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Trump's 'Mussolini moment' slammed after White House salute, MSNBC's Joy Reid remarks POTUS 'has makeup on'

'Trump fans are embracing and celebrating him as a fascist,' Stanford University fellow Marietje Schaake alleged on the social media as Mussolini began trending

President Donald J. Trump's dramatic return to the White House was described as a "Mussolini Moment" by his critics as he triumphantly posed for cameras on a balcony just moments after his discharge from the hospital. The commander-in-chief, albeit still recovering from COVID-19, took off his face mask in stared ahead as he was flanked by American flags fluttering in the wind – sending his detractors into a meltdown.

Several political pundits and commentators took issue with the cinematic scenes that were unfolding on their TV screens, thereby drawing comparisons to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was known to give public speeches from a balcony in Rome, the Evening Standard reported. “This is a Mussolini moment,” MSNBC commentator Joy Reid remarked. “Donald Trump… looks like he has makeup on which means someone had to get close enough to make up his face with his favorite orange patina.”

Comparisons to the 20th-century despot echoed among Trump's most fervent critics, with former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci tweeting: “American Mussolini is going to lose.” 

“What about the people who are helping him?” Scaramucci asked CNN host Chris Cuomo Monday night. “A demagogue can only be powerful if they have willing accomplices.” During his CNN appearance, he also called out other Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy before remarking on Trump's dramatic return to the White House. “You’ve got, you know, I don’t know, the American Mussolini standing on the balcony," he said. "We’ve never had a president stand on that balcony and do what he just did.” However, Trump supporters – arguably acclimatized to constant attacks from corporate media – decided to take the analogy as a compliment.

America First host Nicholas Fuentes tweeted: “America Media seething because they were hoping Trump would die or be significantly weakened/diminished by the coronavirus and instead he emerges looking stronger than ever before. MUSSOLINI MOMENT B****.”

Trump fans rallied around to agree with Fuentes, whose tweet garnered over 5,000 likes. "According to @JoyAnnReid, all of these people are now Benito Mussolini," Senate candidate Lauren Witze tweeted, sharing alongside photos of several global leaders addressing crowds from balconies.

Mussolini was deposed and brutally executed in northern Italy in the final days of World War II – after years of his cruel regime over the Italian people. Anti-Trump Twitterati appeared visibly distressed at the comparisons being made. “Mussolini moment? Trump’s been shot in an alley, corpse thrown into the back of a van, driven to Milan, hung upside down in a petrol station and stoned?” actor Stephen Mangan wrote on Twitter.

“Trump fans are embracing and celebrating him as a fascist," Stanford University fellow Marietje Schaake alleged.

Several anti-Trump pundits drew authoritarian analogies against him, with CNN White House reporter Stephen Collinson claiming that Trump's return to the White House included “scenes that would not have been out of place in totalitarian North Korea”. Meanwhile, one frustrated Biden backer tweeted: "Here's an idea: STOP running the Mussolini video of typhoid trump stupidly not wearing his mask at the White House while infected, and maybe give some air time to Joe Biden while he's responsibly wearing a mask. Just a thought."

Trump, who was hospitalized over the weekend at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, returned to the White House in dramatic fashion – declaring his victory over the deadly virus just weeks before Election Day on November 3.