Trumpism Is Not One Thing - It’s Six

For years, we’ve talked about Trumpism as if it’s a glitch in the democratic matrix. A one-off. A backlash. A brand. The instinct to label it quickly is understandable. It makes the phenomenon easier to dismiss – or romanticize, depending on your angle. But the deeper truth is harder to confront: Trumpism is not a coherent ideology. It’s a modular system. A convergence of logics that don’t always align but together reshape politics, economics, and geopolitics in lasting ways.

And unlike many traditional political movements, Trumpism thrives in contradiction. It doesn't need internal harmony. It only needs impact.

Six logics stand out:

1. Transactional Politics: The Deal as Doctrine
Trump doesn’t believe in policy – he believes in leverage. He approaches governance like a negotiation where optics matter more than outcomes. His recent call for punitive tariffs on electric vehicles is a perfect case: economically damaging, but symbolically compelling. Trumpism reframes leadership as performance, where victory is measured not in results but in domination.

2. Emotional Governance: From Voters to Spectators
Drawing on Timothy Snyder’s term “sado-populism,” Trumpism feeds off the politics of humiliation. It doesn’t aim to improve lives – it aims to punish enemies. Whether it’s the “deep state,” immigrants, or liberal elites, what matters is not resolution, but retribution. This emotional economy converts rage into loyalty. Policy is secondary. Feeling is everything.

3. The Billionaire Right: Strategic Deregulation
While Trump speaks to the working class, he acts in the interest of the hyper-wealthy. Figures like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel don’t endorse his tone – they support his destruction of public infrastructure. Less regulation, more room for private empires. Behind the bluster lies a quiet, calculated dismantling of state power in favor of market rule.

4. Anti-Expertise as Identity
Trumpism turns distrust into identity. Intuition trumps analysis. Experts are cast as elitist, irrelevant, or corrupt. This isn’t just anti-intellectualism – it’s a strategic rejection of the very institutions designed to safeguard long-term thinking. Whether it’s denying climate science or dismissing COVID guidance, the goal is the same: destabilize the consensus, and reap short-term capital from the fallout.

5. Monetized Chaos: Outrage as a Business Model
Trumpism has industrialized the attention economy. Every controversy, every lawsuit, every offensive tweet becomes a revenue stream. Campaign donations flow. Merchandise sells. Media cycles spin. It's not a campaign – it’s a brand ecosystem. And it's working. Trumpism doesn't fear chaos. It feeds on it.

6. Realignment of Global Priorities: Asia, Not Allies
Underneath the noise lies a radical shift in foreign policy. Trumpism abandons Europe in favor of a more transactional engagement with Asia. It’s not about defending values – it’s about recalibrating power. For European businesses, diplomats, and institutions, the implication is profound: long-standing alliances no longer hold. We’re moving into a world of selective loyalty, driven by deals, not shared principles.

A New Political Condition

What makes Trumpism so difficult to counter is precisely its fragmented logic. You can’t beat it with one argument – because it’s not one thing. You can’t rely on traditional leadership, because it thrives in institutional voids. It’s not just a campaign style. It’s a system of influence, profit, and disruption with global implications.

The key mistake is treating it as an anomaly. It’s not. It’s a blueprint.

And unless businesses, political actors, and civil institutions begin to understand its layered architecture, they’ll remain unprepared – not just for the next American election, but for the normalization of this model across the West.

Because Trumpism didn’t invent these dynamics. It just combined them faster, louder, and more effectively than anyone else. And that is why it matters.