What Franco’s fascist regime in Spain can teach us about today’s America

Photos: (left) President Trump – January 6, 2026. Photo credit: Official White House photo by Daniel Torok via Flickr. US government work. (right) Photograph of General Franco with winter cloak – circa 1939. Photo credit: Jalón Ángel via Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0. Article by Rachelle Wilson Tollemar. The Conversation – January 30, 2026.

Minneapolis residents say they feel besieged under what some are calling a fascist occupation. Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been swarming a city whose vast majority in 2024 did not vote for Donald Trump – or for a paramilitary roundup of its diverse population. Tragically, two residents have been killed by federal agents. Consequently, social media is aflame with comparisons of Trump’s immigration enforcers to Hitler’s Gestapo. While comparisons to Hitler’s fascist regime are becoming common, I’d argue that it may be even more fitting to compare the present moment to a less-remembered but longer-lasting fascist regime: that of Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain from 1936 until his death in 1975. […]

Click here to view original web page at www.theconversation.com