September 11, 2020

By Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms

By early September, one of the world’s most trusted news outlets, the BBC announced that Biden has a stable lead in the polls. Four years earlier in 2016, Hillary Clinton also had a lead in the polls. In fact, she won the 2016 US presidential election by millions of popular votes three million votes. Still, because of the anachronistic Electoral College, we got Donald Trump. Just in case, the 2020 election will – again – turn in Trump’s favour, here is what four more years of Trumpism might mean.

Trump is so dominant that he has already received an “ism”. Such an “-ism” is usually awarded to a name like former British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher to make Thatcherism. It is also assigned to an economic system like capitalism. Such “-isms” occur when a person or an aspect of life (e.g. capital) has taken on a distinctive practice, when it becomes an idiosyncratic way of organizing society, or a political ideology. The political ideology best describing Donald Trump and his eccentric policies Trumpism is authoritarian populism. But what could four more years of Trumpism look like?

From what we saw during the first four years of his presidency Trumpism, Donald Trump’s authoritarian populism will only increase. It will not abate. Nearly all 2016 suggestions that Trump would grow into the presidential job, that he would moderate himself, etc. have been proven utterly wrong. The opposite occurred. With more power came more authoritarian populism. The hyping up of authoritarian populism will also mean that his media (Fox) celebrates his hegemonic character, and his self-centred and narcissistic behaviour will continue to get worse. All this also means that there will be more emphasis on patriotic symbolism, such as flags and military icons, and an increased and stronger focus on the leader. In line with historical precedent, Italo-Fascism, the Circus Maximus will carry on.

Bit by bit, the American way of life will become inseparable from authoritarian populism. Donald Trump will continue to disguise his “nationalism of the elites” as the nationalism of ordinary Americans. Meanwhile the super-rich will carry on with the luxury of not having a homeland, while Trump will tell everyone else that the fatherland will protect them against – largely invented – anti-social and alien forces. His well-crafted antagonism against anyone non-American and non-white will continue to have many faces. There will be threats to immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans, describing even wounded, captured or dead veterans as losers and suckers the army “war dead as losers and suckers” As for left-wing intellectuals, like newspaper editors and even anyone who reads newspapers—they will be castigated as anarchists, traitors and Democrats. A world turned upside down.

Donald Trump will present his second term government – if, God forbid, it comes to that – as a government of the people, even though his administration is run by an increasingly smaller clique of loyal apparatchiks, family members, and wealthy friends. Donald Trump will tell America that his second administration is not a government of the international elite – of which he is  actually an integral part. Instead, Trump will boast that he puts people first, even though he puts himself first. Everyone not in line with his authoritarian populism will be called a traitor to America. 

With that in mind, Donald Trump will also tell America that he – and he alone! – can protect Americans from the menacing and horrible le grand replacement. This populist hallucination runs, that white Christians will be replaced by foreigners and non-Aryans. 

Another term of Trump in the White House will promote more reactive and reactionary policies and more xenophobia, while anyone not following Trump will be accused of belonging to an “unpatriotic elite”.

Beyond that, four more years of Trump’s authoritarian populism will lead to a further increase in untruthfulness, the cultivation of conspiracy theories, the denial and discrediting of expert knowledge and empirical facts, as well as to disavowal the legitimacy of journalism as free and critical. Mainstream media will continue to be attacked, and Trump’s authoritarian populism will construct more and more alternative truths, fake news and scatter-brained lies that resonate as the common sense of ordinary people.

Much of this is in sharp contrast to the principles of deliberative democracy. Increasingly violent street clashes will increase over the next four years, as Trump’s authoritarian populism further undermines the tenets of a well-functioning democracy. The attack on the Constitutional separation of powers and denigration of journalistic integrity will include an unprecedented campaign against scientifically verifiable  facts, on the concept of empirical evidence, and on the evidential reality of politics. These assaults will be based on overt manipulation of the media, confusing falsehoods, and outright fabrications.

