‘Holy Fascism’ - My latest ‘Hot Type’ column in Byline Times
In today’s column for Byline Times, I take a deeper dive on how the Trump regime’s cynical use of ‘God’ as cover for its greedy, bloody, and criminal actions mirrors fascist regimes, past and present
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As I prepare for our event with Dr. Marci Shore on Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann In Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil on 27 October — our annual Halloween hair-raiser with the great intellectual historian, I do as I always do: I follow the leads planted within the book I am reading. This generally means, I’m reading about three books simultaneously. I do my part to keep independent bookstores in the black.
Here’s an example, reading The Gravediggers led me to the diary of Bella Fromm, my greatest work on these pages.
As I am reading Arendt’s book on Eichmann — one of the most important books on the Nazi machinery — Arendt leads me to Diary of a Man in Despair by Friedrich Reck, a book she calls “one of the most important documents of the Hitler period.”
Well, I now know what gibbeting means. I’ve seen the cages in Münster, where leaders who sprung up 400 years before Hitler with “a thin sauce of ideology covered lewdness, greed, sadism, and fathomless lust for power” were gibbeted. Of the Münster propaganda chief, Reck notes he walked with a limp “like Goebbels, a joke history spent 400 years preparing.”
I share Reck’s sorrow when he writes: “My life in this pit will soon enter its fifth year. For more that 42-months, I have thought hate, have lain down with hate in my heart, have dreamed hate and awakened with hate. I suffocate in the knowledge that I am the prisoner of a horde of vicious apes, and I rack my brains over the perpetual riddle of how this same people which so jealously watched over its rights a few years ago could have sunk into this stupor.”
His sharp words pierce right through me. His words, his words… it’s the first time in a long time I want to read something in the original German. His words.
He knew Hitler personally. He writes of the times he’d met him, in 1920, when he felt his evil force, compelled to open windows to let air in after Hitler and his whip departed. Once at a restaurant, Hitler came in without a bodyguard. It was 1932, and Reck had a gun and the opportunity to shoot him. He thought him “stupid,” “sad, and unutterably insignificant.”
“There he sat, a raw vegetable Genghis Khan, a teetotaling Alexander, a womanless Napoleon, an effigy of Bismark… I had a loaded revolver with me, and I could easily have shot him. If I had an inkling of the role this piece of filth was to play, and of the years of suffering he would make us endure, I would have done it without a second thought. But I took him for a character out of comic strip and did not shoot.”
Reck wrote those words on 11 August 1936.
Ninety years later, I am writing words about people often mistaken for comic strip characters.
Today, in my column in Byline Times I write about how the Trump regime’s use of ‘God’ as moral cover is very much like Nazi Germany and Putin’s Russia. The title ‘Holy Fascism’ comes from dehumanization expert David Livingstone Smith, and you will also find insights from Keir Giles and Anne Nelson.
Here is a link to my report, which was published in Byline Times and Byline Supplement on Sunday:
Below, I am crossposting the column. If you find it helpful, please share the original link from Byline with your networks. Liking and sharing a report helps us reach a wider audience.
Hot Type: ‘Holy Fascism’
Heidi Siegmund Cuda reflects on how the Trump regime’s cynical use of ‘God’ as cover for its greedy, bloody, and criminal actions mirrors fascist regimes, both past and present
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s telegenic prop to lead the Pentagon, was originally a weekend anchor on Fox News, who reportedly took a pay cut to become America’s Defense Secretary. Like many members of the Trump regime, however, it appears that Hegseth’s bottom line may have recovered during his time in the administration.
Hegseth recently reported at least $3.1 million in cash, retirement investments and bitcoin in his 2025 annual financial disclosure, and one bank account held more than $1 million, compared with a $15,000 to $50,000 range for an account with the same description in his 2024 nominee filing.
Small potatoes compared to the wealth increase of Trump’s eldest sons, whose estimated personal wealth jumped from $40 million each to about $300 - $400 million each during their father’s second term, while overall estimates for the Trump family suggest a $3.5 to $5 billion increase.
