A lot of the love for Trump IME was that he sounds like us and suggests the kind of obvious solutions that we think of (where “us” and “we” means the kind of poorly informed but opinionated voter that would support Trump). Trump’s an idiot, but an idiot in popular ways, that only endear him more to his supporters.
The analyses that say Trump promises his supporters what they want, really misses the mark IMO, as Trump and FOX et al tell their supporters what they want (though admittedly always with a veneer of pandering to their tribalism).
Plus the ever popular “He says what everybody else is only thinking”. That comes across (to them) as the brave candor of an unassailably powerful personality. Power is good; goodness is weakness.
The scary thing is that within that audience monoculture, in fact pretty much everybody is thinking along the same lines as what Trump is saying.
Nationalism, and/or religious exclusionism of “the other” (which may vary from country to country, but in central Europe, Muslims, Jews, Roma, internationalism/globalism other than as a means of channelling EU funding to the “right” people, gays, feminists, independent judges and anyone who makes too much noise about human rights).
I think he is a fascist. He’s abused his power repeatedly. He’s tried to violently overthrow elections, and has no regard for the law or traditions/ethics. He’s used the power of “his” government to attack political adversaries and to reward loyalists. He’s a demagogue, who attacks minority groups in favor of “his” group, and used faux-trade policy as a weapon against other countries he doesn’t like. He’s encouraged violence in various settings. He speaks the language of white nationalists and economic nationalists. He’s also a voracious and serial liar.
All the above are fascist traits. I think he’s a fascist. He hasn’t been fully successful in implementing fascism - Thank God - but that doesn’t mean he’s not a would-be fascist, if he could get away with it.
I’m a bit of a historical purist when I’m in a contrary mood, so depending on the day or phase of the moon I might be inclined to dismiss any definition that included those not lineally influenced by the original ideology. I make no claims to consistency on this position.
But with Trump my larger completely annoying and arguably irrelevant nitpick would be acts like a fascist or is a de facto fascist might be fine. But IS a fascist is problematic. Because I consider fascism to be an actual ideology and I’m pretty sure Trump has none.