The rise of Donald Trump ushered in a new political era for America. That era lasted beyond his departure from the White House in 2021, because “Trumpism” remained rooted in American society. His defeat in 2020 resolved nothing; it was only a brief remedy to complex and intractable problems.

The political system in the US is no longer founded on two political parties that disagree on social and economic issues but agree on American identity and the US mission in the world and in history. The consensus is over. After Trump’s electoral defeat and then the 6 January insurrection, many of Trump’s conservative critics had hoped the Republican Party could return to its pre-Trump normal.

He was a passing phase, an anomaly, they thought, and now the party could distance itself from him and go back to being a party with considerable scope of agreement with the Democrats. They were quickly disabused of that dream. Trump’s first term was just the first chapter in a longer and darker political drama.  The Republican Party grew more extreme. Trump retained his popularity among Republican voters while Trump loyalists viciously attacked Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach him for his role on 6 January. The far right media became even more fanatical, and opinion polls showed that Republican voters still clung tenaciously to the lie that the election had been stolen from Trump.

For a bunch of fringe currents, Trump’s first four years in office did not go in vain. He brought them into the mainstream. On foreign policy, he pushed for the US withdrawal from its commitments abroad, arguing that the US should be on guard against allies who take advantage of its generosity, asking for protection while they remained stingy on defence spending. He had little enthusiasm for the idea of US world leadership, especially in terms of democracy, liberal values and human rights. He held that this approach blinded the US to the dangers of being too close to the underdeveloped world which was intrinsically anti-American.

Trump’s rise coincided with the mounting “anti-globalisation” movement which focused its ire on immigration, world trade and the institutions that stood for globalisation.  Right wing notions about the role of the state in the economy and society became increasingly incompatible with the ideas of globalisation and leaned more and more towards isolationism.

Eyeing foreign countries, including their government’s traditional allies, with suspicion, they wanted to recoil inward behind the barriers of the nation state. Before long this manifested itself concretely in Brexit and then in Trump’s election. This latter development was more than a Republican victory; it was symptomatic of a broader and more comprehensive shift that we might term “Amerexit.”

As the 45th president, Trump laid the foundations for the blend of white supremacist beliefs and ultraconservative evangelical values that is Trumpism. Its discriminatory rhetoric and symbols target not only minorities, such as Black, Asian or Latino communities, but also other faiths, including other Christian denominations.

The 6 January insurrection revealed the quintessence of Trumpism. It brought together its most zealous and violent adherents, represented by such groups as the Proud Boys, QAnon Keepers, 3 Percenters, and America Firsters. According to observers, the crosses, flags, and other symbols they displayed echoed the paraphernalia historically used by white terrorist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, who use Christianity to assert a divine right to dominate non-white races and ethnic groups.

During the 2024 Republican primaries, several phenomena became palpably evident. First, no contender could match Trump for support from Republican voters.

Secondly, the 87 charges he faced in a range of criminal and civil cases—inclyding allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, abuse of office and electoral interference, and mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of justice—made no dent in his popularity.

Thirdly, he had not backed down from his false claim regarding the 2020 election results and his base was still firmly behind him on this. Fourthly, his behaviour from when he lost the elections through 6 January to the time he left office and refused to attend the inaugural ceremony of his successor, deviated from all norms and conventions related to the handover of power in the White House.

That is a new era indeed.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly