Afterword: Trump as Anarchist and Sun King

Abstract

Trump’s 2016 campaign was anarchy—it longed for a distant past outside of the current system. Trump argued repeatedly that the current American political system had to be destroyed because it had been corrupted by weak and ineffective politicians. He asked Americans to return to a simpler time when the federal government wasn’t so big, regulations weren’t so tough, and capitalists and capitalism were free. So doing, he promised, would restore American greatness. This represents a startling rupture in American political discourse.