Mehdi Hasan: ‘MAGA is creating authoritarian, Neo-Fascist, machinery in front of our eyes’

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• Mehdi Hasan claims ICE agents are operating in America as a “domestic militia” for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, following the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota.
• Hasan says MAGA claims her actions were domestic terrorism is “gaslighting of the highest order” and contradicts video footage from the scene.
• He believes Trumpism has already taken root in the UK, is “festering” in the Conservative Party, and blames Keir Starmer’s Labour for letting that happen.

What’s the story?

The Republican Party, under Donald Trump’s leadership, is “100% fascist”, claims broadcaster and commentator Mehdi Hasan.

Speaking with The News Agents in the days following the shooting of an unarmed mum of three in Minneapolis, he says ICE agents are acting as Trump’s personal “domestic militia”.

"The Republican Party is creating authoritarian – basically Neo fascist – machinery in front of our eyes," Hasan tells Lewis Goodall.

"I think the debate on fascism was over before he was elected. It's certainly over now."

The last piece of the puzzle, Hasan says, was that to become fully "fascist", it would need "domestic militias on the streets" – which he claims is now the role ICE is fulfilling.

Vice President JD Vance has said that ICE agents will now go "door to door" seeking illegal immigrants for deportation. Hasan questions whether the American government is now acting like that or Iran, China – or Venezuela, which it so recently invaded.

"ICE is basically a Trump-loyal paramilitary police force, men in masks shooting, not just brown and black immigrants, legal or 'illegal', but American citizens, as we saw with Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis," he adds.

"They've been empowered. They behave as his Praetorian Guard. He doesn't care about the Constitution."

Trump's lack of regard for the Constitution, he adds, is highlighted in his refusal to pull the National Guard out of Los Angeles and other cities where it has been deployed – despite the pleas of local officials.

"When it comes to dealing with immigrants and with US citizens, we're in a very dark place right now," Hasan says.

"He is amassing and consolidating power. He is taking over different arms of government."

'Gaslighting of the highest order'

Donald Trump, and his administration, have backed ICE agents and their activities in US cities this week, following the killing of Good, shot dead in her car in Minnesota, with video shared widely of the shooting and aftermath, in which agents prevented a medical professional from attending to the victim.

Good's actions, driving away from an ICE agent after a brief interaction, was described as an act of "domestic terrorism" by Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem.

"Within minutes of an ICE agent killing a white American, 37-year-old mother in a car filled with soft toys, they're calling her a domestic terrorist," Hasan says.

"Online, everyone from Elon Musk to random MAGA accounts are lining up saying, 'well, it's her fault, she did it to herself, she was an agitator.'"

Local officials have said the FBI blocked their access to an investigation into the killing – which some have described as murder.

Hasan says Trump, and his administration, is "gaslighting" Americans into believing MAGA's version of events.

"Trump's instant response was not just to defend it, but to lie about it," Hasan says.

"He said the officer was lucky not to be in the hospital. The officer walked away fine. He says she ran them over. Anyone who's watched that video knows that this is gaslighting of the highest order.

"That's another element of fascist authoritarian societies. The government tells you not to believe what you see with your own eyes. It's very 1984."

Is Trump's style of politics coming to the UK – or is it already here?

The scenes in Minneapolis this week may seem alien to people in the UK, but Kemi Badenoch has said that if she were to become prime minister, she would set up a UK version of ICE, with the goal of deporting 150,000 people a year from the country.

Hasan tells The News Agents Trumpism is "growing and festering" in the UK.

"Trumpism is very much taking hold in the British Conservative Party, and in the British right wing movement," he says.

"The UK has always been a country where if America sneezes, the UK catches a cold.

"It's always been a place where our political developments have followed pretty closely and I think I worry that that is where we're heading, and that this Labour government is doing everything possible to make that happen."

He says Keir Starmer has failed in his attempt to "fend off the right" by appearing tough on migrants, adding that it hasn't worked for him, in the same way it didn't work for Tony Blair.

"If you talk to anyone on the American right, they think Britain and London have fallen," he adds.

"They think Britain is run by Muslims and communists, and is just prosecuting innocent conservatives.

“It's hard to exaggerate just how much they have a complete misunderstanding."

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