In Name Only

As Robert O. Paxton notes, it’s tempting to label President Trump a fascist [“American Duce,” Revision, May]. Just look at Trump’s far-right entourage—Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller über alles—or at the neo-Nazi trolls praising him as their “Dear Leader.” It’s clear that Trump enjoys ignorant race-baiting, knee-jerk authoritarianism, and gilded grandiosity, but Paxton is right to conclude that it’s smoke without a fire. We’ve seen no redemptive nationalism, no political theology, no revolutionary dynamic. Indeed, an academic consensus now exists that fascism is not a helpful framework for thinking about Trump, especially when the term is reduced…