Why I’m Not Going to Stop Calling Trump a Fascist

Kirk’s murder doesn't change the facts.

I’ve had more than a few reporters ask me, in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, whether I’m going to stop calling Donald Trump a fascist—because the word “fascist” was found on the shell casing the murderer used. The answer is unequivocally, no.

As tragic and horrible as Kirk’s murder was, it’s not a reason to stop calling Trump exactly what he is. He’s a fascist. Censoring media. Threatening universities. Undermining elections. Attacking judges. Defying court orders. The list goes on and on.

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If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a damn duck. And I’m not about to stop saying that just because the conservative movement wants to lecture Democrats about language, which they have zero credibility on.

Look, I don’t toss the word “fascist” around lightly. Some Democrats do, and I think that’s a mistake. But what else am I supposed to call a president who grows more powerful because the judiciary and Congress are too cowardly or complicit to check him—even as he becomes more unpopular and more extreme?

Two weeks ago, Trump posted a photo of my city—Chicago—engulfed in flames, implying he had napalmed it. This week, his FCC chair threatened to yank ABC’s license if they didn’t take Jimmy Kimmel off the air for a joke. And just this morning, outside a detention center near Chicago, ICE fired some chemical agent into the air and got violent with peaceful protesters—protesters who were there because this administration rounded up immigrants en masse and are deporting them to countries they aren’t even from.

And now I’m supposed to stop calling that fascism because something awful happened to Charlie Kirk? When Trump continues attacking people like me as “scum?” When his closest adviser is threatening me and my son? Hell no.

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I am heartbroken over what happened to Kirk, and I’m holding his kids especially close in my thoughts. What happened was a crime against them and against this country. But the way the GOP and conservative media immediately tried to spin it—to weaponize Kirk’s murder against Democrats, and inciting more violence from their far-right base—is despicable. And it’s not going to work.

What Democrats must do now is double down. We have to explain to the American people, clearly and relentlessly, what Trump is doing to this country and why it’s wrong—why abusing power to line his own pockets, to punish comedians for telling jokes, to push the executive branch past the point of accountability—must be resisted at every level.

We must keep fighting with everything we have. With relentless, endless, urgency. Inside the Democratic Party, and outside of it in the streets. Because if we don’t, we will fall to this fascist and the people around him—people who fear anyone different, and want to crush anyone who dares speak out.

We have to get tougher. We cannot let Republicans dictate the terrain, no matter what happens. We cannot let them use Kirk’s murder as some twisted excuse for us to back down.

So no—I’m not going to stop calling Donald Trump what he is. It would be wrong of me not to.