During a Veterans Day speech, Mr. Trump used language that echoed authoritarian leaders who rose to power in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, degrading his political adversaries as vermin who needed to be rooted out.
The former president's withering language has raised fresh questions among scholars, Democrats, and anti-Trump Republicans over how much Mr. Trump resembles current strongmen abroad, if he differs from authoritarian leaders of the past and whether his rhetorical turn into more fascist-sounding territory is just his latest public provocation of the left.
Mr. Trump's shift comes as he and his allies devise plans for a second term that would upend some of the long-held norms of American democracy and the rule of law. These ambitions include using the Justice Department to take vengeance on his political rivals, plotting a vast expansion of presidential power and installing ideologically aligned law.
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