Michael Lind: Why Donald Trump is more like Berlusconi than Mussolini

The fact Donald Trump has left the White House is proof that he was never a fascist dictator but rather an American-style populist demagogue. Such figures often appear in democracies where large cohorts of society are no longer adequately represented.

Although Donald Trump is the first true demagogue to be elected to the American presidency, the entertainer or plutocrat who wins office by posing as a champion of the common people has been a staple of mayoral and gubernatorial races for generations. Photo: AP/Alex Brandon

Throughout Donald Trump’s single term as president of the United States, his opponents in both the Democratic and Republican parties frequently portrayed him as a would-be fascist dictator. But with Trump ousted from the White House, this analogy has become untenable. 

The Italian leader Trump resembles most is not the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini but rather Silvio Berlusconi, the scandal-prone former prime minister.