LE MOMENT FASCISTE AUX ÈTATS-UNIS: LES FAITS/THE FASCIST MOMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: THE FACTS

Abstract

This article examines the Trump administration and the current phase of American capitalism, drawing on Jason Stanley’s distinction between fascist politics and fascist regimes (Stanley 2018). The transition from a fascist political style (racist, violent, expansionist, anti-intellectual) to a stable fascist regime depends on multiple historical factors, but it essentially involves processes of consolidation such as those that took place successfully in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy at the time. It is easy to see the tradition of government violence against ethnic minorities and workers in American history. However, today we must take into account the social and political forces capable of providing responses to the United States polycrisis. In this article I will attempt to answer the following question: “What happens to democracy when a political group with marked authoritarian tendencies takes power?”. I employ the concept of «fascist moment» (Berger 2025), as the current phase may prove shorter-lived than anticipated.

Keywords: Trumpism; Fascist Politics; Fascist Moment; Oligarchy; Executive Power.

Fabrizio Tonello è Senior Scholar dell’università di Padova. Studioso degli Stati Uniti, è stato fra l’altro Fulbright Professor presso la University of Pittsburgh. È autore delle voci “Nazionalismo”  e "Oligarchia" nell'Enciclopedia Treccani (2020). Tra le sue recenti pubblicazioni: Desolation Row. From Democracy to Oligarchy 1976-2016, Fondazione G.G. Feltrinelli, 2017. «We are sliding into uncharted territory, and we are alone in this. A New Look At Political Disorientation», Review of International American Studies, vol. 11, n. 2, 2018. «Matematica ed elezioni», nuova Lettera matematica, n. 6, 2022. L’America in 18 quadri. Dalle piantagioni a Silicon Valley, Laterza, 2025.