Trumpism and Corporate Media

The insults of Donald Trump’s authoritarian populism will be greatly assisted by Facebook and Twitter, leading to a further fragmentation of US society. This divisiveness will be driven by an algorithmic-guided selective exposure to news. Trump’s authoritarian populism will furnish the tendency of people, in particularly his “base,” to avoid cognitive dissonance. In other words, they will only to listen to or read news that supports the worldview of Trumpism. Why? It avoids the discomfort of countervailing information. Through the echo-chambers of YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. congruent information will reassure a positive self-image of this supporters and, of course, of Donald Trump. 

Much of this creates ideological support for Donald Trump’s authoritarian populism. Through Twitter, Donald Trump will continue to communicate with his supporters directly without having to go through mainstream media. In this way, he bypasses the fact-checking power of quality media. And it goes around an independent force in democracy—freedom of the press. Trump’s propaganda can travel directly from the leader to his followers. Hostile ideas will be either isolated or framed within the echo-chamber of his supporters framed as un-American.

At the same time, very serious issues like ecological genocide global warming will be eliminated from Donald Trump’s daily barrage of lies and obfuscations. If global warming comes up at all, Trump will tell his followers that it global warming is a hoax invented by the elite to damage America. For Trump’s authoritarian populism, global warming is one more issue that can be used to set ordinary people against the mythical elite of intellectual left-wingers, to divide Americans into an in-group and an out-group. Trump’s authoritarian populism does not shy away from increasing his broadcasting of ever more obscene conspiracy theories, bolstering his politics of right-wing populism and of creating confusion and a sense of distrust and scepticism towards the established truth.

Because of the chaos he causes, will be able drill into foundations of the established order in an open society. Anyone calling attention to the environmental vandalism of global warming and presenting empirical evidence for it will be regarded as part of an evil clique. Then Trump will accuse this made-up elite themselves of spreading falsehoods. The result will be more confusion and chaos.. Many could already see the modus operandi of Trumpism in action when he acted against immigrants and refugees, sent his agents to break-up Black Lives Matter protests and accuse Democratic candidates of  wanting to annul the Second Amendment,

The struggle between truth and honesty will be set against fake reality. And Trump will force this onto everyone, while also calling down everyone he regards as his enemy. Scapegoating is one of the most successful ideologies of right-wing propaganda. Four more years of Donald Trump’s authoritarian populism will mean a continuation of misinformation – the supposedly accidental sending out of information that is wrong. Worse, it will also mean a sharp increase in dis-information – the deliberate creation and spreading of false news for the purpose of an ideological goal. 

What is the reality of authoritarian populism? Much of the fact-free fabrication of stories is done in order to change and disrupt the established structure of parliamentarian democracy. It is not lies that seek to construct a coherent alternative, but an ever-changing flow of nonsense. A striking example has been Donald Trump’s fight against the World Health Organisation. Today, the WHO is the only international organisation the world has to fight a global pandemic called Coronavirus or Covid-19. Much of this nonsense, such as drinking bleach as a cure or preventative, but it is accompanied by a general discrediting of all international organisations. Ignoring WHO’s advice has not helped in preventing the USA’s 195,000 Corona steep rise in deaths (Sept. 2020). 

Beyond the issue of the Coronavirus and the WHO, the goal of Trumpism is a nationalism founded on the rejection of all international organizations, except those based trade. He makes America Great by disparaging diplomatic relations, military treaties and mutual aid pacts. This fuses “Know-Nothing-ism” and “Fortress America” policies.

In all of this, Trump’s authoritarian populism relies on emotive and imprecise language rather than facts. It pretends to be supportive of common sense, but. relies on over-simplifications. In fact, Trump Trump once said “I love the poorly educated people”. Propaganda has always worked well by repeating simple statements for simple minds. 

