Trumpism

Trumpism is the political ideology and style of government of Donald Trump and more generally right-wing neonationalist or national-populist movements and their rhetoric in Western democracies.[1][2]

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Ideology

Trumpism came up during the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign. It denotes a populist political method that suggests jingoistic answers to complex political, economic and social problems and is intended to mobilize the disenfranchised of the growing social inequality, with stated opposition to the established political establishment. Ideologically, it has a right-wing populist accent,[3] whereby Trump's political style also shows traits of authoritarianism.[4]

Contents

In terms of foreign policy in the sense of Trump's "America First", a unilateral is preferred to multilateral policy and national interests are particularly emphasized, especially in the context of economic treaties and alliance obligations.[5] Trump has shown a disdain for Canada as well as the transatlantic partners (NATO and European Union), who have been considered the most important allies of the United States so far.[6]

In terms of economic policy, Trumpism promises new jobs and more domestic investment.[7] Trump's hard line against export surpluses of American trading partners has led to a tense situation in 2018 with mutually imposed punitive tariffs between the United States on the one hand and the European Union and China on the other.[8] Trump secures the support of his political base with a policy that strongly emphasizes nationalism, anti-elitism and criticism of globalization.[9]

Rhetoric

Rhetorically, Trumpism is characterized by a rejection of the political establishment.[10] Trump is also rhetorically proven to act with a large number of false or at least misleading statements which he presents as facts.[11]

Reception

There has been an ongoing public debate whether or not Trumpism is a form of fascism.[12] American historian Robert Paxton evaluates that Trumpism is not fascism and is instead closer to a plutocracy.[13] British historian Roger Griffin considers the definition of fascism not fulfilled since Trump does not question the politics of the United States or want to abolish its democratic institutions.[14]

Argentinean historian Federico Finchelstein discusses significant intersections between Peronism and Trumpism since a disregard for the contemporary political system (both in the area of domestic and foreign policy) is discernible.[15] American historian Christopher Browning considers the long-term consequences of Trump's policies and the support he receives for them from the Republican Party to be potentially dangerous to democracy.[16] In the German-speaking debate, the term has so far only appeared sporadically, mostly in connection with the crisis of confidence in politics and the media. It then describes the strategy of mostly right-wing political actors to stir up this crisis in order to profit from it.[17] The British Collins English Dictionary named Trumpism after Brexit as one of its "Words of the Year 2016". According to the jury, the term denotes both Trump's ideology and his characteristic way of speaking.[18]

In How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship, Turkish author Ece Temelkuran refers to Trumpism as echoing a number of views and tactics used by Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his rise to power. Some of these include right-wing populism, demonization of the press; subversion of well-established and proven facts (both historical and scientific); dismantling judicial and political mechanisms; making systematic issues such as sexism or racism appear like isolated incidents; and crafting an "ideal" citizen.[19]

See also

References
  1. Peter J. Katzenstein (2019). "The Historic Roots of Trumpism". WZB Mitteliungen (in German). Social Science Research Center Berlin. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  2. David Lebow (May 13, 2019). "Trumpism and the Dialectic of Neoliberal Reason". Perspectives on Politics. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  3. Cf. Johannes Kuhn: "Who moved America to the right", in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 2, 2017; Adam Serwer: "The Nationalist's Delusion", in: The Atlantic, November 20, 2017.
  4. Lee Drutman, Larry Diamond, Joe Goldman: "Is Trump Giving Authoritarianism a Bad Name?", in: The New York Times, March 15, 2018; Greg Sargent: "The Trump authoritarian cult", in: The Washington Post, October 26, 2017.
  5. Peter Rudolf: "US foreign policy under President Trump", Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Politik; Thomas Assheuer: "Donald Trump: Das Recht bin ich", in: Zeit-Online, May 16, 2018.
  6. Julianne Smith, Jim Townsend: "NATO in the Age of Trump", in: Foreign Affairs, July 9, 2018; Ishaan Tharoor: "Trump's NATO trip shows 'America First' is 'America Alone'", in: The Washington Post, 11. July 11, 2018
  7. John Harwood: "Why Trumpism May Not Endure." In: The New York Times, January 20, 2017.
  8. Richard Partington: "Trump's trade was: what is it and which products are affected?", in: The Guardian', July 7, 2018.
  9. Jack Thompson: "Understanding Trumpism: The foreign policy of the new American president." In: Sirius - Journal of Strategic Analysis, issue 1(2), 2017, pp. 109-115 (online).
  10. Ben Tarnoff: "The triumph of Trumpism: the new politics that is here to stay." In: The Guardian, November 9, 2016.
  11. Glenn Kessler, Meg Kelly: "President Trump has made more than 2,000 false or misleading claims over 355 days", in: The Washington Post, January 10, 2018.
  12. e.g. https://badgerherald.com/news/2019/04/03/trumpism-is-not-enough-of-a-mass-movement-to-be-facism-visiting-professor-says/, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/trump-and-the-rhetoric-of-fascism.html, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/is-trumpism-fascism/
  13. "Is Trump a fascist?". May 13, 2017.
  14. Matthews, Dylan (December 10, 2015). "I asked 5 fascism experts whether Donald Trump is a fascist. Here's what they said". Vox.
  15. Federico Finchelstein: From Fascism to Populism in History. University of California, Oakland 2017, ISBN 978-0-520-96804-2, pp. 11-13.
  16. Christopher Browning: The Suffocation of Democracy. In: The New York Review of Books Vol. 65, Number 16 (2018). Quote ibid.: Trump is not Hitler and Trumpism is not Nazism, but regardless of how the Trump presidency concludes, this is a story unlikely to have a happy ending.
  17. Dorothée de Nève: "Trumpism threatens democracy in Hessen too". In: Hessenschau, November 10, 2016; Georg Seeßlen: Language attack of the right-wing populists: Trumpets of Trumpism. In: Spiegel Online, February 2, 2017.
  18. Etymology Corner - Collins Word of the Year 2016. In: Collinsdictionary.com, November 3, 2016.
  19. Temelkuran, Ece (2019). How to Lose a Country: the 7 steps from democracy to dictatorship. ISBN 9780008340612.

Further reading
  • David Frum: Trumpocracy. Harper, New York City 2018, ISBN 978-0-06-279673-8.
  • E. J. Dionne, Thomas E. Mann, Norman Ornstein: One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported. St. Martin’s Press, New York City 2017, ISBN 978-1-250-16405-6.
  • George H. Nash: American Conservatism and the Problem of Populism. In: Roger Kimball (Hrsg.): Vox Populi: The Perils and Promises of Populism. Encounter Books, New York 2017, ISBN 978-1-59403-958-4, S. 7–18.
  • Jared Yates Sexton: The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage. Counterpoint, Berkeley 2017, ISBN 978-1-61902-956-9.
  • Jack Thompson: Den Trumpismus verstehen: Die Außenpolitik des neuen amerikanischen Präsidenten. In: Sirius – Zeitschrift für Strategische Analysen, Heft 1(2), 2017, S. 109–115 (online).
  • Bob Woodward: Fear. Trump in the White House. Simon & Schuster, New York 2018, ISBN 978-1-4711-8130-6.
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