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I've long been loath to use the word "fascism" casually -- words mean things, and those things matter. My personal rubric is the great Umberto Eco's essay "Ur-Fascism," summarized, with relevant links, below:
1. "The Cult of Tradition" ... when all truth has already been revealed by Tradition, no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement. https://twitter.com/BillOReilly/status/1141696767806849024
2. "The Rejection of modernism", which views the rationalistic development of Western culture since the Enlightenment as a descent into depravity. Eco distinguishes this from a rejection of superficial technological advancement. https://www.hawley.senate.gov/senator-josh-hawleys-speech-national-conservatism-conference
3. "The Cult of Action for Action's Sake", which dictates that action is of value in itself, and should be taken without intellectual reflection. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/01/05/key-word-us-justifications-killing-iranian-general-imminent/
4. "Disagreement Is Treason" – Fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/04/ilhan-omar-republican-treason-attack-condemnation
5. "Fear of Difference", which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-immigration-specialrepor/special-report-how-republicans-are-using-immigration-to-scare-voters-to-the-polls-idUSKCN1N018C
6. "Appeal to a Frustrated Middle Class", fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/09/17/why-white-blue-collar-voters-love-president-trump/
7. "Obsession with a Plot" and the hyping-up of an enemy threat. This often combines an appeal to xenophobia with a fear of disloyalty and sabotage from marginalized groups living within the society. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/qanon-the-conspiracy-theorycreeping-into-us-politics/2020/08/21/1a1d4940-e3dd-11ea-82d8-5e55d47e90ca_story.html
8. Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as "at the same time too strong and too weak." On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites… and point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/08/9987812/rnc-cancel-culture-kimberly-guilfoyle-donald-trump-jr
9. "Pacifism is Trafficking with the Enemy" because "Life is Permanent Warfare" – there must always be an enemy to fight. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-republican-allegations-antifa-protest-violence-disinformation-campaign-2020-6
10. "Contempt for the Weak", which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2018/06/05/why-people-vote-against-their-economic-interests
11. "Everybody is Educated to Become a Hero", which leads to the embrace of a cult of death. https://newrepublic.com/article/159050/republican-voters-embrace-trumps-cult-destruction
12. "Machismo", which sublimates the difficult work of permanent war and heroism into the sexual sphere. Fascists thus hold "both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/11/29/how-donald-trump-appeals-to-men-secretly-insecure-about-their-manhood/
13. "Selective Populism" – The People, conceived monolithically, have a Common Will… the Leader holds himself out as the interpreter… Fascists use this concept to delegitimize institutions they accuse of "no longer representing the Voice of the People." https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/only-20-percent-of-voters-are-real-americans/
14. "Newspeak" – Fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/22/donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-inauguration-alternative-facts
You'll note that little of the above is driven by Trump himself. He's just a narcissist, leaving little room for other -isms. But it's become pretty clear that many, if not most, modern Republicans would prefer a perpetual blood-and-soil one-party Republican state to democracy.
The Eco essay in question: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/
