Half of Americans see former President Donald Trump as a fascist, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, roughly twice as many who say the same of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Less than two weeks before Election Day, 44 percent of registered voters said Trump was a fascist, and 18 percent said Harris was. Five percent said they both were and 32 percent said neither party's nominee was one. The poll defined fascism as "a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents."
"If we consider the historical meaning, fascist governments preached an ultra-nationalism that excluded non-nationals, emphasized the power of the state, and gravitated toward a singular leader with a cult of personality," said Michael Cullinane, professor of history at Dickinson State University, North Dakota.
"Trump's nationalistic message, anti-immigration rhetoric, and insistence that the government can do his bidding without checks fits that historical mold," he told Newsweek. "It's as obvious that a cult of personality has developed, too. The same claim can hardly be leveled at Harris."
Trump has said he would deploy the military to target political opponents, including people he has decried as the "enemy from within."
"He's talking about the American people. He's talking about journalists, judges, nonpartisan election officials," Harris said Wednesday night at a CNN town hall.
The former president has also proposed mass deportations of immigrants, threatened to take action against news organizations for coverage he deems unfavorable and repeatedly said falsely that he won the 2020 election.
Harris called Trump "a fascist" during the CNN town hall this week, and he has also been called a fascist by people who worked in his administration, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, who described Trump as being "fascist to the core." Trump former chief of staff and retired general, John Kelly, said the Republican presidential nominee "certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure," in an interview with The New York Times that was published on Tuesday. ABC's poll was completed before that interview and Harris' town hall.
The survey comes as the final New York Times-Siena College poll found the race for the White House is tied, with both candidates at 48 percent. Recent polling averages have also shown the election is essentially a toss up, and partisan divisions were evident in respondents in the ABC fascism poll.
Eighty-seven percent of Democrats called Trump a fascist, while Harris was seen as a fascist by 41 percent of Republicans.
Twelve percent of Republicans think Trump is a fascist, and 3 percent of Democrats think Harris is a fascist.
More than double the number of independents (46 percent to 20 percent) say Trump is a fascist over Harris.
"The polling is not surprising because fascism has come to lose at least some its 20th century meaning," Cullinane said. "The term once used rather proudly by supporters of Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco has by association become another word for dictator."
"Perhaps the reason Harris gets called fascist is down to [the] 'antifa' or anti-fascist movement, which has been confused by the right as a fascist movement," he explained. "Fascism for the modern voter can often simply mean 'the candidate I don't support.'"
Trump has called his Democratic opponent a fascist, a Marxist and a communist on several occasions. Harris is not considered a fascist by any mainstream political standards or definitions, and her policies align more closely with regulated capitalism rather than advocating for state ownership of industries or the abolition of private property.
Newsweek has reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment.
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