Brown, W: Trump 2.0: Is this the inauguration of a new era of the strongman?

Summary

Wendy Brown argues that Trump’s return to power in 2025 may mark the beginning of a new form of strongman rule in the United States, distinct from his first term. Unlike Trump’s earlier presidency—chaotic, improvisational, and often constrained—Trump 2.0 is positioned to be more systematic, intentional, and institutionally transformative.

Brown explains that Trump’s renewed popularity emerges from deep social dissatisfaction with decades of neoliberalism, including economic insecurity, loss of community, cultural dislocation, and distrust in institutions. Trump leverages this discontent and presents himself as the only figure willing to upend a “corrupt” establishment.

A key concern Brown highlights is that Trump’s project is not simply populist, but authoritarian: it focuses on purging state institutions, weakening checks and balances, empowering loyalists, reordering immigration and civil rights policy, and reshaping the U.S. role in the world.

Brown warns that this moment is not simply a political shift — it may signal the erosion of democratic guardrails and the consolidation of a long-term “strongman” model of governance.

Main Points/Arguments:

1. Strongman politics is emerging as a governing model

• Trump embodies a strongman style: personalized power, disregard for institutional norms, vengefulness, and claims of a unique connection to “the people.”

• The danger is not only Trump himself but the institutional transformation that entrenches this style.

2. Popular support comes from neoliberal discontent

• Brown stresses that Trump is not appealing only to racism or reactionary feelings — though those exist.

• His base also includes people who feel economically abandoned, culturally alienated, and socially discarded after decades of neoliberal restructuring.

• Trump positions himself as the defender of those “left behind.”

3. The threat is structural, not just rhetorical

Brown argues the real danger lies in:

• Purging civil servants and staffing government with loyalists

• Undermining rule-of-law institutions

• Politicizing agencies and courts

• Weakening constraints on executive power

• Marginalizing dissent or opposition

This is how strongmen consolidate power — not through a coup, but through institutional redesign.

5. Trump draws on global trends of authoritarian resurgence

• Brown places Trump within a worldwide pattern: leaders who claim to represent the “real people,” promise national rebirth, and delegitimize democratic institutions.

• Trump 2.0 echoes these global strongman figures.

6. Democracy will depend on institutional resilience and civic resistance

• Brown emphasizes that preventing authoritarian consolidation depends on:

  • Courts, Congress, and federal agencies holding the line

  • Civic mobilization

  • Public resistance

• She warns that fatigue or normalization plays into authoritarian hands.

The “Causes” of the New Nationalism

Brown argues that the rise of new nationalism (including Trump 2.0) is a direct consequence of decades of neoliberalism, which has damaged both the economy and democratic culture.

1. Neoliberal economic restructuring → economic populism

• Welfare state shrinks → growing insecurity and vulnerability

• Unions decline → loss of worker power and solidarity

• Deregulation + inequality → resentment toward elites and a belief that the system is rigged
  → People turn to nationalist “strongmen” who promise protection and revenge

2. Neoliberal rationality → exhaustion of democracy

• Distrust of the state and politicians → belief that democracy doesn’t work

• Marketization of everything → citizens treated as consumers, not participants

• Decline of public education → weakened civic understanding

• Emphasis on markets + traditional morality → public decision-making collapses
  → Creates a vacuum where authoritarian figures can step in

3. Produced feelings: “unfreedom” + “no future”

• Economic precarity + political powerlessness → people feel trapped

• Loss of stability, belonging, and hope → desire for strong identity and control
  → Nationalism offers the illusion of agency, pride, and a restored future

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