All in the name of God.
“I was saved by God to make America great again,” Trump said in his second term inauguration address. He famously held up a bible for a publicity photo, portrayed himself as AI Jesus, and recently recycled the blasphemous God Made Trump video, just in time for the midterm elections.
So it should not have come as a shock that Hegseth, who famously compared Trump to Jesus, just announced he is launching an Office of Religious Affairs at the Pentagon. In his announcement speech, he said: “Our department is…putting on the full armor of God, because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual.”
The former TV talk show host, one of 19 TV personalities in Trump’s 2.0 cabinet, has hosted Christian worship services for employees, and infuses his speeches with Christian nationalism.
The Office of Religious Affairs, or ORA, promises to answer directly to Hegseth, according to a Pentagon statement.
Hegseth’s holy rolling is reminiscent of rhetoric used by US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Trump’s mild-mannered apologist in Congress, who once said in an interview: “The kingdom of God allows for aggression, and there’s a time to every purpose under heaven. From the time of John the Baptist until today, the kingdom of God has been advancing by forceful men and forceful men take hold of it, that’s what the New Testament says.”
Conjuring the word of God as cover for immorality is nothing new, but the toxic brand by Trump loyalists most specifically mirrors Nazi Germany and Putin’s regime in Russia.
In his new book, American Overthrow: Moscow’s Endgame In Its Long War With Washington, Russia-watcher Keir Giles documents multiple examples of Pete Hegseth’s God-conjuring in the defense department, including the hosting of evangelical worship services, “invoking divine purpose for America’s wars”, and praying for “overwhelming violence… in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”
Giles also reminds the reader that the Financial Times investigated how a broker for Hegseth “had attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran.”
Of the latest development in the US defense department, Giles told Byline Times: “Russia harnesses Orthodoxy to its wars, leading to the incongruous sight of priests dowsing weapons of mass destruction with holy water. Now the Department of Defense is co-opting another variant of Christianity to lend legitimacy to its own endeavours. It’s another element in the current US administration’s wholesale emulation of the Russian model, and of many other authoritarian regimes that have come before it.”
‘Gott Mit Uns’
My initial reaction to Hegseth’s Office of Religious Affairs announcement was a reminder of the belt buckles German soldiers wore into battle in World War II. They were emblazoned with “Gott Mit Uns” (God Is With Us). I learned that historic fact from author Anne Nelson, who has written multiple books on Nazi Germany, as well as US Christian nationalism.
She told me: “The Christian religion, like other religions, has been perverted by political interests since almost the beginning. The Crusaders used it as an excuse to slaughter fellow Christians in Byzantium. But one thing that you found was that Hitler, centuries later, realized that the majority of Germans were practicing Christians. And he and his propagandist Joseph Goebbels understood that using him as a Christian symbol would be powerful among these people.”
She said the Nazis co-opted Christian symbolism.
Nazi Party propaganda postcard showing Der Bannerträger (’The Standard bearer’) by Austrian artist Hubert Lanzinger.
“One of the most popular images of Hitler, which was a painting that became a postcard — a poster you then saw all over Germany, with him as a crusader knight and bearing the standard of the cross in battle against the heathens,” Nelson said.
“And another factor that you had was this tradition in the army of the belt buckles that were imprinted with ‘Gott mit uns’ — God is with us. And they would wear these belt buckles into battle on the Russian front. And then, as they slaughtered millions of Jews in the Holocaust by bullets — with the idea that God was supporting their side.”
Nelson calls it a “perversion of Christianity for political gain as a spiritual battle.”
Her words about actions from a different war more than 80 years ago echo the US today:
“Our department is…putting on the full armor of God, because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual.” – Pete Hegseth, earlier this week
‘Holy Fascism’
“Some political movements hold that sacred values are embodied in a single person, the sacred leader,” philosophy professor and author David Livingstone Smith told Byline Times. “Sacred leaders are messianic figures, who promise salvation for true believers. When a movement is headed by a sacred leader, it resembles a religion.”
