The Sources and Spread of Populism: America

Abstract

This chapter introduces a section of the book, regarding the spread of nationalist-populism focuses on the United States and the central role played by former President Donald Trump and his extreme right-wing nationalism, nativism, xenophobia, and racism in shaping U.S. between 2016 and his electoral defeat in 2020. Trump is an authoritarian, and the chapter opens with a discussion of authoritarian-populism and the threat it posed to liberal institutions and democracy in America. It describes his warm relations with authoritarian leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who played a significant role in helping Trump to be elected in 2016. It describes his criticism of alliances, his unorthodox diplomacy, his hostility toward long-time allies and warmth toward foes, his contempt for science, his propensity to lie. The chapter discusses Trump’s populist policies, his impetuosity in making decisions, the chaos in his administration regarding issues such as Russia and trade, and the general inconsistencies of his policies.

Questions

Multiple Choice

• 1. In America, what has accompanied declining trust in government and rising political divisions?

  • a. Democracy

  • b. Authoritarian populism

  • c. Multilateralism

  • d. Socio-cultural globalization

• 2. Which of these are one of Trump’s most reliable voters, and hypocritically support him despite his blatant moral lapses?

  • a. Evangelical Christians

  • b. Liberals

  • c. Muslims

  • Asian-Americans

• 3. President Trump congratulated the Chinese president Xi Jinping for his “extraordinary elevation” after China’s president had done what?

  • a. Launched a manned mission into space

  • b. Passed Marriage equality legislation

  • c. Declared July 4th a national holiday

  • d. Removed limits to how long he could remain in power

• 4. Which of these actions or policies regarding climate change did President Trump do or enact while in office?

  • a. Instituted environmental regulations

  • b. Promoted the use of coal

  • c. Joined the Paris climate accord

  • d. Ordered dumps of oil in the Pacific Ocean

• 5. How many lies or misleading statements did Donald Trump tell during his first three years as president?

  • a. 1,000

  • b. 3,363

  • c. 5,679

  • d. 16,241

• 6. Instead of consulting professional diplomats concerning Middle East policy, President Trump assigned which member of his family, who like Trump had no diplomatic experience, to lead an effort to break the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate

  • a. Jared Kushner

  • b. Ivanka Trump

  • c. Eric Trump

  • d. Donald Trump Jr.

• 7. President Trump recognized what city as Israel’s capital?

  • a. Tehran

  • b. Jerusalem

  • c. Tel-Aviv

  • d. Nazareth

• 8. President Trump’s impetuosity was evident in his sudden decision in December 2018 to do what owing to the “defeat” of ISIS?

  • a. Claim that he would send more troops anyway

  • b. Decrease the military budget by a third

  • c. Removed all US sanctions against Iraq and Syria

  • d. Withdraw America’s 2,000 troops from Syria

• 9. What is the name of Trump’s “chief strategist,” who was, in an unprecedented decision, initially given a role on the NSC’s decision-making Principals Committee to assure that the president’s senior advisers carried out the president’s wishes?

  • a. Eric Trump

  • b. Robert Mueller

  • c. Stephen K. Bannon

  • d. Donald Trump Jr.

• 10. In early 2020, after the US assassination of an Iranian general, Iraq’s parliament passed a nonbinding resolution demanding what?

  • a. All U.S. troops in the country leave

  • b. A formal apology from the president

  • c. A billion dollars in aid.

  • d. The deployment of 2,000 more troops to their country

• 11. Trump unexpectedly ceased his bellicose comments about Iran after what?

  • a. Iran allow an increase in the amount of US troops

  • b. Tehran targeted U.S. bases in Iraq with ballistic missiles

  • c. The discovering of WMD in Iran

  • d. Meeting with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

• 12. In December 2016, the CIA announced its judgment that Russian computer hacking during the campaign was intended to do what?

  • a. Encourage voters for Hilary

  • b. Make the America election less corrupt

  • c. Discourage Trump voters

  • d. Make Trump president

• 13. After returning from the fiasco in Helsinki, Trump tweeted “The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people.” Who did President Trump say was the real enemy of the people?

  • a. The Russians

  • b. The French

  • c. The Fake News Media

  • d. The American People

• 14. Under President Trump, America and North Korea agreed to resume negotiations although Washington continued economic sanctions against North Korea, a policy Trump called what?

