Last Word: President Trump one year on
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Author | Inderjeet Parmar |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905817744635 |
36 POLITICAL INSIGHT • DECEMBER 2017
Last Word
The plutocratic-populist political
earthquake that propelled Donald
Trump to the White House in
November 2016 dealt a sharp blow
to the legitimacy of America’s political elite.
Racialised class politics re-emerged, while
the electorate rejected small government
conservatism and ‘Big Money’ politics.
Trump deed the GOP’s post-2012
election strategy of appealing to a diverse
electorate, even as the US heads towards a
‘majority minority’ nation. Trump used that
very symbolism to solidify the white vote,
channelling widespread, partially misogynistic,
negativity, towards Hillary Clinton.
Trump was also elected on an ‘America First’
platform, repudiating security alliances such
as NATO as well as past American military
interventions in the Middle East. Yet, domestic
and global crises remain and presidential
policies and tweets have aggravated rather
than alleviated them.
The really big story of 2016, however,
was the socialist Bernie Sanders campaign,
securing 13 million votes in the Democratic
primaries, despite political sabotage by the
Democratic National Committee. Sanders,
however, was incorporated by the Clinton
campaign while Trump harnessed mass
anti-establishment feeling, citing Clinton
as representing a status quo of an unequal,
broken America ravaged by immigrants,
refugee-terrorists, and cosmopolitan elites.
The Trump and Sanders insurgencies
embody the seeds of a populist politics
disrupting the broadly hegemonic model
of small government and ‘free’ markets
inaugurated by ‘Reaganomics’, that accelerated
inequality of income, wealth and power.
Popular mobilisations from Left and Right,
however, will likely feature increasingly
intensied political strife and violence in a
heavily polarised society which, many argue,
is ghting over its very racial, gender and
national identities.
Three things are clearer after a year of Trump
in oce: First, President Trump’s personal
style is mostly self-centred political theatre,
performatively rejecting the ‘establishment’,
lauding the ‘people’, while distracting attention
from an eective corporate takeover of
America and a drastically altered balance of
civil-military relations tilted in favour of the
Pentagon.
Secondly, alongside the richest cabinet in
modern American history, President Trump has
placed corporate interests at the heart of his
administration’s economic strategy. Wall Street
appointees abound, abolishing, delaying or
easing business, environmental and banking
regulations. Corporate tax cuts, Trump claims,
will increase corporate investments and
create good, well-paying jobs. It is too early to
evaluate the strategy’s impact, though George
W. Bush’s similar experiment failed. But the
stock market continues to break records, as
do corporate prots, especially among arms
manufacturers.
The political corollary to this is increased
racialised rhetoric on illegal immigrants,
Muslims, and the lauding of ‘our heritage’ over
confederate statues, defence of ‘our’ anthem
against rich black sportspeople, and more
heavy-handed police and ICE powers. The
deregulation of the economy accompanied
by increased coercive powers for the state
is reminiscent of the Thatcher counter-
revolution, as Andrew Gamble noted.
Thirdly, Trump has placed military men in
charge of the White House, National Security
Council and Pentagon. The supposed ‘restraint’
under Obama has largely disappeared.
The commander-in-chief has declared the
necessity of ‘principled realism’ - national
strength - as the basis of American global
strategy, threatening ‘re and fury’ against foes.
President Trump
one year on
A year on from Donald Trump’s dramatic victory, ‘America First’
means ‘business first’ at home and ‘military first’ abroad, writes
Inderjeet Parmar.
The S&P Aerospace and Defense Sector index
has increased by a third since November 2016,
compared with around 12 per cent for the Dow
Jones index.
At the same time, diplomacy and the State
Department has been downgraded. Trump
has shown little enthusiasm for international
agreements, from the Paris climate accord and
UNESCO, to the refusal to recertify the Iran
nuclear agreement. ‘America First’ appears to
mean ‘business rst’ at home and ‘military rst’
abroad. This may be the practical meaning of
‘deconstructing the administrative state’, as
promised by Trump’s former chief strategist, the
extreme right-wing white nationalist Stephen
Bannon.
At its most ambitious, ‘Trumpism’ may be a
project to remake American politics, and the
GOP, around white identity, corporate-centred
economic nationalism, an authoritarian-
coercive domestic environment, and a
more militaristic global strategy in a heavily-
reformed international system. To that end,
Bannon, who has referred to Trump as a ‘blunt
instrument’, recently declared war on the GOP
establishment. Other conservative intellectuals
– under the umbrella of AmericanGreatness
– dene Trump as an ‘empty vessel’. Trump’s
‘accidental’ presidency, and political instincts,
may be unwitting accomplices of a larger
project to remake American power.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are pushing for
probes into Russian interference in the 2016
election, as Clinton casts a wide net to explain
her defeat. But on Mexican border security,
tax cuts and healthcare reform, party leaders
are looking to compromise. The class-based
politics of 2016 has been left behind, except by
the Sanders wing of the party. The Democrats
A Better Deal oers little to an alienated
electorate. Democrats still believe that simply
not being Trump will secure victory in future
elections.
But at street level and in federal courts,
there is growing resistance to the Trump
agenda with political anger and protests, and a
widespread belief that political violence will rise.
In combination with a more militaristic global
posture, America and the world could become
increasingly volatile in the years ahead.
Inderjeet Parmar is Professor, and Head, of
International Politics at City, University of
London.
Political Insight December 2017.indd 36 03/11/2017 10:54
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