Trump Is Doing The Exact Same Thing That Led To The Downfall Of Dictators, According To This History Professor

Authoritarianism adept Ruth Ben-Ghiat says Donald Trump is falling into the aforesaid trap that has undone authoritarian-minded leaders passim history.

“I person seen this marque of strongman megalomania and the adverse effects it tin yet person connected leaders and their governments,” wrote Ben-Ghiat, the writer of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.

Ben-Ghiat, a prof of past astatine New York University, described the improvement arsenic “autocratic backfire.” It occurs erstwhile leaders “cut themselves disconnected from adept proposal and nonsubjective feedback,” “promulgate unscrutinized policies that fail” and past “double down and prosecute successful adjacent riskier behavior,” she said.

“The result: a disillusioned colonisation that loses religion successful the person and elites who statesman to rethink their support,” she wrote, citing Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Russian President Vladimir Putin arsenic humanities examples of the signifier she sees emerging astir Trump.

Ben-Ghiat has agelong drawn parallels betwixt Trump and past dictators.

She has antecedently noted that his bombastic self-praise echoes a fascist slogan from Mussolini’s Italy: “Mussolini is ever right.”

This nonfiction primitively appeared on HuffPost.