TRUMP IS "A FASCIST TO HIS CORE"

The F-Word Taboo in Politics has been Broken

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This is a call to arms to prevent the horror of the past from taking over America.

Let us start by reading a detailed excerpt from the book “War” by Bob Woodward, published on October 15, 2024.

"Two days later, on Monday, March 6, 2023, I attended a reception at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. We gotta talk," General Milley said as I approached him. Milley was not in uniform but wearing a fashionable dark sports coat and plaid shirt. He had a freshly showered look and he seemed relaxed, though he stood barrel-chested with the ramrod-straight posture of an Army general. Milley was still worried about Trump.

"No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump," Milley said. "Do you realize, do you see what this man is? I glimpsed it when I talked to you back for "Peril", but I now know it. I now know it." Milley had shared with me his worries about Trump's mental stability and control of nuclear weapons for the book Peril I coauthored with Robert Costa. Milley and I continued to talk, proving it is possible to have a very pri­ private conversation in the middle of a crowded room. "We have got to stop him!" Milley said. "You have got to stop him!" By "you" he meant the press broadly. "He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realise he's a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country." His eyes darted around the room filled with 200 guests of the Cohen Group, a global business consulting firm headed by former defence sec­ secretary William Cohen. Cohen and former Defense Secretary James Mattis spoke at the reception. "A fascist to the core!" Milley repeated to me. I will never forget the intensity of his worry."

It is not an exaggeration to say that this description of Trump by the former United States Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff is the most damming statement ever uttered by somebody who worked closely with former President Trump during his last term as President.

General Milley crossed the Rubicon by calling Trump “a fascist to the core”.

This is not a case of a political hack trying to attract attention to himself. General Milley is a decade-long member of the US military with a stellar reputation and record of service, including multiple combat deployments.

During his retirement speech in 2023, he said :

"We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

A wannabe dictator is not an accidental phrase. It clearly refers to Trump.

Former Joint Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley

The use of the so called “F-word” in politics is taboo. Calling somebody a fascist is the most serious of attacks and is often dismissed out of hand as an exaggeration or hyperbole. However, in this case, it comes from the former Chief of Staff, a man above reproach and, as such, has to be taken seriously.

I have devoted a whole book on the topic, “A Call to Arms. It’s Fascism, Stupid,” and I have scrupulously described in great detail why calling Trump a fascist is not only warranted but necessary. I am happy to see that people of the calibre of General Milley are clearly speaking out and confirming what I have believed all long.

The second edition of the book, written after Kamala Harris’ nomination at the top of the Democratic ticket, focuses more on her philosophy, namely “The Politics of Joy”.

But make no mistake. On November 5th we have to choose between fascism and joy, between tyranny and democracy and between subjugation and freedom.

We cannot ignore what is staring us in the face. We cannot forget what we are seeing with our own eyes and hearing with our own ears each and every day as candidate Trump spells out in clear terms and in an ever-increasingly extreme manner what he plans to do if and when he is re-elected as President.

His program is a fascist program. Period.

It is high time to call it out for what it is and to call a spade a spade.

Failing to do so will mean we are burying American democracy six feet under.