked power.”
The ad ends with the words: “Vote November 5.”
Politico reported that Harris' campaign held focus groups with undecided voters who said that Kelly's warnings that Trump is a fascist could get them to turn out for Harris.
Let’s hope that sanity prevails and voters reject fascism at the ballot box.
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