Excerpt:
Across human history, fascism has been imposed upon democracy mostly in one of two ways. First, by brute force—a military coup, that sort of thing. Second, a bit more stealthily, and legally—through legislation, executive decrees, and court decisions that hand more power to the leader.
Donald Trump is inventing a new way. Call it chaos fascism. Destroy the institutions of democracy until they’re so disfigured or dysfunctional that a majority no longer cares about them.
That’s exactly what’s happening with Social Security. The Washington Post reported this week that the SSA is breaking down: Its website “crashed four times in 10 days this month because the servers were overloaded, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts.” A Wall Street multimillionaire who probably doesn’t need his Social Security check and who has pledged that he will “100 percent work with DOGE” has already cut around 12 percent of the staff and doesn’t look like he’s stopping there.
In other words: Start by lying about the agency, with absurd and false claims about 140-year-olds cashing checks. Then wreck the agency so that its service becomes crap. Let public anger at it build. And in time, they can just dismantle it and privatize the greatest social insurance system ever devised by this government and put people’s financial fate in the hands of rich cronies. If that’s not chaos fascism, I don’t know what is.
Trump probably doesn’t have some secret plan. As we know, he doesn’t think far enough ahead. Elon Musk, however, probably does. It’s no accident he called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.” That statement either (1) reflected his ignorance of how both Social Security and Ponzi schemes work or (2) was made in full knowledge of how both work—that is, he knew it was nonsense, but he said it anyway because his goal is to destroy Social Security.
This applies to just about everything Trump and Musk are doing.
It applies even to Signalgate. Trump has contempt for rules and procedures, and so he appoints unqualified stooges like Pete Hegseth to run the world’s largest military, who share that contempt—who think being tough means showing the world that they can do anything they want with no consequences. Again—ignore the law, trash the rules, establish that procedure is whatever you say it is. Chaos fascism.
And it will almost certainly go unpunished. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that the Justice Department wasn’t the least bit interested in looking into it. Some GOP lawmakers are making noises about the need for an investigation of some kind. But really—are the GOP’s leaders in Congress, Senator John Thune and Representative Mike Johnson, really likely to green-light an investigation? Seems pretty unlikely to me, unless it’s done with the secret, express goal of exonerating all involved.
Some senators say the Pentagon inspector general should conduct a probe. OK, we might get that. But remember that Trump has already fired 17 inspectors general, so who’d really care if he fired one more? Break the rules, and then ensure that there’s no accountability. Chaos fascism.
Article continues in depth
That’s all actually very on brand for fascism.
It’s the not knowing who will be disappeared or punished next that brings the terror and silences dissent. Random cruelty is the point, it’s used as a proof of total authority, and immunity from justice.
In fascism reason is dissolved and easily replaced with whatever dictates are desired by those in power.
Especially conservatism, which is proto-fascism.
I don’t think we need a new name for this. Fascism is fascism. If you give Trump credit for inventing ‘chaos fascism’, he and his followers will just lean into it and wear it like a badge of honor. People are underestimating how unbelievably stupid and gullible MAGA is.
My thoughts exactly. I can get on board with newly coined terms and expressions, but frankly, there’s no need if it’s just fascism engaged in sabotage. Just because it’s a unique modern scenario doesn’t mean that Trump reinvented the wheel.
It’s important to note that the reason this can happen here is because of how our checks and balances in the government are structured. None of them are automatic, and the GOP has ensured they will not be used.
Congress can function as a check on the Executive, but only by passing laws (and, to a lesser extent, Senate approval, of appointments). So Congress has to take action to rein in the chaos (and, in the case of legislation, override a veto). If Congress takes no action, it cannot function as a check on the Executive at all. Essentially, their lack of action is permitting the chaos just as surely as what Elon Musk is doing.
Similarly, the Courts can function as a powerful check on the Executive, but they rely on someone challenging something done by the Executive, and that starts off a lengthy review process. Individual judges have a lot of discretion, but their rulings get reviewed and it can take a while for appeals to be exhausted. Our court system also relies in all parties having respect for its process and judgements, and it’s clear that this administration does not have respect for rulings it doesn’t like. So even if a ruling against it goes all the way through the appellate process and is “binding”, they are very likely to ignore it anyway, and start another lengthy review.
Both of these checks on the Executive have been effectively neutered, one by complicity and one by contempt. So Trump and Musk can do whatever the hell they want. It is always easier to tear down than build up. Even if, by some miracle, Congress changes hands in 2026, the Federal Administrative State will be a shell of itself, and while we set about to rebuild it Trump and Musk will loot it for their own enrichment.
The next Federal election is critical, precisely because the President is not on the ballot, so all the elections will be for Congress, and hyper-local. Musk has already proven he can buy a national election. If he is successful at buying 50 state elections as well, he may build up enough power in enough states to call for a Constitutional Convention, where they can rip the whole thing up and start over. I think that is Musk’s endgame, where he can turn the US into Apartheid-era South Africa, totally legally.
Musk has already proven he can buy a national election. … If he is successful at buying 50 state elections
Wisconsin is his test run of that as we speak.
Putin invented it, Trump just does what he’s told
There is literally nothing new to this… Destroying the previously existing supports of gov and society is 101 fascism
I like the term chaos facism to describe it, but the author is looking too deeply into things. Trump thinking the way the author believes would imply that Trump does things like think or plan.
Trump is only taking the advice Steve Bannon gave him, which is some pretty damn good advice if you’re looking to do an authoritarian takeover. Ignore laws. Do whatever you want and let the justice system try to keep up with you. Move so fast that the justice system, the media, and the people can’t keep up with it all so by the time they’re done even processing one thing, five more have made it completely under the radar. And on the chance that something does blow up in your face? Do something random, disruptive, and distracting that others have to deal with. Threaten to take over Tuvalu. Who cares why. Let everyone else be focused on figuring out what the hell you’re talking about and force them to spend time and resources dealing with that diplomatic disaster while you go back to whatever other things you actually care about. Did one of your cronies do something embarrasingly stupid? Just announce a 380% tax on coffee grounds or something. Not that you care about coffee. It’s just something to dangle out there in case the rubes start getting a little too uppity and need a distraction.
And that’s pretty much what Trump is doing. He does things so fast that the media and justice system can’t keep up with it all. Why do you think he’s pushing to eliminate nationwide injunctions? Because if one of his policies impacts a million people, he wants the justice system to have to deal with a million separate cases, not just one. And there’s only so much news that can be crammed on the front page of a website. Reporters can only push out so many Youtube clips.
And it works well.
How many colleges have bent the knee to Trump? If you’re just saying Columbia, you’re wrong. Harvard and Yale have done the same thing. It just flew under the radar. And by the time you’re reading this, other colleges may have done the same.
How many law firms have bent the knee to Trump? Not just the two reported in the media, but how many others have flown under the radar?
How many times has Trump directly ignored or defied a court order without consequence?
How many people have been illegally deported from the US without due process?
And if you answer those questions, are you 100% confident in your answer? Or do you think your answer may be too low?
That’s chaos facism. Make it so nobody even knows what the fuck is going on from one minute to the next, let alone be able to do something about it.
Putin pioneered this in Russia. He funded protests against himself to play agent provocateur and make anyone who is against him look foolish.
No …
America has allowed idiots and lunatics to run their government while corporate news provides a non critical play by play news cast like it’s some sort of NFL championship playoff
