Hannah Arendt (1951/1973) in her treatise on Totalitarianism, focuses some of her writings on the role and evolution of the mob and paramilitaries. She describes this nationalistic mob as composed of socially uprooted groups animated by resentment, lawlessness, and scapegoating. Historically, in Germany, the mob allied with elites to destabilize liberal institutions and found outlets in antisemitism and imperialism (Arendt, pp. 107–120). Trump’s base carries similar features against immigrants, Muslims, and eventually election officials. Trump’s encouragement of violence at rallies and the January 6 insurrection reflects the “spectacle of lawlessness” which Arendt identified as characteristic of mob politics.
The Masses Dimension
For Arendt (1951/1973), the masses can be mobilized and emerge when traditional social bonds collapse (Arendt, pp. 311–323). Politicians appeal and attempt to lead not through persuasion but through offering a totalizing worldview that explains all events and demands loyalty (Arendt, pp. 351–361). Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan functions in this way, creating belonging for individuals who felt politically irrelevant or abandoned — echoing Arendt’s analysis of how the masses provided fertile ground for totalitarian movements.
Arendt (1951/1973) emphasized how elites often sought to use the mob for their purposes, only to be overtaken by the movements they enabled (pp. 150–152). The GOP establishment’s initial embrace of Trump parallels this pattern, as the Republican Party was hollowed out and reshaped into his personal vehicle. This reflects Arendt’s warning that once masses are mobilized by a demagogue, institutional structures can be overwhelmed.
Comparison with Arendt’s Model
In Arendt’s account, the trajectory is mob → alliance with elites → mass movement → totalitarianism. Trumpism exhibits a similar pattern: mob resentment provided momentum, elites believed they could control him, and the rallies of the mass followers elevated his movement into a nationwide populist force (Arendt, pp. 311–323). While Trumpism does not constitute full totalitarianism — lacking an all-encompassing ideology and a secret police — it bears Arendtian hallmarks of mass movements led by demagogues (Schaub, 2018; Rosenfeld, 2020). It fuses mob energy, capturing elites capitulations to the leader, and hollowing out a major political party.
Critical to Arendt’s analysis is the Paramilitary formations. In the pre-totalitarian stage, leaders often rely on lawless, unofficial groups to intimidate opponents and project power (e.g., Mussolini’s Blackshirts, Hitler’s Brownshirts). These groups thrive on violence and loyalty to the leader, not the law. Under Fascist rule, once power was consolidated, these mobs were absorbed into, or supplanted by, a formal secret police — the true backbone of totalitarianism.
Of concern has been the January 6th Paramilitary groups (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, III% militias) which acted like a mob-turned-paramilitary. They were not official state forces, but Trump’s rhetoric empowered them to see themselves as his defenders. They pledged allegiance to him, not to the Constitution. That’s a key formulation under Arendt’s theory, the loyalty of a secret police that gives loyalty to an individual. It becomes the marker of proto-totalitarian dynamics.
Arendt would likely see Jan. 6 as a turning point where the lawless, violent fringe was mobilized directly by the leader. Paramilitaries played the role of proto-secret police, showing willingness to act outside the law. The masses gave it legitimacy by accepting the “stolen election” narrative.
Trump has not built a secret police, but he has cultivated the precursors. 1) Enlarged and personalized state enforcement (ICE/DHS). 2) Mobilized paramilitary mobs loyal to him. 3) Hollowed out a political party to serve as his movement’s platform. Hannah Arendt’s analysis argues that those factors combined, is how leaders historically prepare the ground for a true personal security apparatus, the critical links towards totalitarianism.
Rosenfeld, S. (2020). Democracy and truth: A short history. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Arendt, H. (1973). The origins of totalitarianism (new ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. (Original work published 1951)
Schaub, D. (2018). Trumpism and the dialectic of democracy. Perspectives on Political Science, 47(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2017.1406480
Stanley, J. (2018). How fascism works: The politics of us and them. Random House.
Traverso, E. (2019). The new faces of fascism: Populism and the far right. Verso.
Art by Kate W 