People need to stop throwing around labels like "fascism" as if they're going out of business. Trump is populist...not exactly in line with the classic brand of populism though since e.g. European populists usually portray themselves as average Joes whereas Trump talks 24/7 about how his elite status.
Donald Trump is a ruthless, unprincipled opportunist. He cadges left-wing elements of populism with elements of orthodox pro-capitalist politics. His ego drives his political effort.
Anti-intellectualism is an important aspect of the American Right, in part because anti-intellectualism endorses authoritarian businesses. Much of Big Business promotes the ethos of "suffer with a smile" in retailing, the hospitality business, and food service; the work offers low wages and pure drudgery. The Right speaks often of 'elites', but for them 'elites' are those people privileged to think on the job. To the Right, billionaires are 'average Joes' who have worked harder than others because they get spectacular rewards for their achievements (often the result of birth, but anyone who thinks about economic inequality is a filthy intellectual who fails to recognize the need for repressive, exploitative structures that enforce severe inequality).
Fascism offers a 'national struggle' as morally preferable to a 'class structure'. Under fascism, solidarity between working people of differing nationality is unthinkable; workers are to know their place -- subordinate and impoverished. the American Right dares not insist upon the right to exercise the usual tools of political fascism -- torture chambers, slave labor camps, mass killings of dissidents, politicized militias, and militaristic expansionism; such would violate American tradition. But economic fascism and contempt for the unruly intellect? Such is part of some American cultures, especially among those with ties to the old Confederacy or believers in fundamentalist Protestantism. For the American Right the national struggle is to establish a pure plutocracy that supposedly fosters growth, a system that offers low wages and monopolistic profits.
I will believe in the absence of a class struggle when I see the super-rich living much like their nearly-destitute employees. Great wealth and high incomes have always fostered sybaritic indulgence.
