Is the U.S. becoming fascist?

The U.S. has become so polarized that the two political parties are polar opposites and are becoming increasingly extreme. When the far-left democrats were in charge, they put political opponents in jail like the J6 protesters, they try to put Trump in jail, there were signs of voter fraud, millions of illegal immigrants were welcomed and corruption could be found in all government sponsored programs. With the election in 2024, things changed radically overnight. The republicans won the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Suddenly, a wall on the Mexican border is built, there is no illegal immigration, deportation of immigrants has started, criminals are sent to El Salvador to be lock up, the national guard us sent into the capital and other places, attempts are made to charge political opponents with crimes and there is a massive buildup of the U.S. military. The swing is so extreme that people are asking if the country is heading in a fascist direction.

There are certainly some characteristics that fit. The president has significant power, in particular when it comes to foreign policy, but also domestically with executive powers. There is a sense of strong nationalism with focus on national unity, pride, and perceived decline, often defining in-groups versus out-groups. There is an increased level of glorification of military power, conquest, and the use of redemptive violence for national purification and expansion, latest seen in Venezuela. Both parties are trying to suppress the opposition with forcible silencing of political opponents, media, and any challenges to the state’s power. During Trump, there is a stronger sense of corporatism and state intervention and control over the economy, though often aligning with powerful business interests. This goes for regulations, crypto, energy sector, the industrial military complex and the financial sector. There are definitely increasing levels of corporatism under the Trump White House. Both parties are trying to limited the opponents’ power and Trump is constantly hammering on the corrupt democrats and say they are linked to ideologies like communism and socialism. Fascism is also focused on social hierarchies with the belief in natural social hierarchies and elites, promoting traditional roles and national purity. This seems to fit well into the MAGA movement.

An example of a growing fascist state was the Minneapolis ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, mother of three, who was shot and killed by the ICE agent after the feds allege, she tried to mow officers down with her vehicle. The president has repeatedly insisted that the unidentified agent who pulled the trigger did so in self-defense. However, reviewing videos of the incident shows that Good’s car would not have run over the ICE agent, but that the agent was on the side of the car and shot her in the head from the side driver’s window, execution style. The violence in ICE raids and actions have increased as they are trying to deport more and more illegal immigrants, often residing in democratic states, where the ICE faces opposition. The governor of Minnesota, Time Walz, has demanded that the ICE leaves the state, but there is little he can do.

Fascism would include a strongman leader, rejection of democratic norms, ultranationalism, scapegoating of minorities for national decline, use or encouragement of political violence, and fusion of state power with loyalist media, business, or militias.

By classic definitions, the U.S. is not a fascist state, and there are still elections and the constitution is in place, but there are clear signs that the U.S. is becoming increasingly semi-fascist with open attacks on election legitimacy, political leaders calling opponents enemies and try to jail them, normalization of political violence or excuses for it, delegitimization of the press as inherently treasonous, increased use of nationalism, calls to use the state against critics, and weakening respect for rule of law when it applies to allies. There is also rampant corruption in the institutions and among politicians with no real efforts to deal with this.

In line with other fascist tendencies, Trump proposed setting U.S. military spending at $1.5 trillion in 2027, citing troubled and dangerous times. Trump called for the massive surge in spending days after he ordered a U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and spirit him out of the country to face drug trafficking charges. The 2026 military budget is set at $901 billion. Trump in recent days has also called for taking over the Danish territory of Greenland for national security reasons and has suggested he’s open to carrying out military operations in Colombia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ominously warned that longtime adversary Cuba “is in trouble.”

The military just received a large boost of some $175 billion in the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending reductions that Trump signed into law last year. After Maduro capture, Trump’s tough talk evokes a return to the days of American imperialism Insisting on more funding for the Pentagon is almost certain to run into resistance from Democrats who work to maintain parity between changes in defense and non-defense spending. But it is also sure to draw objections from the GOP’s deficit hawks who have pushed back against larger military spending. But Trump said he feels comfortable surging spending on the military because of increased revenue created by his administration through tariffs imposed on friends and foes around the globe since his return to office.

Meanwhile, in a corporatist move, Trump threatened to cut off Pentagon purchases from Raytheon, one of the biggest U.S. defense contractors, if the company did not end the practice of stock buybacks and invest more profits into building out its weapons manufacturing capacity. The threat came as the president issued an executive order calling on the Pentagon to begin a review to spot defense contractors who are underperforming on fulfilling contracts and insufficiently investing in building manufacturing but are still engaging in stock buybacks or distributing dividends to shareholders.

Since Trump took over in early 2025, there are definitely many fascist tendencies in the MAGA agenda and they are growing. Trump has the benefit of having a 6-3 Supreme Court and at least in foreign affairs, are more or less free to make the moves he wants. He is also tightening the grip domestically and the agenda is evolving into a more assertive, aggressive and fascist-like agenda.