Trumpism Quotes

“The truth is that the masses grew out of the fragments of a highly atomized society whose competitive structure and concomitant loneliness of the individual had been held in check only through membership in a class. The chief characteristic of the mass man is not brutality and backwardness, but his isolation and lack of normal social relationships. Coming from the class-ridden society of the nation-state, whose cracks had been cemented with nationalistic sentiment, it is only natural that these masses, in the first helplessness of their new experience, have tended toward an especially violent nationalism, to which mass leaders have yielded against their own instincts and purposes for purely demagogic reasons.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

“which will lead to even more of them despairing at the future and what with the planet about to go to shit with the United Kingdom soon to be disunited from Europe which itself is hurtling down the reactionary road and making fascism fashionable again and it’s so crazy that the disgusting perma-tanned billionaire has set a new intellectual and moral low by being president of America and basically it all means that the older generation has RUINED EVERYTHING and her generation is doooooomed”
― Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

“It is my considered opinion, that for Britain and Europe, and for liberal democracy across the entire world as a whole, Britain’s departure from the European Union in the time of Donald Trump, and Britain’s consequent unqualified dependence on the United States in an era when the US is heading straight down the road to institutional racism and neo-fascism, is an unmitigated clusterfuck bar none.”
― John le Carré, Agent Running in the Field

“With this warning, Mussolini demanded and was given authority to do just about whatever he wanted; but his initial priority, surprisingly, was good government. He knew that citizens were fed up with a bureaucracy that seemed to grow bigger and less efficient each year, so he insisted on daily roll calls in ministry offices and berated employees for arriving late to work or taking long lunches. He initiated a campaign to drenare la palude (“drain the swamp”) by firing more than 35,000 civil servants. He repurposed Fascist gangs to safeguard rail cargo from thieves. He allocated money to build bridges, roads, telephone exchanges, and giant aqueducts that brought water to arid regions. He gave Italy an eight-hour workday, codified insurance benefits for the elderly and disabled, funded prenatal health care clinics, established seventeen hundred summer camps for children, and dealt the Mafia a blow by suspending the jury system and short-circuiting due process. With no jury members to threaten and judges answerable directly to the state, the courts were as incorruptible as they were docile. Contrary to legend, the dictator didn’t quite succeed in making the trains run on time, but he earned bravos for trying.”
― Madeleine K. Albright, Fascism: A Warning

“The January 17, 1984 letter to his fellow USFL team owners did encapsulate what became Donald Trump’s three-step rhetorical style, a pattern so predictable and unique it could be branded “Trump Logic.” First, he confidently makes an assertion that often oversimplifies or ignores the truth of the matter. He builds upon that soft foundation with an act of clairvoyance, claiming to know what large groups of people fear, or at whom they laugh, as proof that his original assertion was true. Finally, he closes the deal by making clear that disagreeing with his un-facts or his psychic vision is prima facie evidence of stupidity.”
― Russ Buettner, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success

“Fascism is eliminationism.

"Make America great again" means "Eliminate all Democrats.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, Atheist Guide: Atheism in a Nutshell

“Americans don't know enough about Nazi Germany to know what Hitler did before the Holocaust.

If they knew what Hitler did before the Holocaust, they'd realize that Trump is following Hitler's playbook step by step.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, Atheist Guide: Atheism in a Nutshell

“Then there was the Trumpiness of it all. A candidate just didn’t get a whole lot out of debating Trump. Even if you were beating his ass, you would lose part of your soul in that debate. Trump was such a pathological liar that it was hard for anyone to maintain the nature of what they imagined themselves to be. Trump always took you down with him.”
― Jake Tapper, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

“. . . we hadn't even noticed when all this had been happening, the words "turning point" and "dawn of a new era" were hardly out of our mouths when precisely this critical, time-bound nature of a turning point and a dawn was rendered ludicrous as we realized that all of a sudden we were living in a new world, had entered a radically new era, and we understood none of it, because everything we had was obsolete, including our conditioned reflexes, our attempts to understand the nature of a process, how "all of this" had "consequently" proceeded from there to here, everything was as obsolete as our conviction to rely on experience, on sober rationality . . .”
― László Krasznahorkai, The World Goes On

