Michael Tomasky: ‘Fascism’ Is the Best Way to Describe Trump’s First 100 Days

EXCERPT:

TOMASKY: "Well, as I was sitting down to write the piece, Mika, I was I was thinking about the Trump Administration’s actions over the first 100 days and thinking, you know, can I classify them or categorize them? And I think you can. Most of the actions fall under the category of what I see as fascism. That word may be too strong for some people, but authoritarianism, it’s not that different. A defiant lawlessness, a challenge to existing laws, a challenge to democratic, small 'd' democratic values and norms and institutions, ceaselessly and relentlessly and much more forcefully than I imagined and virtually everyone I talked to imagined that they would be, from the firings of the inspectors general, which was, if you read that statute, probably illegal, to the treatment of people like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and other things. So there’s that category. Then there’s another category of actions that, frankly, are just kind of laughably incompetent. The tariffs being exhibit A on that. But certain other things, too, certain activities by DOGE, for example, you know, firing and then rehiring people. So you put those together and you have what I call clown show fascism."