History is screaming at us!
| Dean Obeidallah Oct 13, 2025 |
There is always a risk if you invoke Hitler or Mussolini when talking U.S. politics that people will roll their eyes or dismiss the example as being over the top. But in the case of Donald Trump, you ignore the comparison at your peril—at least when it comes to Trump following the fascist playbook in pursuit of one-party rule. That is exactly what Mussolini and Hitler worked quickly to achieve in order to have unchallenged power—and it’s what we are seeing from Trump, Stephen Miller and the GOP.
In the case of Mussolini, he used a political assassination (ironically by one his own supporters of a rival political party official) to justify grabbing power. In an infamous speech to the Italian Parliament in January 1925, Mussolini dared the opposition to hold him accountable for the assassination. It never happened because the opposition was too weak. From there, Mussolini was granted more powers by the Parliament that his party controlled—including restricting freedom of the press.
The next year, Mussolini weaponized an assassination attempt by a leftist to expel all opposition political parties from Parliament and grant himself even more powers. Mussolini had finally achieved his desired goal of becoming “Il Duce” – the absolute leader of Italy.
In the case of Hitler, he exploited the February 1933 fire that burned down the German Parliament–known as the “Reichstag Fire.” Like Mussolini, Hitler saw in tragedy an opportunity to impose one party rule. First, Hitler quickly weaponized the fire to justify imprisoning political opponents. With the Nazi party in control of the Parliament, Hitler was granted more powers to rule.
By the end of 1933, Hitler had banned all non-Nazi political parties, labor unions and other organizations. Hitler, in just one year as Germany’s chancellor, had elevated himself to the nation’s “Fuhrer” (leader).
That is what Trump—and especially people like Stephen Miller and certain GOP leaders–want. This playbook explains why Trump a few weeks ago signed an executive order labeling “Antifa” a domestic terrorist group. It does not matter that under U.S. law there is no legal basis to designate a domestic organization a terrorist group—only a foreign one.
And while many have rightly noted that there is no actual Antifa organization, that is what makes this more alarming. Now Trump and his GOP allies can define Antifa to mean whatever they want. From there, Trump will order his corrupt DOJ to investigate and prosecute the organization as well as people funding these groups.
In fact, to little fanfare, days after Trump announced the Antifa executive order, he signed another order titled, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” This edict cites as justification the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the two alleged attempts on Trump’s own life and lies about riots in Portland.
From there, Trump claims that all the political violence in the United States falls under the “the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.” Alarmingly, Trump’s order lists as “common threads” of the “anti-fascism” movement those advocating “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Americanism,” “anti-Christianity” and “hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” Obviously, those terms are dangerously broad and can be challenged in court, but Trump is telling you his goal is to use the government to “disband and uproot networks, entities, and organizations” that he has deemed a threat to his power.
It’s clear from these two orders that those who want Trump to serve as America’s “Fuhrer,” are just waiting for his “Reichstag Fire” moment to test these powers. Their hope is that the corrupt GOP Supreme Court will uphold Trump’s power grab and criminalize the infrastructure of the Democratic party.
But even before that event, we saw two concerning developments Friday that raise red flags about Trump’s pursuit of single party rule. First, there was Reuters reporting titled, “Trump’s war on the left: Inside the plan to investigate liberal groups.” As they wrote, “Trump’s threatened crackdown on the finances and activities of liberal non-profits and groups opposed to his agenda is a multi-agency effort with top White House aide Stephen Miller playing a central role.”
Targets include the Soros network despite no evidence to back up the claim they support violence. In addition, they are targeting ActBlue, the very popular and effective online fundraising arm of the Democratic Party. In response, Carter Christensen, an ActBlue spokesperson, told Reuters that Trump’s crackdown was an attempt to silence dissent.
And as Reuters reported, Trump officials specifically mentioned they are now looking into Indivisible, the very effective grassroots organizers headed by Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg. I spoke to Levin after the news broke who stated point blank, Trump is “now coming after pro-democracy, peaceful protesters under the guise that they are supporting violence. Obviously, the accusation that we support violence is utter, complete bullshit” He added, Trump’s actions are “clearly and directly from the authoritarian playbook.” (You can watch my entire interview at end of article)
The second red flag came later on Friday when Trump’s minion/Speaker of the House Mike Johnson began smearing the “No Kings” protest scheduled for this Saturday as being run by Antifa. Johnson despicably called the No Kings march, the “Hate America rally,” adding, “It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and the Antifa people.” (See clip below.)
That lie was backed up by GOP House Majority Whip Tom Emmer who said the gathering is being championed by “the terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party. And GOP Sen. Roger Marshall also drew a straight line from Trump’s “Antifa” order to the No Kings march, saying on Newsmax: “This will be a Soros paid-for protest for his professional protesters. The agitators show up. We’ll have to get the National Guard out.” He then added, “Hopefully it will be peaceful. I doubt it.”
Yes, the GOP is planting the seeds that if there is violence at this Saturday’s march, it could be there “Reichstag Fire” moment. From there, they will claim that all people who funded and organized the “No Kings” protest are Antifa and, thus, are supporting terrorism.
They may even seek to ban the Democratic Party at some point, designating it a domestic terrorist group. That may sound over the top–but history warns us that is where we are heading.
Yet we cannot and must not back down. As Ezra Levin said in our discussion Friday, Trump “is scared of one thing and that is peaceful, organized people power. That is what he and every other authoritarian fears.”
Levin is right. We need to be louder and in the streets more than ever. And when Trump comes for any pro-democracy group, we need to stand with them. This is part of the formula in defeating aspiring tyrants.
As I keep writing: Alone the fascists will defeat us. United we will prevail!
You can watch my interview of Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin below
