Victor Davis Hanson dismantles narrative that Trump is governing like a ‘fascist’

Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson refuted the narrative that President Donald Trump is governing as a fascist during a Thursday interview.

Democrats have repeatedly suggested Trump is akin to Adolf Hitler and labeled him a fascist. However, Hanson argued during a GB News interview that the allegations against Trump lack merit, asserting former President Joe Biden governed in a more fascistic manner and that the current president differs from 20th-century fascists in a meaningful way.

WATCH:

“He’s not using the federal government in the way that Joe Biden did. In other words, Joe Biden is not having his house raided right now to see if there’s any more classified files … his subordinates are not looking at taking candidates off the ballot in the midterms or in the next presidential election,” Hanson said. “There’s not ongoing cases against potential Democratic rivals by state [and] local prosecutors.”

The FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, bringing cover sheets reading “top secret” to use as placeholders in their gathering of classified documents. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in March 2024 that Colorado could not remove Trump from its 2024 ballot after the Colorado Supreme Court found him ineligible.

Trump faced two state criminal cases during his 2024 election campaign. Matthew Colangelo, one of the prosecutors who worked on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump, previously served as a top official in the Biden Department of Justice.

“If anything, he’s more transparent. Fascists were not transparent. They got on the balcony once in a while and gave a lecture, but everything was done in secret,” he added. “I have never seen a president that have cabinet meetings that are broadcast live. And even the leaked conversation about the Houthis — you saw a lot of different opinion back and forth. And so there is no fascist ideology that anybody detected.”

Hanson also noted that it is typical for Republican presidents to face Nazism and fascism allegations during their tenure.

“That’s what they did to [former President] Ronald Reagan. As soon as he leaves office, and if he were to be succeeded by another Republican, then he is a statesman in comparison to the Nazis,” he said. “So [former President] George Bush was called a digital brown shirt by [former Vice President] Al Gore … And then Bush was out of office, and then Trump came in, and everybody said, ‘I wish we had George Bush. He was a statesman. He was a moderate.’ And that’s the cycle.”

“But 90% of the people don’t know what the word fascist means,” he continued. “That is to use the government and abrogate a constitution and rule by dictatorial powers, and, more importantly, to control industry and national economic policy and dictate to it and run it as state-run.”

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