In just short of 20 days after taking office for a second term, President Donald Trump issued 84 executive actions and counting, as of Feb. 7. Acts include removing the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the Paris Agreement, and the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling for a federal recognition of only two sexes, and abolishing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in federally funded organizations.
We have seen these orders put into place at an alarming rate with staggering effects.
However, with so many new, and even overwhelming, restrictions coupled with the increasing presence of Trump’s cohorts across vast swaths of federal agencies, I cannot help but notice numerous significantly alarming parallels between the current administration and fascist regimes of global history – specific and general.

On Jan. 28, the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent out a memorandum for the heads of federal executive departments and agencies regarding a “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs.” It listed requirements and actions the organizations must take in order to ensure federally funded programs are operating in ways “dedicated to advancing Administration priorities” and “ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government.” Furthermore, the memorandum condemned the use of any resources to “advance Marxist equity” and “transgenderism” as a “waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.” After court backlash deeming the demand unconstitutional, the order was rescinded.
Yet, an additional memorandum distributed by the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Jan. 29 provided guidance to agencies outlining steps and requirements to “end federal funding of gender ideology.” As described, the affected agencies had to make the following changes by 5 p.m. EST on Jan. 31 and report to the OPM confirming compliance by noon on Feb. 7:
Send an email to all agency employees announcing that the agency will be complying with Defending Women and this guidance.
Review all agency programs, contracts, and grants, and terminate any that promote or inculcate gender ideology.
Review all agency position descriptions and send a notification to all employees whose position description involves inculcating or promoting gender ideology that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all initiatives, offices, and programs that inculcate or promote gender ideology.
Take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology.
Review agency email systems such as Outlook and turn off features that prompt users for their pronouns.
Withdraw any final or pending documents, directives, orders, regulations, materials, forms, communications, statements, and plans that inculcate or promote gender ideology.
Cancel any trainings that inculcate or promote gender ideology or have done so in the past.
Disband or cancel any employee resource groups or special emphasis programs that inculcate or promote gender ideology or have done so in the past.
Review all agency forms that require entry of an individual’s sex and ensure that all list male or female only, and not gender identity. Remove requests for “gender” and substitute requests for “sex.”
Ensure that all applicable agency policies and documents, including forms, use the term “sex” and not “gender.”
Ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by biological sex and not gender identity.
In short: any language, programs, or mere mentions of queer identities, in whatever capacity, were to be scrubbed from federal organizations – internally and externally.

Many agencies complied.
The New York Times published a report on Feb. 2 that over 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government sites had been taken down since Jan. 31, though some had resurfaced as revised versions. Organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Census Bureau, the Office of Justice Programs, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were among those whose sites had pages removed and/or altered. The CDC took down over 3,000 pages and were provided with a list of keywords to guide their purging, including “gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, biologically male, biologically female, he/she/they/them,” according to The Washington Post. Extensive data, research reports, and vital health guidelines were edited and/or scrubbed in their entirety.
There’s no use sugar-coating it. The Trump Administration is actively trying to erase the existence of queer folk. But, does this purging of queer documentation, especially scientific data and research, sound familiar?
It should.
In May of 1933, mass book burnings took place in Nazi Germany, destroying records and literature deemed “un-German.” The Holocaust Encyclopedia describes the event as an aim by Nazi authorities to “synchronize professional and cultural organizations with Nazi ideology and policy.” Among the first to be attacked, and in some reports the first, was Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or the Institute for Sexual Research, in Berlin. Heike Bauer in The Hirschfeld Archives: Violence, Death, and Modern Queer Culture, writes on how Hirschfeld devoted his life to developing the first center in Berlin dedicated to studying gender and sexuality, providing gender-affirming care and whose building housed a “broad range of clinical research and practice, including development of medical, anthropological, and psychological research on all aspects of gender and sexuality and marriage counseling, eugenics research, and provision of sexual health clinics.”
Hirschfeld’s work, and the existence of queer folk in general, did not align with the Nazi regime’s ideals of a perfect Germany. First, they attacked the archives, erasing important medical research and access to health resources for the queer community. Later on, such acts would escalate to the public condemnation of homosexuality as criminal for deviating from traditional family. In concentration camps, homosexuals were marked by pink triangles on their sleeves.
The Nazis aimed to protect the ‘morality’ of Germany – Adolf Hitler’s vision for Germany that he declared was in the best interest of the nation.
Let’s return to the present.
Trump claims in his executive order Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government that allowing the recognition of the existence of more than two genders, and the distinction of gender and sex, has a “corrosive impact” on the “validity of the entire American system.” He claims that “basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.”
Trump’s executive order Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing claims that “Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great.”
This can be simplified: Equality is allowed only insofar as people comply with Trump’s vision for America and his way to “Make America Great Again” – a vision that he claims is in the best interest of the American people.