Simultaneously, right-wing propaganda frames nearly all issues from the perspective of authoritarian populism’s myth of a power struggle between the goodies (us) and the baddies (them). Setting the cosmopolitan and educated elite against the pure down home folk is the pretence of a dis-United States of America. Key to understand how Donald Trump’s authoritarian populism manipulates people is the following: 

when people are consistently exposed to populist realities in their daily environment, for example on Facebook, Twitter, Fox-News, their interpretative frame becomes more and more aligned with Trump’s populist imaginations and ideologies.

This allows authoritarian populism to transform objective truth—scientific evidence, rational debate and historical facts—into a matter of subjective interpretation and opinion. These wild imaginings take place inside a frame established by Trump’s ugly mockery of opponents. In other words, factual evidence that contradict Trump will increasingly be interpreted inside the populist framework established by the Leader. This interpretive frame is created through the daily bombardment of Trump’s Twitter messages.

Hungary as Trump’s Future Model

Unlike Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini, Donald Trump does not need to eliminate the façade democracy. His authoritarian populism works within an illusion of democracy. Trump is neither Fascist nor Nazi. There is no SS on American streets, although sometimes it looks like there is in militarized police departments and unidentified Federal Agents. Jews are not rounded up, though Afro-Americans are and Trump’s minions hold immigrants children in cages. These facilities are not Nazi extermination camps. 

The model that Trump will follow in the coming four years is probably that of Hungarian leader, Victor Orban – not Adolf Hitler—and his illiberal charade of democracy. Trump’s right-wing system remains somewhat democratic, albeit in a badly damaged form, a shell to pretend that the USA is still what it once was. 

From the time Hungarian strongman Victor Orban became prime minister of Hungary, he was, like Trump, interested in concentrating more and more power in his hands. Like Trump, Orban too can be described as a bully and a tyrant.. Virtually nothing of significance can happen in Hungary Orban does not want. Four more years of Trumpism, and who knows?

Everything that Orban wants is carried through in Hungary and under Trump’s next term of office everything he wants he will get. This is the epitome of tyrannical rule. Everyone who lives under Trump or Orban must serve their system of authoritarian populism and must agree with the leaders. No counter opinion can be tolerated because Trump’s authoritarian populism will create a mass society, not a pluralist democratic society and definitely not a tolerant society.

An authoritarian populist society fancies the hallucination of self-sufficiency autarkès – an autocratic nation with one ruler at the top: one people, one soil and one Führer. Such a strong nation asserts it can exist independently of all other nations. From such a stark nationalism follows the rejection of international law and international institutions, like NATO, WHO or the Paris Climate Accord. Trump’s authoritarian populism exists in the belief that international law and international institutions cannot be binding since Trump’s autarkès allows no authority superior to him.

In the past, this sort of anti-Kantian anti-cosmopolitan ideology has led to war which further strengthens the autocratic nation and the rule of the right-wing strongman. Authoritarian populism even argues that without war, a nation cannot exist. For the authoritarian-populist ruler there simply is no distinction between war and politics. This is totally different from how progressive leaders and governments perceive the world. 

For them it is society that moderates individual egotism. For authoritarian populists, it is war that compels men – of course, only “men” since women are irrelevant minor creatures ruled by the authoritarian strongman – to master their natural egotism. It is war which raises men to the majesty of the supreme sacrifice of the self – there heroic death on the battlefield. 

Authoritarian populists hang on to the pathological phantasm that it is only in combat that a real man experiences the joy of sharing with all “his” compatriots the exalted feeling of happiness and the comfort that it brings. War creates a sensation they never forget. One of the more evil authors representing this nonsense was a German demagogue called Ernst Jünger and his warmongering book Stahlgewitter or Storm of Steel.

Almost self-evidently, much of this glorification of war harbours a very strong aversion to any form of morality. Even law is in existence when it furthers the authoritarian populist’s own interest. Donald Trump exemplifies this to perfection. The sole purpose of his politics is the reinforcement of his ego and authority. It is a form of political idealism that replaces – like the German philosopher Nietzsche once suggested – traditional morality with anti-morality of the Übermensch, the superior man.

