Echoes of Fascism in Trump’s Attack on Somalis

[Deeq A.]

Trump delivering remarks echoing classic fascist tropes.

Washington DC (PP Editorial) — President Donald Trump yesterday delivered a speech in which he targeted Somalis in Minnesota. “Hundreds of thousands of Somalis are ripping off our country and ripping apart what was once that great state.” Trump has not only lied about the number of Somalis in Minnesota, but he has also distorted the facts surrounding the “Feeding Our Future” fraud case.

How can the United States justice system deal with a fraud case when the President of the United States, Donald Trump, uses propaganda and scapegoating, drawing on tropes associated with fascism, to manipulate information and shape public opinion against a minority ethnic group within the country?

The President meets many of the criteria identified by Umberto Eco, the late Italian novelist and semiotician, such as impoverished vocabulary and the use of propaganda to limit critical thought, obsession with conspiracy, disdain for the vulnerable, admiration of strength and a culture of perpetual struggle without the prospect of peaceful coexistence.

Trump also insulted Somalia, a sovereign country where the United States maintains an embassy. Nearly seven years ago, critics of Trump proposed that he undergo a psychiatric assessment. Given the lies he spread during the 2016 presidential election and his subsequent offhand, diplomatically damaging and unguarded remarks, Trump increasingly appears not as a mere provocateur, but as a leader who has lost touch with the realities of statecraft in a turbulent world.

His presidency sends a sobering message: in a democracy, even the least competent candidate can rise to the highest office in the United States. Although Trump attacked Americans of Somali origin, it has become clear that the United States  justice system is at risk of being overtaken by MAGA (Make America Great Again) extremists. Their aim is to turn America into a one-party country in which judges follow the orders of the President and his enforcers rather than independently interpreting and applying the law.

Given how Trump pressured many U.S. law firms to work for his administration on a pro bono basis, and how firms refusing to support his causes risked losing government business, any American who values democracy has legitimate reasons to fear the possibility of a midnight knock on the door in the event of a Trump-empowered police state.

 © Puntland Post, 2025

The post Echoes of Fascism in Trump’s Attack on Somalis appeared first on Puntland Post.