Trump and Mussolini

Trump and Mussolini depicts two historic individuals, though divided by a century—the former at the dawn of mass society, the latter of social networking—as men of beginnings, exploiting these unique moments to their advantage and utilizing rhetoric, mannerism, and body language as weapons of communication often against truth and common good.

Trump and Mussolini: Images, Fake News, and Mass Media as Weapons in the Hands of Two Populists compares two historic men of power and influence, Donald Trump and Benito Mussolini, to analyze the commonality of practices and mannerisms between the two. From rhetoric to body language, to their control over oral and written communication and analogous power strategies, they both possess an unusual talent for new technologies which they utilize to their advantage in unique moments in history. Mussolini lived at the beginning of mass society, Trump at the height of social media, both controversial leaders finding means to utilize these periods of time and the tools surrounding them to further their own agendas and influence society, culture, and authority. The authors examine a plethora of topics and themes such as outward personalities and consuming charisma, means and tools of communication and propaganda, and treatment of women, just to name a few, in order to define the relationship and similarities between these two controversial figures.

This book was written before the Capitol Hill assault on January 6^th 2021. Mussolini in November 1922 in front of the Parliament said: “I could have made a bivouac of this gloomy gray hall: I could have shut down the Parliament and formed a Government exclusively of Fascists; I could have done so, but I did not wish to do so, at least not at this moment.” Trump, however never said anything like this, but indeed, tried to do it.

Preface by Anthony Julian Tamburri

Introduction: Similarities in the Trump and Mussolini Eras

Chapter I: Manipulating Information

Chapter II: The Climb: A New Narrative

Chapter III: Protean Leaderships

Chapter IV: Mechanisms of Consensus and Democracy

Chapter V: Ideology as a Prop

Chapter VI: Achieving Internal Consensus

Chapter VII: Geopolitics

Chapter VIII: The Women

Interview with Ambassador Robert J. Callahan

Interview with Sociologist Franco Ferraotti