This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number 114.

People are turning out all over the country—in rallies and demonstrations, in big cities and small towns—protesting against Trump and his Nazi-saluting “hit man,” Elon Musk.

Bernie Sanders, joined by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has been touring the country holding large rallies denouncing “Oligarchy” and the rule of billionaires, as represented by Trump and Musk. And this coming Saturday, April 5, nationwide demonstrations are being called by Indivisible, to protest the unprecedented “power grab” and outrageous policies of Trump (and Musk) on many different fronts.

It is a very good thing that people are mobilizing in large numbers to express their outrage at the heartless and lawless actions of the Trump regime.

At the same time: It is crucial to have a clear understanding of what the Trump regime actually is, where it is rapidly taking things, why it is urgently necessary to defeat this regime before it is too late—and what is the way that could be done.

The specific and essential thing that is represented and is being enforced by the Trump regime is not “oligarchy,” it is not “billionaires”: it is fascism.

Fascism is a qualitatively different way that this system enforces its rule over people. 

Trump fascism is a regime that openly and aggressively strips away basic rights and blatantly declares that there is no rule of law and due process of law other than what it dictates, and that raw destructive power is what must rule in the international arena, without even the pretense of adherence to international law or concern about the sovereignty, or even the right to exist, of less powerful peoples and countries.

It is a regime that is bent on unleashing unregulated and unfettered capitalist plunder, and in the pursuit of that takes a sledgehammer (or chainsaw) to crucial programs and services that people depend on—ruining livelihoods, wrecking science and health care, undermining and perverting education, and creating chaos that will cause huge numbers of people to suffer, here and all over the world.

A fascist regime like this requires someone like Donald Trump as its head: a pathological maniac, with his finger on the nuclear button, who appoints dangerous madmen and power-mad parasites to key positions of power.

The dominant Democratic Party strategy of appealing to “economic populism” will not succeed in bringing about the defeat of this fascism by winning over Trump supporters who are supposedly motivated by economic concerns.

At his rallies against “Oligarchy,” Bernie Sanders has revived the “Occupy” formula of the “99 percent” against the “one percent” of super-rich. But the problem is that nearly half of the “99 percent” are fascists. Why? Because, as I have pointed out before, it is not just their economic position but also their social position that they are worked up about. For the ranks of the MAGA fascists, even beyond their economic situation, a powerful, perverse motivating factor is their insistence on white supremacy and male supremacy, hatred of LGBT people and of immigrants (especially immigrants from “shithole countries,” in Trump’s disgusting racist terms). This is what these fascists mean by “Make America Great Again.” And all this is wrapped up with and driven by blatant lies, anti-scientific lunacy and crazed conspiracy theories—with vulnerable groups made into targets of hatred and persecution, like immigrants denounced as “dangerous criminals” and trans people treated as perverted predators.

As for “oligarchy” and “billionaires,” the Democratic Party, as well as the Republican Party, receives heavy financing from the super-rich, heads of corporations, and so on. Even more fundamentally, both of these parties are instruments of the system of capitalism-imperialism, which is based on mercilessly exploiting billions of people, and enforcing literally murderous oppression of masses of people, here and all over the world. This is why the Democratic Party, and those who are tied to or aligned with it, will never challenge the rule of Trump the way that is necessary in order to actually defeat it. For these “mainstream” (or so-called “progressive”) representatives of this system of capitalism-imperialism, the stability of this system, and the dominant position of U.S. imperialism in the world, is of greater concern than actually defeating Trump/MAGA fascism.

Ultimately and fundamentally, it is this whole system that needs to be swept away, through a revolution involving masses of people, determined to fight for a radically different, truly emancipating system (as spoken to in the document We Need And We Demand: A Whole New Way To Live, A Fundamentally Different System, which is available at revcom.us).

Right now, for decent people everywhere, and for the future of humanity, defeating this Trump/MAGA fascism is of profound importance, and an urgent need. 

While some politicians that are part of, or tied to, the Democratic Party are providing a platform for expressions of outrage at things the Trump regime is doing, at the same time these politicians are seeking to narrow, confine and channel this outrage within the “normal processes” of this system—directing people’s attention and efforts toward elections that are more than a year and a half away, in November 2026!

On an obvious level, even leaving aside everything else that’s wrong with this, November 2026 is way too late. And, for the reasons I have spoken to here, relying on electing Democrats cannot, and will not, stop this fascism. Opposition to what the Trump regime is doing will take, and should take, many different forms and involve people with many different political perspectives. But it is of crucial and urgent importance that this not be misdirected and robbed of any real power by being confined within and funneled into the electoral process. Instead, the resistance against this fascism needs to be rapidly manifested as the massive mobilization of millions and millions of people, in the streets and in every institution, determined to prevent this fascism from consolidating its power and implementing its horrific program.

(This is put forward very clearly in A Call To Conscience... A Call To Act, from RefuseFascism.org, which is working to unite as broadly as possible with people opposing the outrages constantly committed by the Trump regime, while popularizing and working to win people to take up and act on this crucial orientation: No! In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse To Accept A Fascist America... The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go!)

Every force, every program, every way people are called on to act, must be weighed against THIS crucial orientation and goal.

And, as matter of fact, a determined struggle of millions united on this basis is the best way to win over any “ordinary people” who have actually been misled into supporting this fascism.

All the many different streams of protest need to be joined together, and rapidly draw in many, many more—to become a massive wave of millions and millions demanding, insisting, determined to make this demand a reality: The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go!