IN the early hours of Thursday morning, a gunman opened fire with a high-powered assault rifle on the Cuban Embassy in north-west Washington, DC. Local people reported hearing at least 30 gunshots. The DC Metropolitan Police Department later arrested a 42-year-old Texan called Alexander Alazo. They impounded his SUV, which had Texan number plates and flew an American flag.

Later the same day, more armed Americans took to the streets in Michigan. They were members of the self-styled Michigan Liberty Militia – their Facebook page gives a handy guide to the assault rifles, pistols and commando knives they recommend to their members.

About a dozen MLM members in combat gear and toting weapons were in attendance to “guard” several hundred other protesters, demanding the Democratic Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, lift the state Covid-19 lockdown.

The protesters and militia demanded access to the floor of the Michigan statehouse. This is normally prohibited. Eventually, to calm things down, the demonstrators (some armed) were allowed access to the visitors’ gallery where they proceeded to verbally intimidate Michigan senators. Meanwhile, other militia members stood guard at the entrance to the statehouse.

Did President Trump denounce this blatant fascism? Of course not. He called the protesters “very good people” and urged Governor Whitmer to “make a deal”.

In other words, to bow to armed intimidation. For the record, the protesters were not unemployed manual workers. Their leader was a real estate broker called Ryan Kelley. He explained the purpose of the “protest” was actually to force minority Republican state senators to drop their bipartisan support for the Democrats. Far from being a bunch of crazies, Mr Kelley’s band of “patriots” was part of Trump’s orchestrated takeover of the traditional Republican Party by extremists.

In recent days, gun-carrying protests outside US state capitols have become a regular occurrence. In Wisconsin, demonstrators wearing carrying assault rifles built a makeshift guillotine as a “reminder” to Democratic Governor Tony Evers. In Arizona, another group of armed men joined hundreds of protesters who demonstrated at the Capitol demanding Republican Governor Doug Ducey lift his lockdown order.

One should not infer from these protests that the bulk of the American population is opposed to the quarantine rules. According to a new poll by Associated Press, only 12% of Americans think current measures go too far. In fact, twice as many (26%) believe the rules don’t go far enough – understandable now that more Americans have died from Covid-19 than fell in the Vietnam War. A clear majority of US citizens (61%) feels local steps taken to prevent Covid-19 are correct.

What we are witnessing today in the (dis)United States is a classic fascist tactic whereby a political minority uses violence and intimidation to subvert basic democratic norms, at the behest of a demagogic leader.

I do not say that this process has gone very far yet in America – or that it is irretrievable. But I do maintain that a political line has been crossed and that the 45th president is the person responsible. How else do you interpret Trump’s series of tweets calling on supporters to “liberate” Virginia, Minnesota and Michigan – all states with Democratic governors. Or his constant attacks undermining the legitimacy of the mainstream media.

Yet in March, Trump’s popularity rating hit a high. This was less a reflection on his personal handling of the Covid-19 crisis and more an understandable rallying of public opinion behind the existing head of state in a dangerous crisis.

Inevitably, Trump’s ignorance, narcissism and petulance have squandered this unmerited national support. His popularity rating has dropped by six points in a month, to 43%. Worse for him, his core support among white Christians saw a double-digit fall between March and April.

Through his own incompetence, Covid-19 threatens to wreck Trump’s plan to secure a majority in the November presidential election via an artificial economic and stock market boom.

THIS explains his desperation to end the lockdowns imposed by various state governors, over whom he has limited control. Hence his use of the militia movement to apply pressure, particularly in Democratic states.

My liberal American friends dismiss the anti-lockdown protests as unrepresentative and view the appearance of the militia as buffoonery. I’m less sanguine. Behind Trumpian bluster and braggadocio lie economic interests that are more than prepared to fund a new wave of American neofascism.

In Idaho, for instance, anti-lockdown protests have been orchestrated by the libertarian Idaho Freedom Foundation. The IFF is funded by extreme right-wingers such as the billionaire Koch brothers and Adolph Coors, the beer magnate.

IFF demonstrations involve the notorious Ammon Bundy, owner of a car fleet company and leader of the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016 that become a rallying point for the far right in the US.

Covid-19 has exposed the fact that America is a fatally divided society. The virus death rate among blacks is running at between three and four times that of the white population – the enduring legacy of the slavery that built America. You don’t see many black people demanding an end to the lockdown.

Meanwhile, unemployment claims among all races have jumped by a staggering 30 million in just six weeks. And small businesses have been ravaged while the bulk of federal crisis aid has gone to help big business interests.

At this critical juncture, the Democratic Party have failed to provide an alternative leadership to Trumpism. The party’s establishment has yet again stalled the presidential bid of the radical Bernie Sanders, this time in favour of 77-year-old Joe Biden.

While Trump represents the interests of hedge funds, energy companies, retailers and domestic manufacturers, Biden has close links to the big exporting US tech companies and retail banks – including Boeing, Microsoft, and Citigroup. Consider Biden the status quo candidate at a time when the status quo is in meltdown.

Biden could win in November – he is still ahead in the polls. But Trump is fighting dirty. The incumbent in the White House is desperately trying to suppress attempts to extend postal voting despite the medical emergency, and he is ramping up his “nativist” and racist demagogy.

It is in this context we have to see Trump’s willingness to unleash semi-fascist groups to intimidate traditional elected officials and to undermine traditional democratic norms.

On this side of the Atlantic, Trump’s daft performances at the daily press briefings are taken as a sign of his unfitness for office. But none of this matters in the US heartlands. Trump offers an emotional “certainty”, wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, in an era when neo-liberal capitalism is in deep crisis. A crisis now compounded by actual plague.

The more he is attacked by the liberal media, the more his supporters love him.

Here is the really bad news. If Biden wins, don’t assume Trump or the militias will simply go home. A weak Biden presidency is all we need to fuel a further destabilisation of American democracy. Trump’s daughter Ivanka or son Donald will run on a populist ticket in 2024 amid the ruins of the US economy. And the armed militia men will be out in force to get whichever one of them is elected.