Vord's Bloated Comment Blog

Trump's inauguration address was a fascist rallying cry

At noon (EST) on January 20th, 2025, America completed its descent into fascism. Donald J. Trump was sworn in as president for a second time. He promptly gave a speech (transcript for those who can't bear the sound of his voice) reminiscent of Hitler's first speech as chancellor on February 10th, 1933. When I say fascism, I'm referring to palingenetic ultranationalism, as explained by The Alt-Right Playbook's breakdown of White Facism. You should watch that, he explains far better than I could, But to crib the critical slide:

The nation is of the utmost importance

The people running the nation should be a narrowly defined "us"

"We" should rule because it's, more or less, our destiny

So I've already dropped about 1.5 hours worth of homework on you, depending on your reading speed. I don't blame you if you skip over it, but it's really helpful framing which helps you understand why I'm writing what I'm writing. And I really want to stress that you should experience Trump's speech before you dive into my analysis to avoid fully clouding your judgement first. I'm actually going to specifically avoid directly comparing Trump's and Hitler's speech and focus specifically on the plan that Trump laid out.

One thing that I noticed quite quickly is that the words which were not spoken carry immense meaning.

One quick example:

Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced.

These three things imply three facts that Trump claims about reality: That America is not a sovereign nation. That we are not safe. And that justice is imbalanced. Incidentally he's not wrong about that last one, but as we'll see, his idea of injustice is very different than what a reasonable person would infer. This plays out again, and again, and again.

With that out of the way....here are the main overarching themes which clue us into the fascist signals:

Us and Them

So, one of the biggest points of this speech is to draw the lines of who is the in group, and who is the out group. "Us" vs "Them." Allies or enemies. And the way this is done is by starting with the big tent, and then listing the out groups. Sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. The big tent is, obviously "The American people." The first group whittled out, unsurprisingly, is immigrants. I'm not even going to waste time highlighting quotes there...that was the constant backdrop. I really wanted to avoid pulling quotes, adding emphasis to the critical bit, then pulling back the mask. But it's super effective.

As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair.

So, we have "the establishment." Which we know from wider context that means "pretty much everyone who does not agree with Trump or the conservative agenda." This is textbook "you're with us, or you're against us."

And we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases, to hate our country despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them. All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.

This is a dogwhistle for white genocide. Therefore, anybody who contributes to this percieved slight against white people is the enemy. Critical Race Theory is the most popular in common conversation, but it also extends to much more benign things like affirmative action and representaton in media. Make no mistake, this quote alone sends a very clear signal: If you are not White, you are not "Us."

This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.

This quote is a twofer: It doubles down on denying the existence white privilege (the colorblind and merit-based part). And then it goes to ban the existence of any non-cisgendered person. A bit not spoken but is obvious to anybody paying attention: This includes all gay people as well.

Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about. We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again. Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities.

This quote is loaded, but in this context, this is clearly alluding to the "rioters and looters" in inner-city protests, opposed to the "good people on both sides" white nationalist rallies.

And we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.

A nice solid regression against native peoples. There is more evidence of this, but the other quotes will fit in better later.

We are Strong, They are Weak

So, we have our clear in-group (everyone who agrees with Trump and cronies), and the outgroup: People who benefit from or support, things percieved as ills by Trump and other white nationalists.

So one of the key bits about fascism is that they require an enemy. This reveals one of the greatest tells: The outgroup is simultaneously incredbily powerful and conniving as well as weak and incompetant. This builds the final narrative: The enemy is strong enough that you need our immense power to defeat them, but they are so weak it will be trivial for us to do so

But first, we must be honest about the challenges we face. While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated by this great momentum that the world is now witnessing in the United States of America.

Let's just soak that particular one in for a moment. There are lots of challenges. But "We" can "annihilate" them. I think I could rest my case here, but there are more:

For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair. **We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens, but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and ​​mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.

Again, right in one quote, you can see the dichotomy between "our enemy is strong" and "our enemy is weak." The establishment mercilessly extracts wealth and power, easily aiding "Them", while simultaneously is completely incompetant and incapable of helping "Us".

So they've laid out how strong/weak "they" are, so let's hammer home how strong we are:

From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first.

STRONG

Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free. America will soon be greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before.

STRONGER

I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country, sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before. B

STRONGER-ER Ok, I can't keep doing this. Read the whole speech. Drink any time he mentions how strong and exceptional "We" are. Return back in the morning when you can read again. I'll skip to the end:

Together they laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, built great highways, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and triumphed over every single challenge that they faced. After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. With your help, we will restore American promise and we will rebuild the nation that we love, and we love it so much.

WE HAVE NEVER LOST AND WE NEVER WILL. Also, does anybody else remember how lots of those things were done by immigrants? Ah but they're white now, so they're Americans.

In recent years our nation has suffered greatly. But we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage and exceptionalism. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable.

WE WILL BE SO POWERFUL THAT WE WILL END ALL WAR.

It is Destiny

So now the framework is laid: The enemy declared, the power levels established, and now the clincher: This is our sacred duty as Americans. The people have given me a mandate and I am blessed by God.

I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country, sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before.

My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed, their freedom. From this moment on, America's decline is over.

Our liberties and our nation's glorious destiny will no longer be denied. And we will immediately restore the integrity, competency and loyalty of America's government.

Just a few months ago, in that beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.

Really let that one sit in for a minute. He was hand-picked by God to fulfill America's Destiny.

The Gameplan

Righto. We have enemies. God is on our side. Let's do this.

In no particular order, and I'm not going to bother quoting anymore because this is already too long even for a blog post that I specifically created because it was too large for a comment. I wanted to get this out before the end of the day, and I'm tired and I need to go to bed. I'll expand on this later tomorrow if there isn't anything more pressing.

Here's the todo list as sold, in no particular order