This book uses concepts drawn from political economy, power structure research, and critical theory to explain and assess the unsettling American politics of the Trump era. Trumpism represents a form of authoritarian populist nationalism that amounts to a new form of right-wing politics, different from traditional Republican conservatism, in a bid for political power and hegemony. The book probes the historical and comparative roots of the Trump Era, its foundations in the early twenty-first century crisis of neoliberal capitalism, its location in and relationship to the elite American power structure, and its connections to emergent Far Right and Alt Right movements. Close attention is paid to the actual policies of the Trump administration, their economic and class character, and the ways in which they continued, and in some cases departed from, hyper-neoliberalism. The book evaluates the contradictions and prospects of Trumpian politics in light of the 2024 election and its implications for American democracy.

Joseph G. Peschek is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Hamline University.