Trumpism (also referred to as the Make America Great Again movement or MAGA for short) is a political movement in the United States that comprises the political ideologies associated with U.S. President Donald Trump and his political base. It incorporates ideologies such as right-wing populism, right-wing anti-globalism, exceptionalism, national conservatism, and neo-nationalism, populism, and feature significant illiberal and authoritarian beliefs. Trumpism is skeptical of international trade agreements, global institutions, and immigration.
Much of ‘Trumpism’ veers towards neo-fascism in its utmost triviality. The USA will soon find itself living within its own mighty walls suffocated and xenophobic; unable to look at the greener pastures beyond their walls and fences, narrowed by ignorance. Travel bans, border walls, and stricter immigration policies will be direct consequences. Under the guise of trade protectionism, the US will confront the consequences of irrational tariffs, trade wars, and renegotiation of trade agreements. There will soon follow deregulation including rolling back environmental, financial, and labor regulations. Alongside, the rich will get richer through reduction of taxes for corporations and the super rich.
Trumpism has already polarized and impacted social relations within American society. By undermining democratic institutions, norms, and values, authoritarianism will grow and thrive placing civil society under peril. The US will soon become self-ghettoized stemming from tensions with international partners, and a decline in American global leadership. In this direction, Trump is bound to spark off trade wars, market volatility, and increased national debt. This will result in increased xenophobia, racism, and social unrest.
During the US Presidential campaign, it was clear that the USA was in the throes of an impotent body politic. The two main contestants were old men, one in the eighties and the other getting there. Trump had done severe political damage in the wake of his defeat in 2020. Instead of being jailed, a weak judicial and political system let him roam the streets free. In the meantime, US politics depletes into nothingness. From among a total of 535 Members of Congress, 100 serve in the U.S. Senate and 435 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
That, neither party could find fresh nor vibrant faces who could offer the American people a new vision and agenda nor leadership for a new America is something that must make Americans seriously agonize about their political future. Biden was discarded by his own party after a debacle in the Presidential debate. Although Trump appears to be more vibrant on the surface, one must listen to his words to spot multiple incoherent replies to questions. He gets away only because he puts on an air of cocksureness. His arrogance will also be his downfall.
US politics is on a slippery slope for several decades or more. In the pandemonium, politicians, in general, slowly institute new laws or regulations, pronounce policies and decisions which have no democratic dialogue or backing. Around the world, ruling classes release legislations piece-meal. They don’t anymore happen by consultative processes, public hearings, and town hall meetings where people are transparently informed about the intentions of government as a single piece of legislation. If they were to be passed altogether in an integrated manner, the people would see connectedness and debate it at community level before they can be approved. But politicians prefer the easier route in which they part with information in bits and pieces leaving people, by and large, confused.
The media, owned by elite that has self-interests is in the ascendancy. Financial interests control almost every political schema. The media “sells” legislations on the political agenda they support rather than report the facts and analysis about the complete piece of legislation. The mainstream media is but a piece of ragtag news. Voters, in the meanwhile, have become so polarized that they seldom look at opposing points of view yet alone do so objectively. That enables the media to sell them almost anything because they get no opposing perspective.
Donald Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza and resettle Palestinians in neighboring countries has been met with widespread criticism and skepticism. The plan has been rejected by various world leaders, including those from Russia, China, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, who argue that it would foster “new suffering and new hatred”. Many experts consider Trump’s plan unworkable and potentially illegal under international law. The proposal has also been criticized for ignoring the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people. Gaza residents themselves have expressed strong opposition to the plan, with one resident stating, “Trump can go to hell, with his ideas, with his money, and with his beliefs. We are going nowhere”.
Furthermore, the international community remains supportive of the two-state solution, which envisions Gaza as part of a future Palestinian state. The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has emphasized the importance of staying true to international law and avoiding any form of “ethnic cleansing”. Trump wishes for an oasis in the middle of Gaza built out of the rubble left behind. His partner was a war criminal who politically and militarily battered the Gazans for nearly 17 months by a ruthless gang of racist colonialist whose only purpose is to ethnically cleanse the people of Gaza. What follows is a guess that is not just a wild one; but a distinct possibility – to ethnically cleanse the West Bank. Given strong opposition from world leaders, experts, and the Palestinian people themselves, it seems unlikely that Trump’s plan for Gaza will succeed.
In an article: “Trumpism: a disfigured Americanism”, Mimi Yang, Professor Emerita at Carthage College, Wisconsin, USA, she notes: “The US under Trump threatens to disintegrate into nativism. The vertical Americanism sets hierarchies to secure power and control as well as maintain racial and cultural “purity;” the horizontal Americanism, epitomized by Martin Luther King equalizes and connects across races, creeds, and social classes. The color line thus becomes a converging and diverging boundary between the two Americas; it harbors and delineates Trumpism. It is argued that disfigurement of Americanism comes from a disruptive and destructive interplay of the vertical and the horizontal in Trump’s America”.
Mimi Yang reiterates in her thesis: “Trump’s name callings to disparage immigrants and people of color and building walls to make America great again, sets up a grounded while relational paradigm for a 21st century cultural identity. In contrast to Trump’s vertical Americanism, Americanism in theory allows ample room for human duality to play out, negotiate, and transform. The Statue of Liberty “takes the hand of the tired and poor, leads the huddled masses to breathe free, and welcomes the homeless and tempest-tossed,” as penned by Emma Lazarus in 1883 on the tablet at the base of the Statue. Authentic Americanism gives hope for a sense of belonging and acceptance disregarding race, creed, gender, social classes”.
In an article Trumpism: a disfigured Americanism, Mimi Yang, Professor Emerita at Carthage College, Wisconsin, USA, she notes: “The US under Trump threatens to disintegrate into nativism. The vertical Americanism sets hierarchies to secure power and control as well as maintain racial and cultural “purity;” the horizontal Americanism, epitomized by Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, equalizes and connects across races, creeds, and social classes. The color line thus becomes a converging and diverging boundary between the two Americas; it harbors and delineates Trumpism. It is argued that disfigurement of Americanism comes from a disruptive and destructive interplay of the vertical and the horizontal in Trump’s America”.
Trump’s name callings to disparage immigrants and people of color and building walls to “make America great again,” sets up a grounded while relational paradigm for a 21st century cultural identity. In contrast to Trump’s vertical Americanism, Americanism in theory allows ample room for human duality to play out, negotiate, and transform. The Statue of Liberty “takes the hand of the tired and poor, leads the huddled masses to breathe free, and welcomes the homeless and tempest-tossed,” as penned by Emma Lazarus in 1883 on the tablet at the base of the Statue. Americanism gives hope for a sense of belonging and acceptance disregarding race, creed, gender, social classes.
Trumpism, encapsulated in “America First” and “Make America Great Again,” imposes an “is-and-them” dichotomy that runs directly against the ideal of co-existence and pro-existence in human nature. Trump’s version of the vertical America will grow racial prejudice and xenophobia become. It would disfigure Americanism itself. The existence of the disjointed and antagonistic vertical and horizontal Americas in itself is a disfigurement of Americanism. In making America great again, Trumpism is making America more vertical and Americanism more disfigured.
The ideal USA would be a City on a Hill; a beacon of democracy and true community centred on pluralism and the depth and variety of multi-culturalism.
Ranjan Solomon is a political commentator
