The ‘F’ word is in play as Trump’s former generals turn on him and election nears
Is Donald Trump a fascist? The ‘F’ word is in play in the final few days of this US election campaign.
Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris was asked whether she thought Donald Trump is a fascist during a CNN townhall in Pennsylvania this week and replied “Yes. I do. Yes. I do.”
She has shifted her campaign from smilingly spreading “joy”, to concentrating on bread-and-butter issues and warnings about a Trump victory.
People “care about bringing down the cost of groceries”, she explained. “They also care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
The spectre of fascism is in the news because of alarming threats from Trump himself, along with on the record responses to them by two top generals who served in the White House during Trump’s presidency.
His planned rally in Madison Square Garden this weekend is also being compared in some quarters to a notorious Nazi rally held at the same venue in 1939.
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US Marine Corps General John F Kelly served under President Trump as homeland security secretary and then as his longest chief of staff, from 2017 to 2019.
Talking to the New York Times this week, Kelly first defined fascism: “It’s a far-right, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement characterised by a dictatorial leader, centralised autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.”
Then drawing on his extensive personal and private experience of Trump he concluded: “He’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators – he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Donald Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly in 2018. Pic: Reuters
Kelly had vowed not to intervene during the election unless he felt the US Constitution – to which Americans swear allegiance – was under threat.
Trump’s increasingly violent outbursts changed his mind. This month Trump said he plans to turn the “National Guard, or … the military” on “sick people, radical left lunatics” and others he called the “enemy within”. He has also threatened to shut down major media organisations.
In her Fox News interview, the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris denounced her Republican opponent, saying: “You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people.
“He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him.”
Harris denounced Trump at a rally in Georgia this week. Pic: AP
Trump has gone still further, accusing America’s highest military officer Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, of a “treasonous act… so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”.
General Milley’s offence, in Trump’s eyes, was calling his Chinese counterpart after the January 6 insurrection to assure him that the US and its international relations remained stable. “My intention was to de-escalate,” he said.
Retired US Army General Mark Milley. File pic: Reuters
‘Gates of hell will be unleashed’
Another ex-military leader, retired General Mike Flynn, who has stayed loyal to Trump and who was pardoned by him for failing to register as a foreign agent, was asked if he would preside over military tribunals in a second Trump term “not only to drain the swamp, but imprison the swamp, and on a few occasions, execute the swamp”.
“Believe me,” Flynn replied, “the gates of hell – my hell – will be unleashed.”
Milley warned the Watergate reporter Bob Woodward that Trump is “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country”.
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Trump denies Hitler comment claims
While in office Trump routinely referred to his senior officers as “my generals” and was bewildered that their loyalty was to uphold the Constitution rather than to obey his commands without question.
Independently both the generals, Milley and Kelly, recall President Trump repeatedly expressing admiration for Hitler, “you know Hitler did some good things” and expressing contempt for American soldiers killed or wounded fighting for their country as “losers” and “suckers”.
On a visit to Arlington Cemetery, near where Kelly’s son, a fallen marine, is buried, Trump mused “what’s in it for them?”
“I thought he was asking one of these rhetorical questions,” Kelly recalls, “but I didn’t realise he was serious – he just didn’t see what the point was… selflessness is something he just didn’t understand”.
Trump cannot bear to be in the company of the disabled and has flirted with the idea of eugenics, exerting control over which humans are allowed to breed.
Trump ’employs racist slurs and tropes’
He employs racist slurs and tropes, ranging from attacking Harris as lazy, dumb and sleepy to outright attacks on Mexicans as “murderers and rapists”.
When a 20-year-old Latina army private was murdered by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood, the then president Trump met her grieving family and offered to pay funeral costs personally, The Atlantic magazine reports.
But when a bill came in he told his chief of staff “don’t pay it” adding “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f*****g Mexican… f*****g people trying to rip me off!”
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Donald Trump has always wanted to play Madison Square Garden, like big showbiz and sports celebrities.
He was advised against wasting his time in previous campaigns because New York is a blue wall Democratic state. This year he is indulging himself by making a big noise in his home town – what matters most to him.
His rally will not have the jack-booted polish of the Nazis in 1939. Trump embracing and kissing the stars and stripes is more his style.
The alt-right TV presenter Tucker Carlson has been booked as the warm-up man for the big show.
Tucker Carlson referred to Trump as ‘Dad’ at a campaign rally in Georgia earlier this week. Pic: Reuters
Carlson: VP deserves a ‘spanking’
Carlson had the same job at another rally in Georgia this week and gave a taste of the sexist patriarchal, and vulgar, attack which the 20,000 MAGA fans in New York City can expect “Dad” to make against Kamala Harris.
“Dad is pissed. And when Dad gets home, you know what he says?” Carlson told the cheering crowd with Trump on the platform behind him, “‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now'”.
Trump would like to be a fascist dad, trampling on the rules and decencies of American democracy. Fortunately, should he be re-elected to the White House, he will likely be too ridiculous, ignorant and weak to pull it off, so long as there are still enough people like General Kelly to defend the Constitution.
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Analysis: US election on a knife edge
Harris: Trump ‘increasingly unhinged and unstable’
Now after Trump’s threats, Kamala Harris’ rhetoric has darkened.
Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there and no longer be there to rein him in.
“He wants a military who will be loyal to him, personally, one that will obey his orders, even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States,” she said.
Posing the question as a stark choice for US voters going to the polls for the presidential election on 5 November, she added: “We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power.
“The question in 13 days will be: What do the American people want?”
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
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The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
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Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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