Abstract
The worldwide increase in populism calls for reflection on how democracy interacts with populism and how democratic leaders with autocratic tendencies use populism to endanger democracy’s existence. This chapter explores how former President Trump followed the pattern of populism to dismantle democracy in the United States and how other democratically elected leaders have been imitating his populist calls. Considering the global effects of Trump’s Presidency, first, the chapter briefly analyzes populism and its interaction with democracy. Second, it demonstrates how Trump’s populism attempted to derail the long-standing American democracy and how it impacted global democracy. Finally, the chapter concludes by analyzing the global diffusion of Trump’s effect on the rhetoric and actions of other democratic regimes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adler, S., Holland, S., & Mason, J. (2017, April 28). Exclusive: Trump says ‘major, major’ conflict with North Korea possible, but seeks diplomacy. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-exclusive-idUSKBN17U04E
Albertazzi, D., & McDonnell, D. (2008). Twenty-first-century populism: The spectra of western European democracy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Applebaum, A. (2020). Twilight of democracy: The seductive lure of authoritarianism. Doubleday.
Arditi, B. (2007). Politics on the edges of liberalism: Difference, populism, revolution, agitation. Edinburgh University Press.
Bauer, M. W., & Becker, S. (2020). Democratic backsliding, populism, and public administration. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 3(1), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1093/ppmgov/gvz026
Bonikowski, B., Halikiopoulou, D., Kaufmann, E., & Rooduijn, M. (2019). Populism and nationalism in comparative perspective: A scholarly exchange. Nations and Nationalism, 25(1), 58–81.
Brookings. (2020). Turkey’s new media law is bad news-but don’t report it. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/10/18/turkeys-new-media-law-is-bad-news-but-dont-report-it/
Brubaker, R. (2017). Between nationalism and civilizationism: The European populist moment in comparative perspective. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(8), 1191–1226.
Business Insider. (2022, September 30). Trump says Mitch McConnell death wish insults Wife Elaine Chao. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-says-mitch-mcconnell-death-wish-insults-wife-elaine-chao-2022-9
Canovan, M. (1981). Populism. Junction Books.
Carter, Brett L. (2012). Unite and rule. A theory of compulsory elite social networks in autocracies. APSA 2012 Annual Meeting Paper. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2105386
Cheibub, J. A. (2006). Presidentialism, parliamentarism, and democracy. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813344
Cianetti, L., Dawson, J., & Hanley, S. (2018). Rethinking “democratic backsliding” in Central and Eastern Europe – Looking beyond Hungary and Poland. East European Politics, 34(3), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/21599165.2018.1491401
Cianetti, L., Dawson, J., & Hanley, S. (2019). Rethinking “democratic backsliding” in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge.
Ciobanu, C. (2021, June 10). Polish ruling party’s education reform: God and Country. Reporting democracy. Balkan Investigating Reporting Network. https://balkaninsight.com/2021/06/10/polish-ruling-partys-education-reforms-god-country/
Clifford, T. & O’Brian, B. (2022, October 26). Three found guilty of aiding plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Whitmer (online). https://www.reuters.com/legal/michigan-jury-finds-three-men-guilty-plot-kidnap-governor-2022-10-26/
Cohen, M. (2020, September 30). After Trump’s night of abhorrent bullying, how can anyone still stand by him? The Boston Globe. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/30/opinion/after-trumps-night-abhorrent-bullying-how-can-anyone-still-stand-by-him/
Cohen, M. (2021, January 24). Chronicling Trump’s 10 worst abuses of power. CNN Report. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/24/politics/trump-worst-abuses-of-power/index.html
Cook, C. (2020). Trump signs anti-LGBTQ child welfare executive order. Lambda Legal (online) https://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20200630_trump-admin-child-welfare-executive-order?gclid=CjwKCAiAvK2bBhB8EiwAZUbP1N5-edDezn3JD5lyHthSYtxqssYNTbToOSpH7unY7-UXeH-Y8z35BoC5uYQAvD_BwE
Cooley, A., & Nexon, D. H. (2022). The real crisis of global order. Illiberalism on the rise. Foreign Affairs, 1, 103–119.
Dahl, R. (2000). On democracy. Yale University Press.
Devine, K. (2019, April 10). Defense Department has Charged $300,000 at Trump Properties since 2017. CNN Politics. https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/politics/defense-department-300000-at-trump-properties/index.html
Economy, E. (2022). Xi Jinping’s new world order. Foreign Affairs, 101(1), 52–67.
Freedom House. (2018, December 22). Nations in transit, 2017: The false promise of populism. Freedom House. Retrieved from https://freedomhouse.org/article/nationstransit-2017-false-promise-populism.