  • a. Maximum pressure

  • b. Strategic patience

  • c. Maximum patience

  • d. Strategic pressure

• 15. President Trump threatened a trade war with what country in early 2018?

  • a. Canada

  • b. China

  • c. Brazil

  • d. Costa Rica

• 16. President Trump regards himself as being which of these?

  • a. Expert

  • b. Academic

  • c. Politician

  • d. Dealmaker

• 17. Secretary Defense General Jim Mattis was the last of the professionals whom Kimberly Dozier wrote had been “guiding national security by quietly tutoring the most powerful man in America” and last of which she called which of these terms?

  • a. Trumps minions

  • b. Axis of Adults

  • c. The Alliance

  • d. The Conspirators

• 18. President Trump said in a 2016 interview, that which of these was his primary consultant in decision making?

  • a. Experts

  • b. His advisors

  • c. History

  • d. His gut

• 19. Which country’s president did Trump make an effort to pressure into declaring they would investigate, what was a false, claim about Joe Biden?

  • a. Russia

  • b. Ukraine

  • c. China

  • d. France

• 20. As of February 2019, Trump had failed even to nominate how many of 705 Senate-confirmed positions?

  • a. 10

  • b. 20

  • c. 30

  • d. 105

True or False

• 1. True or False? Trump proposed slashing America’s budget for the National Endowment for Democracy.

  • True

• 2. True or False? Trump opponents tend to be young, nonwhites and white voters without a college education, suburbanites, and men.

  • False, Trump opponents tend to be college-educated white voters not white voters without a college education and tend to be women not men

• 3. True or False? Trump and Putin share a dislike of the liberal, globalist establishment.

  • True

• 4. True or False? Candidate Trump had the benefit of foreign-policy experience and knowledge along with a consistent ideology.

  • False, Candidate Trump had no foreign-policy experience or knowledge and no consistent ideology

• 5. True or False? President Trump’s populism entailed a propensity to utilize traditional diplomacy.

  • False, Trump’s populism has a propensity to ignore traditional diplomacy

• 6. True or False? President Trump supported protectionism and racist efforts to eliminate illegal and legal immigration.

  • True

• 7. True or False? Trump also demonized Islam and imposed a travel ban on Muslim visitors Muslim in his presidency.

  • True

• 8. True or False? Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA, recalled that Trump “insists on five-page or shorter intelligence briefs, rather than the 60 pages we typically gave previous presidents,” but “[t]here are some problems that cannot be simplified.”

  • True

• 9. True or False? Donald Trump’s relationship with the US intelligence agencies has been one of mutual support.

  • False, the president’s contempt for and disregard of America’s security, intelligence and law-enforcement agencies eroded their morale and threatened to compromise their effectiveness in providing intelligence information and advice vital in making foreign policy

• 10. True or False? The second Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi lead to widespread agreement and was a major success.

  • False, the second Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi collapsed in disarray with no agreement or even final statement

• 11. True or False? The foreign service lost nearly half of its Career Ministers and 20% of its Minister Counselors during Trump’s first two years.

  • True

• 12. True or False? During and after the presidential campaign, there were numerous contacts between Trump’s aides and Russians, including connections with Russian banks and Russian intelligence agencies.

  • True

• 13. True or False? The details of all President Trump’s conversations with Vladimir Putin were open to the public.

  • False, Trump concealed details of his conversations with Putin during five meetings with the Russian president

• 14. True or False? Trump described the issue of Russian interference in U.S. elections as a genuine problem.

  • False, Trump described the issue of Russian interference in U.S. elections as “a big hoax”

• 15. True or False? When Talking about the Demilitarized Zone in Korea, President Trump said admiringly, “when you talk about a border, that’s what they call a border. Nobody goes through that border.”

  • True

• 16. True or False? Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Trump appeared both to support America’s longstanding positions that a Palestinian-Israeli peace required a two-state solution and support U.S. opposition to additional Israeli settlements.

  • False, President Trump seem to abandon support for both

• 17. True or False? The Chinese have one of the slowest-growing economies and middle classes in the world.

  • False, they have one of the fastest

• 18. True or False? Trump indecisiveness was evident when he walked back from a decision to impose penalties on China’s ZTE electronics maker for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

  • True

• 19. True or False? During Trump’s term, trade war notwithstanding, the United States had not gone to war with a major foe such as Russia or China.

