'Clown-show fascism': How Trump is combining 'incompetence' with lawless 'authoritarianism'

29 April

President Donald Trump addressing the Republican Governors Association on February 20, 2025 (The White House/Flickr)

In an article published on Monday, April 28, The New Republic's Michael Tomasky described the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's second term as "clown-show fascism." Tomasky argued that the buffoonish qualities of Trump's administration doesn't make it any less dangerous.

Tomasky discussed his article the next day during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," attacking Trump's second presidency as a combination of incompetence and "authoritarianism."

Tomasky told "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, "Well, as I was sitting down to write the piece, Mika, I was thinking about the Trump administration's actions over the first 100 days and thinking, 'You know, can I classify them or categorize them?' And I think you can. Most of the actions fall under the category of what I see as fascism. That word may be too strong for some people, but authoritarianism, it's not that different. A defiant lawlessness, a challenge to existing laws, a challenge to democratic — small d — democratic values and norms and institutions, ceaselessly and relentlessly and much more forcefully than I imagined and virtually everyone I talked to imagined that they would be, from the firings of the inspectors general, which was, if you read that statute, probably illegal, to the treatment of people like Kilmar Omar Ábrego García, and other things."

Tomasky continued, "So there's that category. Then there's another category of actions that, frankly, are just kind of laughably incompetent, the tariffs being Exhibit A on that. But certain other things too."

Tomasky cited "certain activities by" the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as examples of incompetence — including "firing and then rehiring people."

The New Republic editor told Scarborough and Brzezinski, "So, you put those together, and you have what I call clown-show fascism."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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