"Even though myself I'm not so sure that McCarthy and Cohn were fascistic, it's clear that what Trump learned from them eventually led to what I think is his 'wannabe fascism,'" Dr. Federico Finchelstein, chair of the history department at the New School for Social Research and author of "A Brief History of Fascist Lies," told Salon. "The idea that Trump is a fascist relates to his own kind of very basic, intuitive understanding of politics," which certainly puts him in contrast with ideologically well-read students of fascism like Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. "At the end of the day, it went back to a very kind of intuitive and really violent and narcissistic understanding of their own leadership." This intuition involves serving the interests of the powerful while pandering to the various hatreds of those among the powerless who can be easily manipulated. Inevitably, this type of thinking is hostile to widespread public education and effective democracies.

"Anti-democratic views were eventually part of the ferment for Trump's development as a kind of fascist situation, which of course ends in January 6," Finchelstein said, adding that he doubts Trump has any deeper "theoretical" underpinnings to his fascist beliefs beyond superficial support for the ideas already popular among his far right base. Like Cohn, Trump saw far right-wing politics first and foremost as an avenue to personal advancement. In this sense, Trump's refusal to accept the democratic system's verdict after losing the 2020 election was the most Cohn-like thing he could have done.

Chauncey Devega in Salon.com