A competent war criminal politician is far more dangerous than a fascist. Historically, fascists burn themselves out trying to kill the left and expand without a sufficient base of control. Liberals like Cheney still employ the most horrific methods of fascism but do so without public opposition that could derail their agenda and with a more stable base of capitalist support. Indigenous peoples in what is now the United States were genocided by these kinds of people and the programs they designed and implemented. The fascists, particularly Nazis, used this as inspiration for Operation Barbarossa and Lebensraum, but were much less effective in their genocide.

And to be clear, Trump isn’t really a fascist in this sense. There is no left for him to oppose, he has no fascist program of expansion and his policies were pretty similar to those of his predecessors. He is just rude, opportunistic, and reactionary. These are popular attributes in the United States and have been for decades, centuries. Blaming marginalized groups for all your problems is as American as apple pie and is clearly 100% compatible with liberal democracy. Democrats are currently doing it with euphemisms, they are outflanking Republicans on immigration policy from the right.

A person like Cheney wants to see someone slick like him more competently doing PR for the machine. Someone erratic like Trump throws a wrench into the plans sometimes because he’s a self-interested idiot.

I don’t think that’s true. Cheney’s just not part of Trump’s in-crowd. Cheney would go full fascist if he were at the top of it.