  • True

• 20. True or False? When President Trump fired General John F. Kelly, his second chief of staff, in December 2018, an astonishing 62% of those in the executive office had changed.

  • True

Short Answer

• What are some factors that endanger American democracy today?

• The declining trust in government and rising political divisions as a result of growing economic inequality and for many white Trump voters fear of declining. Declining status was even more important than economic fear for white Trump voters, except in America’s “rust belt”, and contributed to cultural and racial anger and existential fear for their dominance of the country.

• What has Donald Trump’s relationship been like with authoritarian leaders? Be specific.

• The president admires authoritarian leaders who seek to undermine the liberal order. He praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s contempt for democracy and human rights and congratulated Xi for his “extraordinary elevation” after China’s president had removed limits to how long he could remain in power and had placed most of China’s Muslim Uighurs in the equivalent of concentration camps. Trump defended Putin’s murders of political foes, comparing that behavior favorably with America’s. The president also congratulated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for doing an “unbelievable job” in his drug war, which involved thousands of extrajudicial killings.

• Why did those appointed as advisers and cabinet members under President Trump have a more significant role than usual?

• President Trump had no foreign-policy experience or knowledge and no consistent ideology, and because of all this inexperience he would supposedly need to rely on those advisors and cabinet members more.

• How was President Trump and his administration blind to the political and economic role that young migrants play in paying taxes to provide medical and social funds for an aging population?

• His administration rejected a Department of Health and Human Services’ study that showed that refugees provide billions of dollars more in government revenue than they cost. Although liberal immigration has been a source of America’s soft power, in 2017, Washington withdrew from U.N. talks about a Global Pact on Migration, claiming it would violate U.S. sovereignty. He sought to build a wall on the Mexican border, and, when Congress denied him the necessary funding, he declared a national emergency to get around congressional authority.

• How has President Trump damaged the prospect for a Palestinian-Israeli two-state solution?

• Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moved the U.S. embassy there, refused to endorse a two-state solution to the issue, and no longer regarded Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as violating international law. He also recognized Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights and provided cover for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who threatened to annex the West Bank as well.

• What were the consequences of President Trump’s use of a drone to assassinate of General Qasem Suleimani, head of Iran’s Quds Force?

• It was a significant escalation after tit-for-tat provocations between America and Iranian-supported militias. Iran announced it would resume unrestricted uranium enrichment, production, research and expansion, essentially ending the 2015 deal that would have prevented production of sufficient uranium for a nuclear warhead for another decade rather than a few months. Also, Iraq’s parliament then passed a nonbinding resolution demands that all U.S. troops in the country leave.

• When ambassador William Burns said, “the real threat to our democracy is not from an imagined deep state bent on undermining an elected president. Instead, it comes from a weak state of hollowed-out institutions and battered and belittled public servants.” What did he mean?

• Under the Trump administration many positions in key agencies and ambassadorships in key countries remained vacant. For example, by July 2019, only 455 confirmed appointees filled the 713 top positions in the government. Without these people to do their job the US cannot compete on the ever more crowded, complicated, and competitive international landscape.

• Did President Trump accomplish any specific objectives or goals during the 2018 Helsinki summit?

• Most of President Trump’s statements required repeated corrections, clarifications, and reversals in an effort to justify his pro-Russian comments in Helsinki. Whatever Trump’s objectives, they were undermined by his mixed and muddled messages.

• How was the Trump administration’s dysfunction, its failure to vet officials, and presidential impetuosity reflected in President Trump’s appointments? Give an example.

• All these were reflected by how Trump’s appointments were a revolving door of people he would continually contradict and fire. One example is Trump’s firing of DNI Dan Coats whom he had praised only days before and announcing he would nominate to the position Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.), Ratcliffe had little experience and was something of an amateur so Trump suddenly withdrew Ratcliffe’s nomination and nominated Joseph Maguire, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting director of national intelligence.

• Why did a former State Department adviser remark, “Other countries in the Middle East see what is happening and may think, ‘We should be opening golf courses’ or ‘We should be buying rooms at the Trump International”?

• He was suggesting that President Trump has a conflict of interest since he has business interest in the Middle East which could lead him to do what best his financial self instead of what’s in America’s interest.