Trump’s 'demographic war' is 'far more dangerous' than 1930s American fascism: report

14 August 2023

Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis is reportedly ready to submit her two-and-a-half-year investigation into former President Donald Trump's alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election in the Peach State to a grand jury.

"Signs of an imminent indictment began to appear in Atlanta last week. Security barriers were recently erected in front of the downtown courthouse, and more than a dozen law enforcement vehicles were parked around the perimeter," Nicole Crane of The New York Times explained on Monday. "The charges would come at a pivotal point in the Republican presidential primary. Trump holds a commanding lead in polls, but with the first Republican debate just over a week away, new legal trouble for Trump could provide more fodder for his opponents onstage."

Trump has attacked Willis in response to her probe. But as The Bulwark's Matt Johnson points out, Trump's "campaign slogan" of "'America First' was instantly and rightly criticized for running under the same banner as Charles Lindbergh's isolationist, antisemitic movement to keep the United States out of World War II."

Johnson recalls that "America First was founded in September 1940; Lindbergh, the world-famous aviator who had been speaking out against US involvement in the war in Europe, joined the group in April 1941."

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Lindbergh "also believed that his fellow Americans—Jewish Americans, that is—might allow their own 'natural passions and prejudices' to override their patriotism," Johnson continues, noting that "Trump and many of his allies on the nationalist right use the same strategy today."

Johnson says that Lindbergh's message "was clear: American Jews shouldn't support the war if they don't want to inflame antisemitism in the United States. Lindbergh rounded out this threat with a salvo of antisemitic conspiracism: 'Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.' Seconds after cynically telling American Jews to oppose the war for their own good, Lindbergh regurgitated the exact sort of bigotry that could generate antisemitic sentiment in the country and put them at risk."

Johnson notes that while "a racist outburst from Trump is nothing new, it's especially toxic and menacing at a time when his paranoia about a 'deep state' plot to prevent him from returning to the White House has become an all-encompassing fixation. All Trump offers his supporters (and the rest of the country) is an endless, increasingly high-decibel loop of rage, resentment, and revenge."

Johnson emphasizes that although "Trump has been waging his own demographic war for years," his rebranded "AMERICA FIRSTISM is far more dangerous than Lindbergh's" because Trump "isn't just an isolationist and a bigot; he's the most powerful demagogue in the country who stands a real chance of returning to the Oval Office. And if he wins in 2024, he will be more paranoid and vindictive than ever."

Crane's interactive column is available at this link (subscription required). Johnson's editorial is here.

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