Douglas Kellner

Donald Trump and Authoritarian Populism

Much has been made of Donald Trump’s character and whether he is fit to be president of the United States. In the following analysis, I want to suggest that the theories of Erich Fromm and his fellow German-Jewish refugees known as the “Frankfurt School” provide an analysis of authoritarian populism that helps explicate Trump’s character, his appeal to his followers, and in general the Trump phenomenon.

Trump, Capitalism, and the Art of Branding

Trump rose to prominence in New York during the Reaganite ’80s as an embodiment of wild, entrepreneurial cowboy capitalism in an era of deregulation, the celebration of wealth, and the “greed is good” ethos of Wall Street, enabled by the Reagan administration.

August Antics and Trumpster Chaos

The first week in August 2016 saw numerous articles claiming that Trump’s campaign and perhaps his mind was unraveling, that he might not even make it through the next 90-plus days of the campaign, and even that he was plain crazy.

The Dog Days of Summer

The Republican convention was judged a “big hot mess” by many critics, and Trump’s speech was seen as overly pessimistic, uninspiring, and poorly delivered, playing on the rage and fear that motivated many who came to Trump’s rallies, but not to mainstream Republicans. The Democrats convention, by contrast, was appraised a success.

The Apprentice, Twitter, and the Summer of Trump

Since Trump’s national celebrity derived in part from his role in the reality-TV series The Apprentice, we need to interrogate this popular TV phenomenon to help explain the Trump phenomenon. The opening theme music “For the Love of Money”, a 1973 R&B song by The O’Jays, established the capitalist ethos of the competition for the winning contestant to get a job with the Trump organization, and obviously money is the key to Trump’s business and celebrity success, although there is much controversy over how rich Trump is, and, so far, he has not released his tax returns to quell rumors that he isn’t as rich as he claims, that he does not contribute as much to charity as he has stated, and that many years he pays little or no taxes.

Hillary’s Stumble, Transparency, and Health/Taxes

On Sunday September 11, 2016, media attention shifted as both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump suspended campaigning to mark the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in a ceremony at Ground Zero, making a rare joint appearance to denote unity in the face of terrorism.

Donald Trump as Authoritarian Populist

In this section, I want to discuss in detail how Erich Fromm’s categories can help describe Trump’s character, or “temperament,” a word used to characterize a major flaw in Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Donald Trump and the Politics of the Spectacle

I first came up with the concept of media spectacle to describe the key phenomenon of US media and politics in the mid-1990s. This was the era of the O.J. Simpson murder case and trial, the Clinton sex scandals, and the rise of cable news networks like Fox, CNN, and media MSNBC and the 24/7 news cycle that has dominated US politics and media since then.

The Resurrection of Richard Nixon and American Neo-Fascism

During the month of June and early weeks of July, 2016, before the Republican National Convention in mid-July, the Trump campaign had a bad month. There was an unparalleled amount of high profile shooting of blacks by police and the emergence of Black Lives Matter and protests against police violence, followed by attacks by black men against police.

The Republican National Convention and the Faces of Authoritarian Populism

Conventions provide four-day political info-mercials in which candidate and party can make their case and sell their product to the electorate. It provides an annual ritual in which party regulars can come together, hear speeches from party functionaries and favorites, debate platform issues, and unify and organize for the fall election.