We’ve never seen a government like this before.

What we’re seeing today with Trump isn’t dictatorship. Dictators control their countries. They don’t rely on the opposition party to pass budgets; they dictate where money is spent. They don’t get bludgeoned every hour in the press; they dominate the media. And they don’t have their key initiatives stymied in the courts; they control the judiciary.

Nor is this Nazism. Nazis don’t make Nazi salutes at rallies and then try (with mixed success) to downsize the government. Nazis make Nazi salutes at rallies and then go kill a bunch of innocent people. Nazis, moreover, don’t just slap tariffs on their neighbors. Nazis invade their neighbors.

This isn’t fascism, either. Fascists enforce a coherent vision of government through a murderous, totalitarian regime. They don’t flail around pursuing incoherent and contradictory policies that get blocked as frequently as they get implemented.

Sure, there are similarities between Trump’s presidency and these historical forms of government. Trump’s rhetoric, for example, is often lifted from the lips of history’s worst tyrants. His abuses of executive power, moreover, often resemble certain dictatorial techniques. But, overall, these political pegs simply don’t fit into the American hole. Having similarities with something is different from being the same thing. Both the mouse and the elephant have four legs and a tail.

No, what we have in America today is different. It’s aberrational. It’s unprecedented.

What we have in America today is Trumpism.

This new system of government has four defining elements. First, Donald Trump is the sitting president and dominates the Republican party. His cabinet includes people with varied pedigrees and ideologies but who share one common trait: slavish loyalty to Trump. The same Trump-first, person-over-party ethos pervades Republicans in both houses of congress.

Second, several pillars of American democracy no longer function. Trump’s executive branch doesn’t respect legal precedent or tradition in its daily workings. Trump, for example, ignores rules regarding government ethics, such as avoiding conflicts of interest. An impulsive and profiteering businessman, he naturally gravitates toward, instead of away from, these conflicts. He also ignores other long-held norms and legal requirements governing executive action. Under Article 2, Section 3 of the United States constitution, the president must “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Yet Trump and Elon Musk have brazenly confiscated valid federal funding to serve their political goals and settle personal scores.

Third, other pillars of American democracy still do function. As Trump’s recent deal with Democratic senator Chuck Schumer illustrated, a majority of congress is still required to pass a budget. The judiciary still operates independently from and consistently rules against the president. State and local governments still control vast portions of America’s legal and political systems. A diverse and free press still vociferously criticizes the president every minute of every day.

The sum total of Trump’s worst offenses have not eliminated these and other core features of American democracy.

So we find ourselves, today, charting new territory as a nation. Some parts of our democracy still work. Some don’t. Some of our fears have been realized. Some haven’t been. We are not under the yoke of a fascist dictator. We are, rather, neck-deep in the dysfunctional scramble of a constitutionally illiterate and shameless bully.

Which brings us to the fourth and final hallmark of Trumpism: unpredictability reigns. There are huge open questions about the future. Will Trump start systematically violating court orders? Will he and Musk illicitly unwind foundational programs like social security? Will his prolonged trade wars bludgeon the economy? Will Republicans keep both chambers of congress in 2026? Will Trump try to stay in office after the next presidential election?

Given the heightened potential for some of these catastrophes to happen, it’s not hyperbolic to suggest that American democracy, in its modern form, is in jeopardy. We shouldn’t understate the predicament we’re in. But we also shouldn’t confuse where things stand or make them worse than they are. This isn’t dictatorship, nazism, fascism, or any other familiar political paradigm. This is something different. This is something unprecedented. This is something as odd, as unique, and as troubling as the man who gives it its name. This is Trumpism.

William Cooper is the author of How America Works … And Why It Doesn’t.