Jake Tapper Links Trump’s Hardline Authoritarian Rhetoric to Webster’s Definition of Fascism
CNN anchor Jake Tapper took aim at former President Donald Trump’s increasingly “authoritarian” rhetoric on immigration, comparing it to fascist ideals.
Tapper opened The Lead With Jake Tapper with a stark 6-minute monologue on Monday night, warning that Trump’s approach to demonizing immigrants and political opponents was moving into dangerous territory.
Running back several clips, the host started by highlighting Trump’s recent claim that political opponents in the United States were “more dangerous than foreign adversaries.”
In one clip, Trump talked about “sick and radical left lunatics,” naming Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), who Tapper noted was “the lead prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial.” Tapper said:
He is referring to his political opponents here in the United States, Americans, as the enemy, as scum, as a bigger and more dangerous enemy than China or Russia. These are his words. This is what he is telling you that he will do if you elect him president.
Pivoting to Trump’s change in rhetoric around immigrants, Tapper continued:
And it’s not just retribution against his political foes. Mr. Trump is also making comments that seem to be getting darker about migrants, immigrants, undocumented workers in this country, people who came across the country across the border illegally.
Tapper emphasized the difference between Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants in past campaigns and that of his current campaign.
Not only is Mr. Trump disparaging all immigrants, some of whom have come over into this country legally with temporary protections, such as, for example, the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, whom he falsely accused of eating cats and dogs. Mr. Trump is also claiming that these migrants pose a direct threat to your family and to every family across the nation.
Tapper noted that many of the people Trump targeted are legally protected under temporary status, yet they’ve been cast as scapegoats for the nation’s woes.
Perhaps the most alarming statement, according to Tapper, was Trump’s comment about immigrant children.
“These people are from a different planet,” Trump said in a clip the host played back before adding, “They can’t go to school with these people.”
Tapper commented:
Quote, these people are from a different planet, unquote, Mr. Trump said about children. Quote, they can’t go to school with these people, unquote, Mr. Trump said about children.
The host then referenced retired General Mark Milley’s damning assessment of Trump, which appears in journalist Bob Woodward’s new book War. Milley, who Trump himself appointed, labeled the former president “the most dangerous person ever,” stating: “Now I realize he’s a total fascist.”
The host relayed how the Trump campaign fired back, branding Milley a “woke train wreck” and accusing him of suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.” They further dismissed Woodward, calling him a “washed-up fiction writer.”
Yet Tapper grounded the discussion in Webster’s definition of fascism—”a populist political philosophy that exalts nation and often race above the individual”—and urged viewers to make their own assessments.
“You can be the judge,” Tapper concluded.
Watch above on CNN.