Gall, L. (2021). Poland targets TV channels. Limits press freedom and pluralism. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/12/poland-targets-tv-channel-limits-press-freedom-and-pluralism
Galloway, S. (2022). Adrift. America in 100 charts.
Geddes, B., Wright, J., & Frantz, E. (2018). How dictatorships work. Power, personalization, and collapse. Cambridge University Press.
Giraudi, G. (2018). Populism: What is and what we need a multidimensional approach to understand it. European Scientific Journal, 14, 16–29.
Gurov, B., & Zankina, E. (2013). Populism and the construction of political charisma: Post-transition politics in Bulgaria. Problems of Post-Communism, 60(1), 3–17.
Haggard, S., & Kaufman, R. (2021). Backsliding. Democratic regress in the contemporary world. Cambridge University Press.
Hamburger, T., Helderman, R. S., & Birnbaum, M. (2016, June 17). Inside Trumps financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-trumps-financial-ties-to-russia-and-his-unusual-flattery-of-vladimir-putin/2016/06/17/dbdcaac8-31a6-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html?utm_term=.1e96c2c47830
Harlan, C. (2022, November 4). In the Midterm, Trump Republicans look to Georgia Meloni as a model for success. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/04/giorgia-meloni-trump-right-maga/
Hawkins, K. (2009). Is Chávez populist? Measuring populist discourse in comparative perspective. Comparative Political Studies, 29, 75–96.
Houle, C. (2009). Inequality and democracy. Why inequality harms the consolidation of democracy but does not affect democratization. World Politics, 61(4), 589–622.
Huggard, S., & Kaufman, R. (2021). Political Economy of democratic transitions. Princeton University Press.
Human Rights Watch. (2022). Poland: Rule of law harms women and LGBT people. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/12/15/poland-rule-law-erosion-harms-women-lgbt-people?gclid=CjwKCAiA2fmdBhBpEiwA4CcHzYJiZQPoZebHJ8PIzTYkbXunsdvoyFv0tWlgCBmBsxr0HDZLQUoQIhoCE5AQAvD_BwE
Jackson, D. (2019, April 26). Trump defends response to Charlottesville violence, says he put it ‘perfectly’ with ‘both sides’ remark. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/26/trump-says-both-sides-charlottesville-remark-said-perfectly/3586024002/
Jagers, J., & Walgrave, S. (2007). Populism as political communication style: An empirical study of political parties’ discourse in Belgium. European Journal of Political Science, 46(3), 319–345.
Johnson, R. (2019). Children of the dream: Why school integration works. Basic Books.
Karolewski, I. P. (2020). Towards a political theory of democratic backsliding? Generalizing the East-Central European experience. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics (book series). https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-030-54674-8.pdf
Laclau, E. (2005). On populist reason. Verso Press.
Lee, T. (2020, September 17). Comparing Trump and Biden’s K-12 education plans. American Action Forum. https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/comparing-trump-and-bidens-k-12-education-plans/
Levitsky, S., & Ziblatt, D. (2018). How democracies die. Crown.
Moffitt, B. (2016). The global rise of populism: Performance, political style, and representation. Stanford University Press.
Mollan, S., & Geesin, B. (2020). Donald Trump and Trumpism: Leadership, ideology, and narrative of business executive turned politician. Organization, 27(3), 405–418. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508419870901
Mouffe, C. (2018). For a left populism. Verso.
Mudde, C. (2007). Populist radical right parties in Europe. Cambridge University Press.
Mudde, C., & Kaltwasser, C. R. (Eds.). (2012). Populism in Europe and the Americas. Cambridge University Press.
Müller, J. W. (2016). What is populism? University of Pennsylvania Press. Reprinted in 2017 by Penguin Books, Random House, New York, NY.
Nadesan, M., & Ron, A. (2020). Explaining populism introduction. In I. A. Ron & M. Nadesan (Eds.), Mapping Populism (pp. 17–22). Routledge.
New York Times. (2022, January 3). Trump endorses Victor Orban, Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister (online). https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/us/politics/trump-endorses-viktor-orban-hungary.html
NPR. (2022). 5-takeaways-from-the-final-jan-6-committee-hearing. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1144303656/5-takeaways-from-the-final-jan-6-committee-hearing
Phyllis, A. (2017, June 16). They’re rapists. President Trump campaign Launch Speech two years later, annotated. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/16/theyre-rapists-presidents-trump-campaign-launch-speech-two-years-later-annotated/
Political Capital (PCRCI). (2021). The specter of authoritarian regimes is haunting Europe. Political Capital Research and Consulting Institute - PCRCI Report. https://www.ned.org/democracy-research-news-September-2021/
Politico. (2022). Trump Calls Pelosi an animal. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/07/trump-calls-pelosi-animal-00065578
Przeworski, A. (2018). Mozemy lepiej! (We can do better!) (p. 1). Polityka.
