Fascism: The American Cult of Power

By Rob C.

Art by Dave Whamond

Fascism isn’t just a dusty history lesson — it’s the merger of corporate greed and government power, enforced with a cult of nationalism and violence. Mussolini perfected it, and Trump is running the reboot: purging civil servants, rewriting history, attacking comedians, and crying “fake news” while funneling tariffs, crypto scams, and foreign deals to his family and billionaire buddies. If you still don’t see what’s happening, you’re not blind — you’re willfully clueless.

Reality check: Fascism isn’t just about goose-stepping soldiers and flags waving at rallies. It’s when government and corporations become one twisted beast, merging their power to dominate every aspect of life. Benito Mussolini — fascism’s original brand influencer — described it best: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” In practice, that meant monopolies controlling consumer goods, corporations protected and empowered by the state, and schools repurposed into factories of “truth.” Textbooks were rewritten, Catholic instruction made mandatory, and church and state fused into a cult of national purity. The message was simple: obey, conform, and don’t you dare question the leader.

Fast-Forward to America, 2025

Sound familiar? It should. Donald Trump has taken Mussolini’s playbook, slapped a gold-plated logo on it, and called it “Making America Great Again.” At his inauguration, he wasn’t surrounded by everyday Americans — he was flanked by tech billionaires and corporate oligarchs, the new priesthood of American fascism. Their gospel: profit first, democracy last.

Like Mussolini, Trump has gone after the media with a vengeance, branding every uncomfortable fact as “fake news” and every critic as “enemy of the people.” He’s attacked universities, cut research, and bent education toward his own mythology. He’s purged civil servants and replaced them with loyalists who owe their allegiance to him, not the Constitution. Even comedians aren’t safe — the late-night monologues now provoke White House tantrums that demand policy proposals.

And let’s not forget his economic “strategy”: tariffs that punish ordinary Americans at the checkout line while tax cuts pad the pockets of his billionaire backers, a crypto free-for-all that opens the door to scams and shadowy laundering, and foreign deals where U.S. policy conveniently aligns with the interests of regimes willing to cut checks. This isn’t economic leadership — it’s kleptocracy with a MAGA hat. Mussolini would be proud.

A Cult of Purity and Power

Fascism isn’t just politics. It’s a cult. It’s the rewriting of what’s “true.” It’s churches used to sanctify nationalism and a leader cast as savior. It’s domination by violence, suppression of dissent, and the twisting of corporate and state interests so tightly that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.

Trump and his MAGA movement are selling the same package Mussolini did a century ago, with a new wrapping: Project 2025, billionaire “job creators,” and a right-wing propaganda machine that insists this is what freedom looks like. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

The Warning

If you can’t see what’s happening, you are either blind, bought off, or just don’t care. But don’t say you weren’t warned. Fascism doesn’t arrive overnight in jackboots. It creeps in on golden escalators, broadcast on Fox, cheered on by billionaires, and shrugged off by those who think it can’t happen here.

God help the USA — because we’re playing with fire, and the alarm is already blaring.

Robert Cain is the author of Democracy for Sale: How Corporate Greed is Corrupting Democracy and Endangering the Planet.