'Stop the Steal' becomes protest slogan in Seoul

Some argue that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's “MAGA (Make America Great Again)” derived from fascist leader Mussolini in Italy in the Second World War. Although it is commonly accepted that former U.S. President Ronald Reagan devised the MAGA movement in the presidential election in 1980, they claim that Mussolini invented the idea of “MAG.”

In 1927, Mussolini appeared on a Fox Film News show, which is coincidentally the forerunner to Fox News, Trump's favorite news channel. On the show, he made a speech to encourage Italian American immigrants.

In a black-and-white video released by The Washington Post in 2016, Mussolini is shown saying, “I see and recognize among you the salt of your land as well as ours, my fellow citizens, who are working to make America great." It shows him, with a strong Italian-influenced English accent, praising Italian immigrants for helping build America.

Ten years later, German leader Adolf Hitler emerged with a rephrased “MAGA” argument, maintaining that his country should build a new ideology that would make it great again. Although the “MAGA” was not a flagship catchphrase for Mussolini and Hitler, it evokes an uneasy sense of déjà vu that we are witnessing the remarks by these two most infamous fascists spreading across the globe with Trump, who has been dubbed a “fascist” by even his closest aides, standing at the helm.

Korea is no exception to this worrying trend. As of now, the presidential residence in Hannam-dong, central Seoul is surrounded by the shouts of “Stop the steal” and the U.S. national flags, which were used by protesters in denial of the presidential election results four years ago in Washington. British newspaper The Guardian wrote, “Over recent years, these groups, which remain a fringe element of South Korean society, have increasingly adopted rhetoric from the American right, particularly around claims of election fraud.” Likewise, The New York Times portrayed these protesters as a South Korean “MAGA” squad.

A closer look tells you that there are differences, significant and minor, between Trump’s supporters who engaged in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Attack in 2021 and anti-impeachment protesters in South Korea. While Trump's supporters were personally devoted to him, the South Korean anti-impeachment protesters are more driven by his conservative ideology that portrays pro-North Korean left-wingers as threats to national security, rather than by loyalty to President Yoon Suk Yeol as an individual.

Despite such differences, we must look carefully at what they have in common. Both groups depend excessively on social media and blindly stick to their beliefs. They even use extremist expressions such as “elimination,” “deadly punishment,” and “death penalty.” A return to the past is another link that connects them together based on the belief that authoritarian leaders and their supporters are the greatest.

There is a widespread awareness that the Constitutional Court's impeachment ruling will somehow mitigate the growing tensions amid the chaotic turmoil. However, if the impeachment is affirmed, we cannot exclude the possibility that anti-impeachment groups will cause chaos, which could elevate into a “South Korean version of the Jan. 6 turmoil.” Back in 2020 when Trump was defeated, he instigated violence, saying it “will be wild” on Jan. 6. At this point, this is where President Yoon needs to keep a distance from Trump to take a different path.