I have a question...

so, I am going to assume that you're engaging in good faith and want a legit answer. I'm going to give it to you.

1) cult of personality. This is a big part of it. The aura of his personality and how he says things matters more than what he actually says. If you listen to him, you'll feel like you understand what he's saying. But if someone reads a transcript in a flat expression-less tone, you'd say "this is gibberish. wtf?!?"

2) The nostalgia for the past. This is the "make america great again" thing. He points to a time in the past and says "we were great back then." Now a lot of political speeches do this. "we were great when we did THIS". That's a normal piece of rhetorical speech. It becomes fascist when he turns and points a finger at a group and says "and they're why we're not great now." It's the scapegoating. It's the "mexico is sending their rapists and criminals." the "somali fraud." He doesn't care about crime or fraud. You can see it with Kristi Noem. She provably funneled $200+ million to herself & her close friends. She lied about it to Congress. Did she get fired? Is she facing an investigation? No. She got shuffled off to a no-show job as the "envoy to the shield of the americas" thing. She's facing no consequences for her actions.

3) Immigration enforcement is actually political terrorism. He has expanced ICE to $75 billion over the next 4 years. they kick in doors without warrants. they drag people off to detention centers. Based solely off of skin color or 'vibes'. Then a half-assed investigation is conducted. If they are citizens, they're dumped out on the street of whatever state they were moved to. No money. no contact with relatives on where to pick them up. Over 200 citizens have been caught up in this.

4) targeting political rivals. This is the auto pen. The James Comey & his daughter thing. threatening to deport legal residence. Threatening university funding if they don't confirm to his political agenda. Threatening the press with their broadcast licenses if they report on the war in a way he personally doesn't approve of.

5) Defiance of the courts: His administration often refuses to comply with court orders. Offers no legal framework for their actions in court. Openly calls for the impeachment of judges who decide against him. Not because of actual reasons but because they've decided against his whims.

6) Ignoring Due Process. His ICE agents have been snatching people off the street and deporting them without a proper trial to determine if they are here legally or not. Then, when instructed to bring those people back to go through the proper process, he refuses or slow walks it so they can say "oops, lost track of them. sorry."

7) Political violence: he encourages his followers violence. remember when he promised to pay legal bills if someone punched a protestor? how about when he told his followers to eject people from rally's? That was just the beginning. When he's called out on it, it takes him days to respond to say "no, that was bad." But the condemnations against the victims come fast and furious. Remember how Alex Pretti was immediately declared a domestic terrorist? January 6th is the peak of his political violence.

8) the hyper fixation on gender roles. That's why trans people are a problem. When men have to BE MEN and women have to BE WOMEN. They have to look a certain way. They have to act a certain way. It becomes a problem when human beings don't follow these very narrow definitions. If you look at the classic fascist regimes in Germany, Italy, Spain, etc, you'll see the same fixation on gender. It's about exercising control over behavior and they do that through gender.

9) Elitism and nationalist coalition. He rewards the ruling class with money- tax cuts, government contracts, etc- if they comply in advance with his agenda. This is why 1 guy is allowed to buy tiktok, paramount, and now warner brothers (and by extension CNN). This is why corporations ceos are showing up with personal gives like gold bars, etc. And this is why people like Colbert get fired.

10) the shutting down

He is, at the least, an authoritarian. In my opinion, he is a fascist.