Picture this: you’re sitting on your couch, remote in hand, waiting for Jimmy Kimmel to make a joke about Marjorie Taylor Greene’s latest word salad. Instead, you’re greeted by a rerun of one of their other really shitty shows—not because ABC thinks pratfalls are funnier than politics, but because the Federal Communications Commission, under Brendan Carr, made a veiled threat. Suddenly, Kimmel isn’t just canceled in the ratings sense. He’s canceled in the Orwellian sense.
And then it hits you: the First Amendment isn’t being chipped away. It’s being bulldozed while half the country cheers. This isn’t a slippery slope toward fascism. This is fascism with its boots on your coffee table, tracking mud across the Constitution.
Step One: Silencing the Critics
Let’s start with the most obvious autocratic move: censorship dressed as regulation.
Trump’s administration has leaned hard on networks—most infamously, ABC yanking Jimmy Kimmel Live! after pressure from the FCC. Comedians, once the last unfiltered cultural critics, are now the canaries in the coal mine. If they can silence satire, they can silence anyone. And the precedent is set: comedians = unsafe speech.
From there, it’s a hop, skip, and a subpoena to journalists. Trump has already filed a $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times, accusing them of false reporting. Even if the suit collapses in court (spoiler: it probably will), the point isn’t to win. The point is to bleed them dry. Force them to pay lawyers. Make them think twice before publishing the next exposé. Multiply that across multiple outlets—because yes, he’s suing more than one—and suddenly independent journalism looks less like a watchdog and more like a target range.
This is the authoritarian playbook in action: sue until silence. It’s fascism-by-litigation, and it works even when it fails.
Step Two: Controlling the Media
Cutting off funding to NPR and PBS via Executive Order 14290 wasn’t about fiscal responsibility. It was payback. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is being gutted not because it wastes money, but because it dared to tell the truth. NPR has already filed suit, claiming the order violates the First Amendment. Good luck with that when the courts themselves are being stacked with loyalty appointees.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-funded Voice of America has seen staffing cuts and funding throttles. Employees sued. A judge ordered restoration. But the message was sent: step out of line, and your paycheck disappears. That’s not oversight. That’s hostage-taking.
And if you think commercial outlets are safe, think again. The FCC’s regulatory hammer dangles over every broadcast license. Networks are already self-censoring to avoid becoming the next Kimmel. This isn’t freedom of the press. It’s freedom if you’re nice to the president.
Step Three: Weaponizing the Law
Fascism doesn’t just control with soldiers; it controls with subpoenas.
The Trump administration has turned the courts into cudgels. Filing defamation suits against news outlets isn’t about truth. It’s about intimidation. Redefining “biased” reporting as grounds for punishment isn’t about ethics. It’s about power.
Take Executive Order 14149, laughably titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” It’s the kind of law Orwell would’ve rejected as too on-the-nose. Critics point out the vagueness gives the administration carte blanche to investigate or punish any speech it doesn’t like. Call the Gulf of Mexico by its actual name? Sorry, it’s now the Gulf of America or lose your White House access. Associated Press v. Budowich proved this wasn’t a hypothetical. Language policing has moved from grammar teachers to federal mandates.
This is how fascism works. It dresses up in patriotism and paperwork, then strangles you with red tape.
Step Four: Redefining Protest as Terrorism
Here’s another classic: turn dissent into terrorism.
Peaceful protest movements, NGOs, even opposition political groups are being relabeled as “extremist threats.” It’s not about safety. It’s about chilling effect. If every march is branded terrorism, every marcher is a criminal.
The National Guard—supposedly a resource for natural disasters—is now Trump’s personal stage army. Memphis. D.C. Los Angeles. Cities with declining crime rates now find themselves patrolled by armored trucks and soldiers with rifles. Not because the streets are unsafe, but because the optics of militarization remind everyone who’s boss.
This isn’t law and order. It’s rule by intimidation.
Step Five: Scapegoats and Distractions
And of course, no fascist regime is complete without its scapegoats. Immigrants. Queer people. Minorities. Democrats. The playbook is centuries old: find someone vulnerable, paint them as the nation’s cancer, and then sell yourself as the cure.
Trump has already called half the country “terrorists.” This isn’t metaphor. This is the slow normalization of labeling opposition as existential enemies. And once you label someone a terrorist, anything you do to them is suddenly “national security.”
Step Six: Normalizing Propaganda
If you repeat a lie enough times, people stop calling it a lie. That’s the whole point of propaganda.
Flood the airwaves with MAGA-approved narratives. Call every fact-checker “fake news.” Punish outlets who dare contradict the party line. Soon the noise is so overwhelming that the truth doesn’t matter. All that matters is loyalty.
Propaganda doesn’t need to convince everyone. It just needs to exhaust them. To make them shrug and say, “Who even knows anymore?” That’s when the lies calcify into common sense.
Step Seven: Eroding Checks and Balances
Autocrats know the courts are supposed to be guardrails. So they smash them.
Independent agencies like the FCC, once meant to regulate fairly, are now MAGA’s attack dogs. Judges are appointed based on loyalty, not competence. Agencies are starved of funding or packed with cronies.
The system of checks and balances collapses not with one loud bang, but with a series of quiet edits. A new rule here. A defunded office there. By the time you notice, accountability has gone extinct.
Step Eight: The Cult of Personality
And finally, the cherry on the authoritarian sundae: the cult of personality.
Trump isn’t just a politician. He’s painted as the only man who can save America. Criticism of him isn’t treated as political disagreement—it’s treated as blasphemy. The man who once whined about Saturday Night Live sketches is now essentially demanding sainthood.
In this climate, loyalty tests replace competence. Government posts aren’t about expertise. They’re about sycophancy. The Cabinet might as well be renamed “Yes Men and Women.”
America’s Fascist State Is Here
Let’s stop pretending we’re on the road to fascism. We’re parked at the rest stop, eating fascism’s gas-station hot dogs, while our leader demands we thank him for the meal.
The silencing of comedians, journalists, and authors. The weaponization of lawsuits. The militarization of streets. The scapegoating of minorities. The normalization of propaganda. The erosion of checks and balances. The cult of personality. These aren’t warning signs. These are the mile markers of a fascist regime already in motion.
And if you think it can’t get worse, remember this: fascism thrives on complacency. It doesn’t need a majority. It just needs enough people to shrug.
First They Came
Pastor Martin Niemöller said it best, and it resonates even louder now:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Replace “socialists” with “journalists.” Replace “trade unionists” with “comedians.” Replace “Jews” with “immigrants, queer people, and anyone inconvenient.” The poem isn’t prophecy anymore. It’s documentary.
Summary: Fascism’s American Makeover
Trump’s America isn’t flirting with authoritarianism—it’s living with it. Comedians are censored, networks threatened, journalists sued into silence. Public media gutted. International news agencies kneecapped. The FCC turned into a partisan police squad. Protests relabeled as terrorism. The National Guard deployed to cities for optics, not safety. Minorities scapegoated. Lies normalized. Courts corrupted. And at the center, a cult of personality demanding loyalty over truth.
This is what fascism looks like in the 21st century: not jackboots and salutes, but lawsuits, executive orders, and “patriotic” censorship. The tools have changed. The outcome hasn’t.
And unless more of us speak now, Niemöller’s refrain becomes our epitaph.