“Faith in miracles took the place of science, just as faith in social transformations moved the leaders of the new society. That is why those leaders eagerly welcomed every prophecy of Lysenko's. Like addicts who realize the harm of their addiction yet still pursue the narcotic, these leaders recognized the deception yet wanted to be deceived. When the promised miracles failed, the Lysenkoists did not turn back to science; instead, they drew up even more unreal plans, issued even more glowing reports, and so it went in a dizzying spiral.”
― Valery N. Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science

“There is nothing as empty as an empty swimming pool.”
― Raymond Chandler

“One of the most objectionable errors of political militants, especially those of the messianically authoritarian kind, has always been a total ignorance of grassroots comprehension of the world. Seeing themselves as bearers of the “truth” that no one can refuse, they regard their sublime task as one not of proposing some truth for consideration but of imposing it without question.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage

“Denazify America: impeach Trump and deport Elon.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, Atheist Guide: Atheism in a Nutshell

“Fascists use lies as a weapon, to demonize minorities and incite hate and violence.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, Atheist Guide: Atheism in a Nutshell

“I stand with Newsom against Trump! Do you?

It's time to stand up for democracy, or we become victims of tyranny.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, Atheist Guide: Atheism in a Nutshell

“Fascism is eliminationism.

Hitler promised to make Germany great again, by eliminating all the people who allegedly made Germany not great.

Trump is promising to make America great again, by eliminating all the people who allegedly make America not great.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“What scares me the most is not just that history is repeating itself, but how many Americans can't see that history is repeating itself.

They know nothing about what Hitler did before the Holocaust. That's why they can't see that Trump is following Hitler's playbook step by step.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“Ever wonder what you would have done in Nazi Germany?

You're doing it right now.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“Portland and Chicago will outlive him.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“You're either fascist, or you're anti-fascist.

There is no inbetween.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“Fascism is violent nationalism.

In America, fascism is called Americanism.”
― Oliver Markus malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“When you hear the first few notes of Stairway to Heaven, you immediately recognize the song, and you know what comes next.

That’s how Germans instantly recognized Trump as a Nazi, the minute he came down the escalator and accused Mexican immigrants of being rapists and murderers.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“Fascist dictators don't announce that they're fascist dictators.

They announce that it's illegal to be anti-fascist.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“Republicans don’t want you to know how much they love Hitler.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“. . . it is already here by the time we realize that it has arrived again, always finding us unprepared, even though we ought to be aware that it is coming, that it is secured only temporarily, we ought to hear its chains scraping, loosening, the hiss of knots coming undone in the until then tight cordage, deep down inside us we ought to KNOW that it is about to break loose, and that is how it should have been this time too, we should have known that this is how it would be, that it was bound to come, but we only awoke to the realization, if we awoke at all, that it was here already, and that we were in trouble . . .”
― László Krasznahorkai, The World Goes On

“. . . suddenly my ears registered a grating noise, as if cumbersome chains were clattering in the distance, and my ears registered a slight scraping sound, as if securely knotted ropes were slowly slipping loose -- all I could hear was this grating clatter and this scary scraping, and once more I thought of my ancient language, and of the utter silence into which I had tumbled, I sat there staring at the outside and as complete darkness filled the room only one thing was completely certain: it had broken loose, it was closing in, it was already here.”
― László Krasznahorkai, The World Goes On

“MAGA Nationalism is an ideology of hate that turns dumb poor people into brainwashed bloodthirsty Nazi maniacs who want to slaughter minorities because they think it will make their miserable lives better.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“Bad Bunny is more American than the Slovenian mail-order-bride in what’s left of the White House.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America

“As long as the United States remains a democracy, I want to be in the ideological fight against illiberal nationalism and continue to make the case for why a return to internationalism, multilateralism, and support for democracy and human rights worldwide best serves American national interests.”
― Michael McFaul, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder – The Former Ambassador's Bold Vision for Confronting Authoritarian Threats

“Not so long ago, the dolts among us were free to think their thoughts quietly to themselves with no easy way to share them. At worst, a person would usually just embarrass himself in front of his own family or bowling team. Bad ideas had a harder time scaling and reproducing, so lots of stupidity stayed local, and everyone else could happily overestimate the average person's intelligence because they saw less of it. But then we connected everyone on the planet and gave them each the equivalent of their own printing press, radio station and TV network. Now, even those with nothing useful to say can tell the whole world exactly, or more often vaguely, what they think.
. . . In theory, this is the democratization of expression. In practice, it feels like a crowdsourced lobotomy.
[from "A Theory of Dumb" by Lane Brown, New York Magazine, November 17 - 30, 2025]”
― Lane Brown