Trump's Counter-Revolution by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen

Author:Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen [Rasmussen, Mikkel Bolt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78904-019-7
Publisher: John Hunt (NBN)
Published: 2018-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

The fascist leader

America is going to win again. Trump will take care of that. His election represents a turning point. ‘This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.’ 20 January 2017 is the beginning of something new. It is the return of the real nation, the coming into itself of the authentic community. Thanks to Trump and his election, ‘America’ will be great again. Trump presents himself as the only solution to the carnage. Only Trump can ensure recovery and care for the nation. He is the saviour. He can recreate America’s superiority. His election is a promise, a promise of the recreation of American hegemony.

There is a peculiar temporality to Trump’s inauguration speech. Trump is simultaneously the solution and the announcement of a coming solution. His candidacy, the election and the inauguration constitute a turning point or indicate that something is about to change. Trump is the solution and the promise of a solution. ‘I’ll do it’, he says, or, ‘we’ll do it together’. Now or very soon. The point is that Trump is different, different from Washington. The rot has stopped or will stop soon. America will become great again. Obama, Mexicans, the politicians, the feminists, Clinton, China, black criminals and so on have destroyed America. But it stops here. ‘From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.’ Trump keeps repeating that he is the one who can stop the decline. He is the one who is capable of getting the USA out of the crisis and transforming it into ‘America’.

Trump is the best. That was in many ways the essence of Trump’s campaign, and that continues to be his political programme as president. Bragging and excessive self-promotion replace any kind of traditional political programme. Trump is president because he is rich and successful. He keeps boasting about his fortune, his buildings and his global business empire. He is extremely intelligent, a genius in fact, ‘a very stable genius’. Everybody loves him, especially women. Women love him. Of course they do. He is strong and supremely wealthy.

The emphasis on the strong leader who is not part of the political system is the second fascist feature in Trump’s inauguration speech. Trump presents himself as a kind of superhuman who can halt the American carnage and recreate America, making America great again. He is the superhero who comes from outside and solves all the problems that ordinary politicians are incapable of solving.

The belief that Trump is different is central to the ‘Make America great again’ discourse. It is of course important that Trump ran for president as Republican, but he was not part of the party’s usual repertoire, and was formerly a Democrat. Trump transcends party politics and is, first and foremost, American. He is against the system, he took over the Republican Party, and resistance from the party elite confirms his outsider status. The continual resistance to Trump and all his crazy statements endow him with authenticity: he is the real deal, unentangled in party politics and free of the stench of Washington.

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