Ruth Ben-Ghiat
MSNBC
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Ruth:
Why Trump is so eager to run under indictment
Trump’s CPAC speech claimed 2024 indictments form Fulton County or DOJ prosecutors wouldn't end his campaign. tying him to Berlusconi, Putin and Netanyahu. → Read More
Brazil's riots show Trumpism is no longer just America's problem
Brazil’s rioters are part of a global effort to subvert democracy. → Read More
Ron DeSantis follows in Donald Trump's authoritarian footsteps
The Florida governor has made the former president's lines and lies his own. → Read More
The attack on Paul Pelosi was shocking — and yet also predictable
Rising political violence — such as the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband — is not surprising when people are told they face existential threats. → Read More
Giorgia Meloni's win in Italy will make her a new GOP favorite
Giorgia Meloni's victory means Italy will become more enmeshed in far right and fascist networks, and Republicans will likely make her another favorite. → Read More
How Trump's desperately unoriginal plan to steal the election led to the Capitol attack
Insurrection hearings for January 6 seek to expose Trump's personality cult and Trump's many supporters who worked behind the scene to wage the failed coup. → Read More
A new brand of authoritarianism has trickled into the Republican Party
Trump supporters and GOP heavyweights recently met in Hungary for CPAC, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán encouraged American conservatives to join his mission. → Read More
The GOP has found a Putin-lite to fawn over. That's bad news for democracy.
Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson and other GOP luminaries have been chastised for praising Putin, but Hungary's Viktor Orbán appears fair game. → Read More
Putin thinks he's the hero of Russia's story. He couldn't be more wrong.
If the history of strongmen is any indication, it may be downhill for the Russian leader from here. → Read More
What led to Russia's renewed aggression against Ukraine
Putin’s obsession with reviving a version of the Soviet empire is a case study of how strongmen leverage nostalgia. → Read More
What led to Russia's renewed aggression against Ukraine
Putin’s obsession with reviving a version of the Soviet empire is a case study of how strongmen leverage nostalgia. → Read More
January 6 rioters are running for Republican office as GOP pivots toward lawlessness
A new wave of extremist party loyalists — at the federal, state and even local level — want to help ensure Trumpism's success in the midterms and beyond. → Read More
Trump loves American Jews and Israel — until he doesn't
American Jews who continue to support Trump and the GOP might take a cue from the experiences of Italian Jews under fascism. → Read More
America’s gun culture is priming us for authoritarianism
We're on a dangerous path when the very thing that frightens is the thing that promises to save us from our fear. → Read More
The GOP’s violent rhetoric could make future elections much more dangerous
America is already prepared for the advent of a politics that depends on force. → Read More
The new lies of the GOP and Tucker Carlson (opinion)
Trump has taken the lead in rewriting the history of Jan. 6, with assists from GOP lawmakers like Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and media confederates like Tucker Carlson, writes Ruth Ben-Ghiat. And like any dangerous propaganda campaign, this one needs both noise and silence to be effective. → Read More
Opinion: America saw and heard January 6 all over again this week
For many, the traumatizing videos the House managers presented during the impeachment trial elicited a visceral response, writes Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Rarely has the American public experienced such a compelling example of the power of images and sound to communicate in ways that written texts cannot. → Read More
Trump's big lie wouldn't have worked without his thousands of little lies (opinion)
The former President's aim in his ceaseless lying was to get his followers to trust him alone as the arbiter of reality and to distrust everyone and everything else -- especially the democratic system that denied him sufficient power to become untouchable, writes Ruth Ben-Ghiat. It's the authoritarian way -- and has left millions of his followers, even in his defeat, clinging fiercely to his… → Read More
Opinion: Donald Trump Jr.'s revealing holiday video
Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat outlines what Donald Trump Jr.'s recent comments about Kimberly Guilfoyle in a Facebook video illuminate about the emotional climate of "toughness" and anti-compassion in Trumpworld, as the younger generation of the Trump clan seek to expand their influence. → Read More
Opinion: The European leader who created a template for Trump's 2024 plans
Ruth Ben Ghiat writes that Silvio Berlusconi, one of Italy's notorious prime ministers, created the playbook for Donald Trump to conceive of running for president again -- even after losing the 2020 election. → Read More