Donald Trump takes office: On the way to a fascist system

Yesterday Donald Trump was inaugurated as US President for the second time.
Monika Gärtner-Engel, Internationalism Secretary of the MLPD, stated: “A turning
point in the history of the superpower USA is in the making. Trump’s speech was
fascist in tone and content, suitably garnished with Elon Musk’s Hitler salute. The
almost 200 decrees that Trump signed on his first day in office document a
comprehensive imperialist, fascist program.”

The MLPD views the decrees as a signal that the USA’s path to its ‘rightful place …
as the largest, most powerful and most respected nation’ on earth will be marked
with the blood of Trump’s crusades: annexation of the Panama Canal and Greenland
as well as other territories; withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and from
membership in the WHO; threats to destroy Russia; ruthless expulsion of ‘millions
and millions’ of migrants; tariffs on products from China, Canada and Mexico;
preparation for world war as the primary goal of national budgeting in NATO
countries; flooding of the country with fascist criminal thugs; abolition of bourgeois-
democratic rights and freedoms such as the right to independent courts, etc., etc.
“Trump will turn the entire economic, political, ideological and military world
order upside down,” said Gärtner-Engel.

Ideologically, Trump is making the fascist, ethno-nationalist ideology respectable
again. He labels all his political opponents communists and proclaims that he will
pursue them violently and aggressively in an anticommunist manner. In the light of
all this, fascists like Alice Weidel of the AfD promptly see their chance.

Monika Gärtner-Engel at the same time points out: “One should not underestimate
Trump. He is a cunning demagogue. In his speech, he never tired of invoking
‘peace’, although he is arming for world war. He sanctimoniously thanked Blacks
and Hispanics for their ‘tremendous love’, even though he is an out-and-out racist.
He thanked the automotive workers, the steelworkers, the miners and all the
industrial workers who ‘built this country’, even though he is an enemy of the
workers and unions. He decreed a ‘declining inflation’, though he will fuel it with his
tariff policy. He pretends to be democratic or a champion of ‘free speech’, when in
reality he seeks to promote an extremely nationalistic, racist and fascist policy.”

Far-reaching conclusions are needed for all democrats!

Monika Gärtner-Engel takes critical note of the media coverage and the comments
of leading politicians on Inauguration Day: “The drama of the situation is being
trivialized in many media and by leading politicians. Positive attributes such as
‘determination’ or ‘immediate implementation of election promises’ are ascribed to
him without condemning their dangerous content. Of course, Trump’s behavior
does not correspond from the outset to the excesses of the Hitlerite dictatorship.
But fascism is in essence the most brutal, terrorist form of rule for enforcing the
dictatorship of the monopolies.

The MLPD also criticizes the fact that the media hardly mention the large
protests in the USA. After all, there were 380 protest actions across the
USA over the weekend, with 50,000 people taking to the streets in
Washington alone. In Germany, too, the antifascist movement is
awakening again on a broad front, and by Sunday 100,000 people were
on the streets in various cities.”

Monika Gärtner-Engel: “Far-reaching conclusions are needed for all democrats. We
as MLPD will already make use of the election campaign for the federal elections on
23 February to educate the public about (modern) fascism as well as to strengthen
broad antifascist alliances and to promote international cooperation across national
frontiers, as in the ICOR or the United Front. To Trump’s ‘Make America great
again!’ we confidently counterpose our slogan: ‘Make socialism great again!’”