To achieve this goal, Trump will resort to any coercive action against his subordinates. He will command total obedience to the new order of Trumpism. He might not require the coercion of belief but will definitely require loyalty in action. One might sum this up as, 

“what you belief is a matter of indifference to me

but you must obey my command”.

This requires an overcoming of mere sentimentality and a natural aversion to harshness, brutality, violence and inhumanity. For the authoritarian populist, future politics can only be carried out through harshness and cruelty. As a consequence, authoritarian populists believe that women are obsolete because they understand nothing about what the leader needs. For Donald Trump women fulfil only two functions. They are sexual objects and they are ornamentation.

However, authoritarian populism is more than a form of collective insanity and brutal sadism. People who see Donald Trump simply as a madman underestimate the ideological power and danger of charismatic leaders They underestimate the structure of the system of authoritarian populists and its ability to establish a frenzied race to absolute power, as well as the will to harness and direct underlings to the supreme end as defined by the Führer.

German right-wing extremists call this “Deutchland über Alles” – Germany above everything. Donald Trump’s calls this making America great again America First. This is the all guiding leitmotif of the his presidency authoritarian nationalistic populist. It subordinates all wills, even morality itself, to the single task of serving the authoritarian populist: Nietzsche’s “Der Wille zur Macht” or The Will to Power. To achieve this, the Great Would-Be Leader engineers a right-wing mass culture based on his own will, something Gustave Le Bon pointed out in 1895. Le Bon’s herd mentality.

Authoritarian populists present this as a fait accompli, a sort of pre-existing dependency or as Adolf Hitler says time and time again in Mein Kampf about the Schicksal, the destiny of the Aryan people. For the authoritarian populist this means that people – the masses, Trump’s base – have to subordinate individual freedom to the logic of authoritarian populism. In his speeches and Twitter messages, the authoritarian populist speaks with sincerity and an authentic voice when conjuring up feelings of nostalgia – Make America Great Again – for the never-existing ideal Norman Rockwell’s America of the 1950s.

Trump’s Make America Great Again ideology links to the creed that America has degenerated and is undermined by non-whites, the sacred homeland is invaded by something that is non-authentic. In some cases, this can mean antisemitism while in other cases it can mean African-American or Muslims. In other words, anyone non-white and non-Protestant can feature as a scapegoat. Anyone not fitting into the mythical community of pure Americans needs to be eliminated, made extinct –Vernichtung!

Authoritarian populism also leads to the re-discovery of the primal aspect of human existence within a community based on race and blood. To conjure up these ideologies, the authoritarian populist seeks the awakening of an elementary feeling of racial belonging. For the Hungary’s Victor Orban it is the pure magyarok – the ethnic group who swept in out of Asia in the late Middle Ages; no Gypsies, no Jews! For Germany’s racial extremists AfD it is the Aryan folk, the Volksgemeinschaft. For Donald Trump, it is rural white America and dispossessed families from the Rust Belt. All of this mobilises a tribal-nationalistic hatred against all foreigners in the naked pursuit of power. This, we suggest, might fill the agenda of the arch authoritarian populist Donald Trump for the coming four years. But since he is so unpredictable, we shiver in fear waiting to see what will really happen.

Thomas Klikauer (MA, TUD and BU; PhD Warwick, UK) was born between Castle Frankenstein and Johannes Gutenberg’s birthplace. He teaches MBAs at the SGSM, Western Sydney University, Australia. He has published in the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Counterpunch, Truthout, BuzzFlash, etc. Among his 550 publications is book on the AfD.

Professor Norman Simms was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1940, educated at Alfred University and then Washington University in Saint Louis. He has lived and worked in Canada, Israel, France and New Zealand. He is now a retired scholar.