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Rhetoric and Reality in the United States of America: Trump, Populism and Health Policy

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The Populist Radical Right and Health

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Abstract

There is no formal national populist radical right party (PRR) in the United States. Rather, the PRR is led by political actors within existing parties, like Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Trump exhibits predisposition to PRR through his xenophobic, authoritarian and populist policies. Yet, health policy under the Trump administration has delivered few concrete policies, PRR or otherwise. Where Trump has had policy success is with welfare and liberal chauvinistic policies, which seek to rein in the role of government in the welfare state and deny benefits to out-groups, such as minorities and immigrants. These policy successes include changes to the public welfare Medicaid programme and the public charge rule. These policy successes have occurred because of its overlap with the policy preferences of the broader Republican Party. The US failed response to COVID-19 is due in part to Trump’s reliance on PRR policies. While Donald Trump lost his bid for re-election in 2020, his candidacy and administration provide a blueprint for future officials to leverage PRR policy for electoral success while also further establishing PRR policies within the Republican Party.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Phillip M. Singer

  2. Blavatnik Institute: Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Charley E. Willison

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  1. Phillip M. Singer
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  2. Charley E. Willison
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Correspondence to Phillip M. Singer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health Program, Cornell University Public Health, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Michelle Falkenbach

  2. School of Public Health, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Scott L. Greer

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Singer, P.M., Willison, C.E. (2021). Rhetoric and Reality in the United States of America: Trump, Populism and Health Policy. In: Falkenbach, M., Greer, S.L. (eds) The Populist Radical Right and Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70709-5_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70709-5_9

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-70709-5

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