The discursive hegemony of Trump’s Jacksonian populism: Race, class, and gender in constructions and contestations of US national identity, 2016–2018

Jack Holland,Ben Fermor

doi:10.1177/0263395720936867

Abstract

Contributing to burgeoning studies of populism, this article conceptualises and contextualises Trump’s language as ‘Jacksonian populism’. We explore how this style of populist discourse influenced political debates before and after Trump’s election. Ours is the first article to analyse opposition and media responses to Trump’s construction of ‘real America’ as that of a Jacksonian, White, and male working class. To do so, the article analyses 1165 texts, from the government, opposition, newspapers, television coverage, and social media. In addition to locating Trump’s reification of a mythologised White working class within a broader Jacksonian tradition, we find that the Democratic opposition and mainstream media initially reproduced this construction, furthering Trump’s cause. Even where discursive challenges were subsequently developed, they often served to reproduce a distinct – and hitherto unspoken for – White (male) working-class America. In short, early resistance actively reinforced Trump’s discursive hegemony, which centred on reclaiming the primacy of working, White America in the national identity.

Highlights

This article conceptualises and contextualises Trump’s specific brand of populism, before exploring its impact on the discursive structures of American politics and foreign policy
We find that the Trump administration mobilised a specific vision of the national identity as synonymous with the White working class, which served to reify the group, elevating it to become the mythical backbone of US society and, by extension, the US economy and foreign policy
Following Mead (2017), we argue that Jacksonianism is a uniquely American variant of populism, and that Trump has clearly embodied many of the defining traits associated with that tradition: an unabashed military populism, centred on an ethos of pride and respect; a desire to avoid war unless threatened or attacked; clear scepticism of existing international trade and legal agreements; and a general disinterest in issues of human rights, democracy promotion, and nation building abroad (Biegon, 2019; Lacatus, 2021; McDonald, 2018: 412)

Summary

Introduction

This article conceptualises and contextualises Trump’s specific brand of populism, before exploring its impact on the discursive structures of American politics and foreign policy. We go significantly further than extant research, by (1) locating Trump’s particular variant of populism within the Jacksonian tradition of American political history and (2) analysing the reproduction and contestation of its key underpinning – the identity and national narrative centrality of White, working-class America – in a moment of discursive hegemony.

Results

Conclusion