Timothy Snyder Spent Years Studying Fascists. He Thinks Trump Is One.
Historian Timothy Snyder is among the most well-known public intellectuals in the world—his career trajectory transformed by Donald Trump. (Yevhen Titov/Abaca Press via Reuters Connect)
Is the Yale historian a prophet, as his supporters say? Or is he stripping the word ‘fascism’ of its meaning?
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TORONTO—“Is Donald Trump a fascist?” I asked the historian Timothy Snyder.
We were at a lovely restaurant on the campus of the University of Toronto, where Snyder had taken up residence after leaving Yale—and America—last August. I was in the middle of the grilled calamari. The professor—gray-haired, in a grayish-blue windbreaker and a checkered, button-down shirt—was poking at his salad.
He looked up after a moment, alternating between staring into the distance and staring at me.
He was no longer just an academic who wrote best-selling books about Eastern Europe. He was among the most well-known public intellectuals in the world—his career trajectory transformed by Donald Trump.
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