“Trumpism,” in Context of Historical ‘isms’
McCarthyism: The practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term refers to U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from 1947 to 1956 and characterized by heightened political repression as well as a campaign spreading fear of Communist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.
Reaganism: A system of Fiscal sabotage also known as voodoo economics put in place by Ronald Reagan. A political perspective in the United States based on a friendly-seeming, grandfatherly-type ex-actor telling us that government could do no good, and then proceeding to drastically expand the power of Executive Branch as as he saw fit, not to mention exploding the public debt (which is really private savings and has a bunch of debunked myths on its own as shown by modern monetary theory). The specific conservative ideology associated with the Reagan administration, 1981–1989. (Reaganomics shifted the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class, real income plummeted for most Americans while CEO salaries and the national debt soared. Thatcherism duplicated this toxic dynamic in Great Britain in deference to Reganomics and privatization of public sectors in government.)
Trumpism: Refers to the nontraditional political philosophy and approach espoused by US President Donald Trump and his supporters. The term Trumpism can also be used to directly refer to an outrageous, controversial, or idiosyncratic statement made by Donald Trump. Definition of a word which only applies to the Trump universe, often meaning the exact opposite of the dictionary meaning. The policies advocated by Donald Trump, especially those involving a rejection of the current political establishment and claiming a vigorous pursuit of American national interests.
ABOUT THIS WORD
Trumpism or Trump-ism — What does Trumpism mean?
Trumpism refers to the nontraditional political philosophy and approach espoused by US President Donald Trump and his supporters. The term Trumpism can also be used to directly refer to an outrageous or idiosyncratic statement made by Donald Trump.
Where does Trumpism come from?
Google Trends indicate that searches for Trumpism took off in July 2015, a month after real estate mogul Donald Trump announced his bid for the US presidency. By August 2015, both senses of Trumpism were in common use in the mainstream, making their way into major media sources.
In a July 2015 speech, then-presidential candidate Rick Perry defined Trumpism as “a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness, and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued.” When the presidential debates began in August 2015, lists of Trumpisms were compiled by publications such as The Washington Post and Politico.
Seth Millstein published a book titled Trumpisms in December 2015. The book is a collection of “the most mind-boggling, insane, crass, ignorant, and downright offensive statements” from speeches, tweets, and books by Donald Trump.
The term spiked on Google Trends twice: in November 2016 and January 2017, coinciding with the general election and the days following President Trump’s inauguration.
As a political philosophy, Trumpism is an anti-establishment blend of economic populism, reactionary nationalism, and strong militarism summed up in Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Due to bigoted statements Trump had made and the viewpoints of some of his base, Trumpism is sometimes associated with white supremacy. Despite the flexibility and reversals of Trump’s political positions, some political observers see Trumpism as a hard and fast ideology.
Trumpisms are characteristic of Trump’s distinctive style of communicating. Linguists explain that the president speaks in hyperbole and non-sequiturs, which make parsing his comments in writing more difficult than understanding them in speech or with visual cues. Trumpisms feature short, exaggerative catchwords like Sad!, huge, and superlatives like greatest, best, “very very,” or most beautiful.
While very different in style and content, Trumpisms nod to Bushisms, former President George W. Bush’s malapropisms and mispronunciations, such as “nuculer” and “misunderestimated.” Like Bushisms, Trumpisms have provided ample fodder for comedians, notably including recurring President Trump impressions by Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live.
A few things to note…
The ideological Trumpism is typically used in serious discussions of American politics and in the context of Trump’s candidacy and presidency. Linguistic Trumpisms tend to be more mocking caricatures. Both meanings are generally used by critics of the president and can be used pejoratively.
#Trumpism and #Trumpisms are both popular hashtags on Twitter, often accompanying quotes from Donald Trump and used in critique of those quotes.
For example…
“She was put off by Trump during the Republican primaries, strongly preferring candidates like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, but now finds herself searching for something in Trumpism to get excited about.”
McKay Coppins, “The Trumpist Temptation,” The Atlantic (February 25, 2017)
“Someone start a dictionary of #Trumpisms. Transparency =.evasion… Compassion = Bombtime! Tweeting = Qualitytime! Trump =BIG BOY! Etc…”
@mirandajseymour Twitter (April 15, 2017)
“#trumpism is giving a moving speech about the slaughter of Syrian children while at the same preventing their escape with a travel ban.”
Related Word, not deriving from Trumpism or the name ‘Trump’:
*trumpery*
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Flashy but trashy finery in the home or on the body. 2. Rubbish, junk. 3. Deception, fraud, or trickery.
Notes: Using the plural of today’s word, trumperies, is a dubious move. Although some dictionaries list a plural for trumpery, the sense of the noun inclines it toward the status of mass noun. Merriam-Webster reported a spike in lookups of this rather rare word in 2016.
Further Note: Harperism is the bastard child of Thatcherism, which is the slavish love-child of Reaganism, and that’s what’s damaged the heart, mind and soul of Canada. Toxic political/economic philosophies have no respect for borders in aggressively capitalistic movements masquerading as democracies. They cross over constantly, just as Trumpism already has.
