Thomas ZimmerFeb 16, 2025

“He who saves his Country does not violate any law,” Donald Trump said yesterday.

Two possible reactions:

1) Continue on the trajectory that got us here in the first place by discarding this as “just Trump being Trump”

2) Grapple in earnest with the fact that Trump asserts dictatorial power as the providential leader tasked with saving the nation.

This is acutely dangerous.

Show threadThomas ZimmerFeb 16, 2025
According to Trump and his supporters, only one man, one providential leader can guide the nation to its re-birth and former glory – “Only I,” Trump likes to say; he was “chosen by God” to save America, he said in his inaugural address. He means it. Those around him mean it.
Show threadThomas ZimmerFeb 16, 2025
Trumpists regard any opposition to their project of national purification and re-birth as fundamentally illegitimate. It is dogma among Trump’s supporters that he as their leader embodies the will of the true people, the Volk. Trump is the tribune of “real America.”
Show threadThomas ZimmerFeb 16, 2025
Calling this fascism offers no magic solution. But the idea that it is somehow ridiculous and beyond the pale to call Trumpism fascist relies on a naively dismissive view of Trump – and on ignoring the accelerating radicalization on the Right that has been happening around and in support of Trump.
Show threadJeffandthekid
I hasten to add “stupid” in describing Elong.
Feb 16, 2025 at 6:34pmWeb