Calling Trump a Nazi Is giving our own history a pass. The racism of MAGA is American.
By Nina Turner, Newsweek
Former President Donald Trump and his campaign threw an event at Madison Square Garden over the weekend with tens of thousands of attendees. What we heard from the speakers about Black people, Latinos, Puerto Ricans, and Palestinians was utterly racist and bigoted. I would say I’m stunned, but I’m not. Unfortunately, it’s to be expected from those at the front of the MAGA movement. It was so vile it seemed to elicit groans from the crowd; even the MAGA faithful weren’t feeling the overt nature of the racism.
Even before the rally, there were some calling this rally a fascist, even “Nazi rally.” Yet as a Black liberationist and a former professor of African American History, the accusation troubled me. Bigotry, white supremacy, and white Christian nationalism are as American as apple pie. It is this aspect of America’s formation we cannot escape.

Fascism is a populist political movement which advocates putting the nation first through a centralized, autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader who controls the economy and suppresses opposition. I do believe former President Trump is a fascist. He fits the description. Yet that does not make Donald Trump and his movement “Nazis” as a whole.
America’s history is dark enough that we do not have to export our comparisons to Nazi Germany. At the MAGA rally in New York, the bigotry and white supremacy spewed was American through and through.
My concern is that calling him a Nazi erases the American nature of his movement and makes it a foreign concept. It’s not foreign. The bigotry is not foreign, the white supremacy is not foreign, this movement is not foreign, it’s American and we must address it head-on to defeat it.
Moreover, the Nazi label diminishes the fact that millions of Jewish people and other ethnic groups, including people with disabilities, were mass murdered. And it completely erases the vile impact of the American slave system on Africans and their American descendants. Crimes against humanity happened on this soil.
Recent Posts
ICE Ambushed Mohsen Mahdawi In A ‘Trap’ And Had A ‘Clear Plan To Ship Him To Louisiana’
April 24, 2025
Take Action Now The Palestinian Columbia student’s legal team says Mahdawi signed a pledge to defend the Constitution, and then ICE showed up.By…
Trump Officials Are Texting Professors To Ask If They’re Jewish
April 24, 2025
Take Action Now The school later told staff it had provided the Trump administration with personal contact information for faculty members.By…
How To Be A Peace President
April 23, 2025
Take Action Now We cannot build peace without the voices for peace in government.By Kelsey Coolidge At his inauguration in January, President…
Israel Breathes in Gaza’s Dust Of Death
April 23, 2025
Take Action Now A forensic study of the self-inflicted consequences of modern warfare.By Dennis Kucinich, The Kucinich Report Gaza is suffering…