Only, of course, if you’re not queer or a part of any minority.
Though, the parallels between the actions of the Trump Administration and fascist regimes like Nazi Germany do not end with Hirschfeld and Elon Musk’s “heartfelt gesture” at Trump’s inauguration that resembled a certain dictator’s straight-arm salute a little too much to be brushed off.
The words fascist and fascism have long been misused and are something that often immediately raises an individual’s defenses. However, it is vital that the defining characteristics of such a nation can be identified.
Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt in a 2003 article, “Fascism Anyone?” outlined 14 trademark signs of fascism. An excerpt from the publishing magazine, Free Inquiry, lists them as the following:
“Powerful and Continuing Nationalism”
“Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights”
“Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause”
“Supremacy of the Military”
“Rampant Sexism”
“Controlled Mass Media”
“Obsession with National Security”
“Religion and Government are Intertwined”
“Corporate Power is Protected”
“Labor Power is Suppressed”
“Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts”
“Obsession with Crime and Punishment”
“Rampant Cronyism and Corruption”
“Fraudulent Elections”
Now, consider these listed traits and just some of Trump’s actions.
Fascist regimes often utilize and repeat “patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia.” Trump has continuously used catchy and even cult-ish phrases like “Make America Great Again” (his iconic red MAGA hat) and has promised to usher in the “golden age of America.”
Screenshot from The White House homepage Fascist regimes often persuade citizens to look the other way in instances of increased practices like torture, executions, and long incarceration periods, claiming them a necessity for national security and the good of the people. As a part of his executive order Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety, Trump expressed that sentences involving capital punishment should be “respected and faithfully implemented” and that judges who “subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences” should be counteracted. States are to allow capital punishment and, under the Attorney General, will be provided with the necessary supplies for lethal injections.
Fascist regimes often rally the people “into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe.” A CNN analysis noted that Trump has repeatedly referred to Democrats and many of his other opponents as the “enemy from within.” Furthermore, since his first term, Trump has been very vocal about his disdain for immigrants and undocumented immigrants. On a troubling scale, Trump waged a war on immigrants, authorizing mass deportations and ICE raids across the country, attempted to end birthright citizenship, and planned the transfer of undocumented immigrants to Guantanamo Bay as a detention center. Additionally, he actively identified “aliens” as a threat in his executive order Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.
Fascist regimes often allocate a disproportionate amount of funding to the military and glamorize military service. Trump has repeatedly expressed his views on the superiority of the American military and signed the executive order The Iron Dome for America, outlining numerous implementations to bolster defenses and offenses against foreign aerial attacks. A CNN analysis also noted that Trump has a history of using the military and police force to quiet dissent and counteract protests. Moreover, he proposed for the U.S. to take a “long-term ownership position” over the Gaza Strip, as reported by NBC News on Feb. 5.
Fascist regimes often are nearly exclusively male-dominated, supportive of anti-LGBTQ policies, and show high opposition to abortion. We have seen Trump give federal organizations lists of keywords to guide content removal from grant applications and websites, largely condemning pages with LGBTQ research. He has required the federal recognition of only two sexes and signed an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports. Additionally, under his first presidential term, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) overturned the constitutional right to abortion assured by Roe v. Wade (1973).
Fascist regimes often utilize the nation’s most common religion as a tool for manipulation. Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 6 Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias and another on Feb. 7, establishing the White House Faith Office.
Fascist regimes often promote hostility toward higher education and the arts. Like in his executive order Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling, Trump has taken action to remove “anti-American” teachings from curricula, such as topics on race and gender. The Associated Press noted Trump’s desire to dissolve the U.S. Department of Education as he believes it has been “infiltrated by radicals, zealots and Marxists.” On Feb. 6, he also announced his intention to install himself as the chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Finally, fascist regimes are “almost always governed by a group of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability.” Furthermore, this group often involves corporate elites. Big-name CEOs and billionaires enjoyed front-row seats to Trump’s inauguration, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sam Altman, Shou Zi Chew, and Sundar Pichai. Musk was also appointed to oversee the new Department of Government Efficiency and, as NPR noted, has had various individuals connected to DOGE and other of Musk’s companies infiltrate federal agencies, gaining access to sensitive information and working to scrap USAID.
These are far from the only parallels.
“But, it's not that bad.” “But, I'll know a fascist when I see one.” “But, that stuff doesn't happen in America.” “But-”
Remember that Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20. Now, recall that it only took 53 days for Hitler to dismantle the German republic from within and establish his devastating rule.
German pastor Martin Niemöller originally sympathized with the Nazis. In an impromptu public speech, he expressed his belief that Germans were complicit in genocide due to their silence:
“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.”
Our bed has been made. But, we do not have to lie in the discomfort and pain, withering away, weakening, atrophying until we lack the strength to fight.
We can speak up, voice our grievances, and demand something better.
Disclaimer: The contents published in The Stormy Petrel newspaper do not reflect or speak for the opinion of Oglethorpe University as a whole or its student body, staff, or faculty. The author of this editorial is responsible for their opinions.