A few days ago, Megan McArdle had a column objecting to descriptions of Trump as a fascist, not necessarily because they are wrong, but because "when ordinary people hear 'Trump is a fascist,' they aren’t primed for an academic debate over when right-wing populism shades over into fascism; they hear you saying that Trump is either an adherent of the political ideology known as fascism or a dictator whose practices are fascist." That is, calling Trump a fascist will reduce your credibility because even people who have negative feelings about him will regard the charge as overstated. Shortly before the 2024 election, an ABC News survey asked a question which was introduced with "A fascist often is defined as a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents," and then asked if Kamala Harris was a fascist, Trump was a fascist, both were, or neither were. 16% said only Harris was, 42% only Trump, 6% both, and 33% neither. Putting it together, 48% of those surveyed thought that Trump was a fascist and 22% thought that Harris was.
The ABC survey gave people a definition of fascism; in May 1945 a Gallup poll asked people to give their own. They classified the answers into groups--they didn't give them labels, but illustrated them with examples of things that people had said. The biggest group, at 37%, included "nothing," "not interested," and "can't explain." Second, at 28%, included "dictatorship," "totalitarianism," and "one man rule." Third, at 11%, included "Nazism," "Hitler," and "Mussolini." Fourth, at 8%, included "hoodlum regime," "against everything," and "evil." The second group can be regarded as correct answers. The third is ambiguous: they apply the term correctly, but don't demonstrate any understanding of the principle behind it. The fourth is just a negative characterization. My overall classification is:
All College grads
Correct 32% 65%
Vague 23% 18%
Wrong 4% 3%
Don't Know 37% 10%
Miscellaneous 4% 2%
Correct answers include the second group and some smaller ones; vague is the third and fourth plus some smaller ones; don't know is the first group, and "Socialism and Communism; a red" is counted as wrong. The survey also asked "Are there any individuals, organizations, parties or other groups in this country which seem to you to be at least partly fascist in their aims or interests?" 29% said yes, 29% no, and 43% didn't know. Of course, people in 1945 had less formal education than they do today, but they also had more direct experience with fascism.
Taken together, the surveys suggest that most people understand "fascist" term in only a vague sense: that someone is really bad or wants to be a dictator. It's only educated elites like McArdle (BA, Penn; MBA, Chicago) and me who worry about the precise definition. McArdle does touch on a valid point: that people often act as if words have a magical power. I remember that in 2016 some people seemed to think that the media would just say "racist" or "lies" then Trump's support would disappear; now "fascist" is supposed to do the trick. If you want to influence public opinion, talking about specific things that Trump has done will have more impact than calling him a fascist. But then there's the question of whether the public will be allowed to express its opinion: I think it's unlikely that the November 2026 election will be cancelled or delayed, but I think there's a good chance that there will be attempts to interfere with the casting or counting of votes. That's the real importance of the debate over whether Trump is a fascist.
[Data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research]
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