Trump is following 'the fascist playbook to the letter': historian

Donald Trump's recent fundraising emails have become even more unhinged and delusional, and they should serve as a warning about his plans for re-election.

The former president and Republican frontrunner threatens and intimidated prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officials, and they helped him scare up $46 million in contributions in the third quarter of this year, but experts told Salon they're concerned about his escalating rhetoric.

"The goal of fascism is to turn politics into warfare," said Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of political rhetoric at Texas A&M and author of "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump." To do this, [fascist leaders] narrate a world of chaos, corruption and hypocrisy. They position their opposition as enemies who cheat, as untrustworthy and determined to undermine and destroy all that's good and noble. If the fascist can convince his followers that there is so much scary chaos and so many enemies, then the fascist rises to power because people want the 'strong arm of the fascist to solve problems."'

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"Trump follows this fascist playbook to the letter: There are determined and scary enemies," Mercieca added. "Those enemies have broken all of the rules to attack Trump, whose only crime was trying to defend his followers from their attacks. Trump suffers for his followers, so his followers owe him. They owe him their loyalty, votes and money. Trump vows to continue to fight on, because his fight is really their fight. His followers should stand with him and give him power so he can keep fighting for them."

Federico Finchelstein, a historian at the New School and author of “A Brief History of Fascist Lies,” argued that Trump's recent fundraising pitches show that he has fully combined his public persona of aspiring dictator with his alleged business success to sell "salvation" to his followers.

"If fascism was a totalitarian ideology, movement and regime, Trumpism is that plus a personal business," Finchelstein said. "The fascist identification between people, nation and leader mutates in Trumpism. It becomes not only a wannabe fascist project but also a business. ... Trump promises a new salvation that invokes the racist past but also is indifferent to it. Reaction and lies about the future are combined by Trump."