Smith calls this phenomenon “Holy Fascism”, and he links what he sees in Trump’s MAGA movement to the idolatry surrounding Hitler.
“Take a drive down Trump highway on Amazon, and you’ll discover books with titles such as God and Donald Trump; Trump Prophesies; Trump’s Unfinished Business:10 Prophesies to Save America; Trump’s Bible: How Donald Trump’s Words and Deeds Reflect God’s Teaching; Trump, Blessed, Donald J. Trump and the Spiritual War; and God and the 2020 Election,” Smith noted. “Some MAGA zealots even claim that the Coming of Donald Trump was prophesied in the biblical Book of Daniel. Trump is a sacred leader in the eyes of his true believers.”
He draws comparisons between the religious fervor found at both Trump and Hitler rallies.
“It wasn’t just ordinary folk who looked up to Hitler as a savior,” Smith said. “Members of the Nazi elite shared the perspective. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels effused to his leader after he was found guilty in the aftermath of the Beer Hall putsch, ‘Like a rising star you appeared before our wondering eyes, you performed miracles…gave us faith. You towered above the masses, full of faith and certain of the future, and possessed by the will to free those masses with your unlimited love for all those who believe in the new Reich.’
Hermann Göring—Commander in Chief of the Air Force and Hitler’s designated successor—exclaimed, ‘There is something mystical, inexpressible, almost incomprehensible about this one man…. We love Adolf Hitler because we believe, deeply and steadfastly, that he was sent to us by God to save Germany.’”
Smith then reminds us of a key utility to all the Godspeak.
“Naturally, Nazis often described opponents of the regime as satanic,” he said. “As Joseph Goebbels put the point in his final broadcast on Hitler’s 56th birthday, just before the German surrender: ‘The most shining culture the earth has ever seen sinks in ruins and leaves only memories of the greatness of an age destroyed by satanic powers…. Opposing this apparently all-powerful coalition of destructive satanic forces brings with it tests and burdens of superhuman nature…. Once more the armies of the enemy powers storm against our defensive fronts. Behind them is the slavering force of International Jewry that wants no peace until it has reached its satanic goal of world destruction.’”
Clearly, we can see how dangerous these words are, and we are also reminded of a postby Donald Trump, where he called Democrat members of Congress “THE PARTY OF HATE, EVIL, AND SATAN.”
Keir Giles reminded us of the priests from the Russian Orthodox Church blessingrockets and weaponry used to kill civilians in Ukraine, not surprising when the Russian church is led by a KGB spy-crony of Putin’s, Patriarch Kirill, whose net worth is estimated at $4 to $8 billion dollars.
Intrinsically, holy fascism is linked to profiteering.
‘Your Hands Are Full of Blood’
In listening to Hegseth’s speeches and reviewing passages from his 2020 book, American Crusade – where he urges violence in God’s name – I can’t help but think of the quote from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
On Palm Sunday in Vatican City, Pope Leo famously said: “This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’.”
I shudder when I read recent reports from the UK, with images of extreme right-wing protestors evoking Christian symbols and rhetoric as they promote ancient hatreds. I find it triggering because it mirrors the imagery we witnessed as Americans on January 6, as people radicalized for Trump tried to overthrow the Government in God’s name. That crowd, bearing all their hatred, evoked images of a God far removed from the loving God I understood in my youth.
Sloptocracy
I recently investigated how the Trump regime is using AI slop as a primary tool of governance to achieve its political aims. With the latest developments in the Pentagon, it’s clear that the weaponization of a mutant form of Christianity is also accelerating.
In Keir Giles’ American Overthrow book, he notes a small, but important detail.
“The final Cabinet meeting of 2025 was characterised by a mix of ineptitude and significant policy declarations. During the two-hour session, officials doodled while Trump dozed off, and Pete Hegseth sat behind a nameplate reading ‘Ssecretary of War’ [sic] —a minor mistake, but an example of inattention to detail which stands out from previous administrations.”
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More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