Przeworski, A. (2019). Crises of democracy. Cambridge University Press.
Przeworski, A., Alvarez, M., Cheibub, J. A., & Limongi, F. (2000). Democracy and development: Political institutions and well-being in the world. Cambridge University Press.
Puddington, A., & Roylance, T. (2017). The freedom house survey for 2016: The dual threat of populists and autocrats. Journal of Democracy, 28(2), 105–119.
Reuters. (2021). Hungary to defy the EU Court ruling over the immigration policy, Orban says. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungary-defy-eu-court-ruling-over-migration-policy-orban-says-2021-12-21/
Roberts, K. (1995). Neoliberalism and the transformation of populism in Latin America: The Peruvian case. World Politics, 48(1), 82–116.
Roberts, K. (2006). Populism, political conflict, and grass-roots organization in Latin America. Comparative Politics, 38(2), 127–148.
Roberts, K. (2010). Latin America’s populist revival. SAIS Review, 27(1), 3–15.
Ron, A., & Nadesan, M. (Eds.). (2020). Mapping populism. Approaches and methods. Routledge.
Savage, Charlie. (2019, July 19). Trump can’t block critics from his Twitter account, Appeals Court Rules. New York Times.
Schouten, F. & Wright, D. (2020, July 21). Political spending at Trump properties tops $22 million. CNN Politics. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/21/politics/trump-campaign-spending-at-trump-properties/index.html
Silva, D. (2018, April 30). Trump on North Korea’s Kim Jong Un: ‘He’s a Pretty Smart Cookie’. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-north-korea-s-kim-jong-un-he-s-pretty-n753006
Start. (2022). Egypt cracks down on streaming content. https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/africa/2022-09-09-egypt-cracks-down-on-streaming-content/
Stracqualursi, V. (2019, July 28). Trump attacks another African American Lawmaker and calls Baltimore a ‘disgusting rats and rodent-infested mess.’ CNN Politics. https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/27/politics/elijah-cummings-trump-baltimore/index.html
Taggart, P. (2004). Populism and representative politics in contemporary Europe. Journal of Political Ideologies, 9(3), 269–288.
Tarchi, M. (2015). Italy, the promised land of populism. Contemporary Italian Politics, 7(3), 273–285.
Tashman, B. (2017, October 13). Donald Trump Thinks the Freedom of the Press Is ‘Disgusting’. ACLU News and Commentary. https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/donald-trump-thinks-freedom-press-disgusting
Time. (2016, September 7). NBC Commander-in-Chief Forum. NBC Forum: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Transcript | Time.
V-dem. (2021). Autocratization turns viral. Democracy Report 2021. V-Dem Institute: Department of Political Science University of Gothenburg.
Wejnert, B. (2005). Diffusion, development and democracy 1800–2005. American Sociological Review, 70(1), 53–81.
Wejnert, B. (2014a). Diffusion of democracy. Past and future of global democracy. Cambridge University Press.
Wejnert, B. (2014b). Populism and democracy are not the same but interconnected. Research in Political Sociology, 22, 143–161.
Wejnert, B. (2020). Populism, democracy, and the Ukrainian uprisings of the Orange revolution and Euromaidan. In A. Ron & M. Nadesan (Eds.), Mapping Populism (pp. 185–198). Routledge.
Wejnert, B. (2021). Educating on democracy in a time of environmental disasters. London Review of Education, 19(1), 30., 1–16. https://doi.org/10.14324/LRE.19.1.30
Wike, R. (2020, November 19). The Trump Era has seen a decline in America’s Global reputation. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/19/the-trump-era-has-seen-a-decline-in-americas-global-reputation/
Willimas, J. (2016, November 16). What so many people don’t get about the U.S. working class. Harvard Business Review.
Woods, D. (2014). The many maces of populism. Diverse but not disparate. Research in Political Sociology, 22, 1–25.
Xia, C. (2021). The party that failed: An insider breaks with Beijing. Foreign Affairs, 100(1), 78–96.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Additional information
Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their comments and to Dr. Adebowale Akande for his professorial editorial assistance.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wejnert, B. (2023). The Tenets of Trumpism and the Assault on American and Global Democracy. In: Akande, A. (eds) U.S. Democracy in Danger. Springer Studies on Populism, Identity Politics and Social Justice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36099-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36099-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-36098-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-36099-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)