If Donald Trump knew any history — which he most certainely does not — you might think that he based his January 6 rally and march to the Capitol on the infamous March on Rome, a 1923 coup d'etat orchestrated by Benito Mussolini. That is when Mussolini's blackshirts staged a dramatic march to the Italian capitol and took over the government. (Like Donald Trump, Mussolini didn't actually accompany his followers on their march but did have his picture taken with them.) The existing Italian government didn't put up any resistance and Mussolini easily assumed power the next day without any blood being shed. Everyone had already known the mob violence the blackshirts were capable of, they'd been wreaking havoc on the population for some time.
Of course, Trump knew nothing of this when he called for his mob to assemble in the nation's Capitol on the day the congress certified the election for Joe Biden. He just has the same fascistic instincts as Benito Mussolini and thought he could use his crowd to intimidate Congress into going along with his crackpot plans to overturn the election with fake electors. If that didn't work, he even had members of his party, such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., prepared to demand that the count be delayed for 10 days so he could continue his pressure on Republican officials.
