We can now see clearly how Trump/MAGA/Musk’s implementation of Project 2025 can legitimately be called fascist

~ Louis Further ~

With the usual caveat that the very word ‘fascism’ should not be used loosely (you are invited to look at Notes From the US from November 2021 and almost two years later for discussions of its attributes—especially in the context of the United States), it is not clear that the implementation of Project 2025 can and does fit the description.

It’s components are prioritised and pushed through at all cost: centralisation; actions based on selfishness; destruction; racism and supremacism; the lie that only-one-man-can-fix-it; the myth of a racially-‘pure’ golden age; elevation of militarism; anti-science; deception. And more. Prudishness for instance: Lamar school district in Texas has banned display of the state of Virginia’s flag because includes a drawing of the Roman goddess, ‘Virtus’, with her left breast exposed.

At under six months in not all of these areas have been given equal prominence so far.

New aspects of the platform, though, appear every day. Para-news outlets are being given preference at the White House, for instance, while more creditable and conventional organs (with all their faults) are excluded. 

Attacks on education are under way: de-funding of institutions at the tertiary, primary and secondary levels, interference in curriculum and hiring, accreditation and management are all ongoing.

The removal of sources which advance alternative views to those of the cult is rife.

Imposition of economic chaos (tariffs etc) is widespread; primarily to induce fear; secondarily to redistribute wealth to the already rich.

And of course scapegoating non-whites and those with views which diverge from those of Trump/MAGA/Musk with state kidnapping, trafficking and deportation continues. Getting on for a staggering thousand anti-LGBTQ bills have been brought forward across the country so far this year. There is sadism and cruelty—withholding of relief funds, for instance—against those adversely affected by natural disasters.

Racism

Two recent events nicely illustrate the mentality of Trump and his MAGA cult followers behind this agenda.

At the start of May there was an incident in a public park in Rochester, Minnesota. A young white woman used a racist insult to accuse a five-year-old child (who was also autistic) of taking something belonging to her own son. A bystander who was videoing what happened asked her whether she thought her verbal assault justified use of the N-word. She replied, “If that’s what he’s going to act like…” Instead of mediation, resolution by friends and families, attempts to censure the mother’s behaviour, right wing media outlets and social media rushed to the woman’s aid. Within a few days nearly three quarters of a million dollars (£500,000) was raised to endorse her behaviour and justify her verbal abuse and attack on a black child by supporting her financially and crowing approval of her ‘right’ to supremacy. Being ‘woke’ and respecting others—especially black children with disabilities—is truly outrageous for them. But consistent with Trump/MAGA/Musk’s priorities.

Then—because Trump/MAGA/Musk cannot, or will not, accept that our only planet needs preserving—plans were announced to abolish one small effort for wise stewardship of energy resources. In itself doing away with The Energy Star programme will save little money. It’s a token, though, of just how deplorable to the cult are efforts merely acknowledge environmental crisis by saving energy: a provocative gesture based on ignorance and the cult’s fervent embrace of anti-science dogma. Because the cult is based on selfishness, its members are incapable of believing that environmentalists are not acting from self-interest – as they are doing with their latest meme coin scheme. To the cultists “pinko treehuggers” must have invented a hoax to serve themselves financially.

As threatened in Project 2025 the cult is now attempting to shut down or curtail the reach of any media body that presents informed views different from their own. This extends to orders intended to de-fund or financially throttle the two relatively ‘neutral’ and ‘impartial’ organs of television, PBS and radio, NPR.

Understandably, though with little or no shame, the élite is trying to hide and/or obfuscate its many errors. Though court rulingsare being ignored. Trump himself is now technically immune as president; he can literally do now wrong by law. The concept of contempt of court and legal systems (with the bias of which we are aware as anarchists) is now at best ‘equivocal’, optional. But just to be on the safe side Trump/MAGA/Musk is trying to limit the power of the judiciary.

The second half of the twentieth century saw the nominal removal of official racial segregation in the United States. Laws, statutes, precedents and plain decency saw integration of black and white into many aspects of daily life. Racial inequality, of course, has never gone away. The Trump/MAGA/Musk assault on DEI aims to reverse changes broadly seen as for the better in a civilised society. Earlier this month they took a more direct step backwards: a legal agreement dating from 1966 mandates that schools in Plaquemines Parish (Louisiana) not discriminate between black and white pupils, and offer members of both communities equal educational opportunities. Trump’s ‘Justice’ Department lifted that order so as to “get… America refocused on our bright future…”

The man in charge of carrying out Trump’s racist scapegoating of non-whites at borders with the United States, Tom Homan, threatened that officials in Wisconsin – including the state’s governor, Tony Evers – could be arrested if they push back over Trump’s illegal mass deportation plan. This came barely a fortnight after FBI agents arrested Hannah Dugan, a County Judge in Milwaukee, when she allowed an immigrant appearing before her in her court to exit into a hallway, where agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were waiting for him, but failed to recognise him. Shortly afterwards the mayor of Newark (New Jersey), Ras Baraka, was arrested at a federal immigration detention centre. He was peacefully protesting several irregularities in its construction, safety hazards and building violations—over and above the racist intent to build more ‘holding’ sites for non-whites. It was later suggested that government officials at best escalated the confrontation, and may have engineered it.

Environment

You may remember Trump suggesting during Covid that people drink bleach as a cure. It seems he still hasn’t let go of the idea. Last month one of the guests at an event he called ‘Truth Seekers Conference’ was Andreas Kalcker. He sells bleach, and erroneously claims that it is good for several illnesses – including Covid.

Environmental destruction will increase dramatically if this bill passes—which is likely.

In common with most areas of government work research in many areas of climate science is being drastically cut; while top research specialists like Kevin Hall at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have begun to resign, citing censorship by R. F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine, unqualified quack heading the Health and Human Services Department (equivalent to the Department of Health & Social Care in the UK). That’s the same conspiracy theorist who is planning to compile a national database of people classed as autistic.