Harvey J. Graff
Posted August 1, 2024
CAN THERE BE a Trump Agenda or America First without Donald J. Trump? The question will outlive either outcome of the 2024 election.
At the surface level, The Agenda is rooted in a cult of personality that cannot be cloned or closely imitated. It is based in near-total obedience, unquestioned fealty, even defacement and humiliation to one charismatic figure who brooks no dissent. Rep. Liz Cheney is only the most prominent of many victims whose conservative credentials failed to compensate for her honesty on some crucial issues.
Such components are emblematic of autocracy. Instead of Cheney we have Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Laurent Boebert, Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, Mike Turner, Elise Stefanik, Virginia Foxx, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and so many more, and now especially J. D. Vance. That is the MAGA legacy.
Republicans who (even if in declining numbers) endorse “the Trump Agenda” include some who criticized Donald Trump for his election Big Lie and role in the January 6 insurrection. It is noteworthy and revealing that no one, especially 45 himself, has ever articulated a clear, coherent position to Make America Great Again (MAGA) or America First.
In 2022, one preview briefly emerged in the form of an America First Caucus party platform, from Marjorie Taylor Greene and other radical-rightwing congressional Republicans. It was quickly repudiated and withdrawn in the face of withering condemnation for its commitment to white, Anglo-Saxon supremacy, among other failings and falsehoods.
Now we have the call from the right-wing billionaire-supported Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to abrogate the U.S. Constitution and all realms of the public sector, civility, and civics. Trump purports to remain unfamiliar with its contents (we can be sure he hasn‘t read the 900 pages) and wavers daily on his views. For his part, vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance, graduate of the Clarence Thomas-Yale Law School, is equally circumspect.
Heritage is neither conservative nor a “think tank,” but a radical rightwing lobbying group long active in opposition to constitutional rights, court cases, laws, the legitimate legal studies field of critical race theory, rights to read, and children’s rights more generally. PayPal billionaire investor and rightwing ideologue Peter Thiel remains Hillbilly Elegy Vance’s sponsor.
After almost a decade, the slipperiness of any “Trumpism agenda” is a point of pride. It consists far more of opposition and grievances than endorsements or supportive positions. The Affordable Care Act was never repealed or replaced. The oft-promised “Infrastructure Week” never arrived. Only a few feet of “The Wall” was built on the border.
Absent a statement of principles and policies, paralleling the lack of a party platform in Trump’s 2020 or 2024 re-election campaigns aside from what Il Duce dictated, we are left to reconstruct it from statements and silences, actions and inactions.
Digging Deeper, Sifting the Evidence
Attacking institutions and the Constitution. Beneath the surface, however, America First is ever more an active threat to the norms of conduct, presumed faith and values, and small-republican institutions of (limited) representative democracy and the U.S. Constitution. Self-described as conservative, it rejects both conservatism and liberalism as we understand them historically.
It ignores traditional conservative Republican principles that respected facts, debate and “limited government.” The Trump Agenda never calls itself “political,” but its opposition and critics are always “politically motivated.” Similar with race, class and public-versus-private.
Any opposition is demonized collectively and equally as radical socialist or Marxist — i.e. “far left” — regardless of the misapplication of those amorphous labels. Trumpists reject Republican critics as “RINOs.”
Strengthening the presidency while weakening the executive branch. Trump’s unprecedented and often illegal interference with government agencies also impacyed the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Defense and State, among others.
The corruption of authority promoted subservience. Trump frequently appointed acting, unconfirmed political leaders, who were susceptible to Chief Executive interference. They were often incompetent and inexperienced, refusing to follow recommendations of professional staff and ignoring the law. Several permanent cabinet secretaries were accused of ethics violations and some illegal activities. Recent Supreme Court decisions enable this behavior.
Isolating America. America First contradictorily stands for weaker U.S. authority internationally in economy, security, reputation, trustworthiness and influence.
Much-touted tariffs and other trade policies failed to benefit consumers, corporations, or farmers. Instead, they led to mounting deficits and swelling national debt. They boosted Chinese economic growth as its economy grew faster; American imports rose, increasing the trade imbalance. America First resulted in the U.S. falling behind. American competitiveness did not advance. 2024 Trumpism and Vance-ism lie boldly about this.
Weakening the economy. Trump himself proudly claims economic advancement. His presidency is best known for its 2017 tax reduction that overwhelmingly favored the wealthy and large corporations and failed to stimulate economic growth. Corporate gains fueled stock buybacks, off-shore investments, and rising market shares, not expansion of business, jobs or incomes in general.
Rampant deregulation damaged the environment but did not stimulate job creation or economic growth. The loss of manufacturing jobs accelerated. Restrictions on immigration contributed to labor force shortages for both highly trained and unskilled workers. They did not protect “American jobs or workers.”
Claiming to be “the party of American workers,” Trumpism appeals primarily to white, non-union, non-urban workers. Yet it opposes policies that would benefit most workers, including the Biden administration’s American Rescue and American Jobs Plans. It is aggressively anti-union. Similarly, policies such as “improvement zones,” touted to advance minorities, actually reinforce segregation.
Appalachian voices already ring out that Vance does nothing for them. Trumpists oppose equity in housing, employment, education, public safety and justice. Despite Vance’s attending college on the G.I. Bill and rise through elite Yale Law School, he opposes higher education even more than 45. America First reframes equity as “anti-white racism.”
Overall, America First benefitted the wealthy, large corporations, and high tech, despite mounting Republican complaints about the latter two groups — about “cancel culture,” censorship, and other allegations.
Yes, the economy grew, with the advantage of the momentum inherited from the Obama administration. But the rate of growth slowed; overall growth was very unequal, benefitting the stock market far more than average workers, racial and ethnic minorities, and women. This held true for income, wealth, and employment. Nothing in Trump-Vance 2024 will change that.
Unearthing an Anti-social Agenda
Restricting rights. By statements and actions, Trumpism endorses racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, anti-immigrant sentiments, and anti-Asian American hate. It fuels endless grievances, resentment, and polarization rooted in politics of fear, loathing and hysterical opposition.
Without evidence, the Trump administration radically restricted immigration, banned Muslim travelers, criminally separated families, treated migrant children inhumanely, and deported residents illegally. Similarly, rightwing Republican Trump supporters continue to attack reproductive rights and the civil rights of LGBTQ citizens and Indigenous peoples, especially at the state level.
They vilify and even violently attack the free speech of peaceful protesters and the First Amendment rights of the legitimate press, one of Trump’s favorite targets. Trump and his allies condemn the media as the “enemy of the people,” their reporting as “fake news.” We are still learning about Trump’s illegal deployment of the Department of Justice and FBI toward these ends.
In sharp contrast, the speech of Trump, his allies and supporters is staunchly defended against false claims of “canceling” or censorship. Concerns about Big Tech overreach and their free speech are highly selective. So too is the endorsement of law and order and support for law enforcement. Blue lives sometimes matter, except for the deadly January 6 mob assaults on Capitol police.
Trump’s lying rejection of the 2020 presidential election result unleashed a national campaign to suppress voting rights, especially of urban minorities. Trumpism rejects majority rule. Of course, Trump never won a majority of votes in his two elections.
Support for a partisan reading of the Second Amendment and “religious liberty” far exceeds the letter of the law and the judicial record. But the First Amendment does not receive equal protection. Today’s hot-button issue — the well-funded, highly organized, national campaign to “ban” critical race theory, teaching about race, and the rights to read and grow up — is anti-democratic, ignorant of these subjects, a vile attack on education, teachers children, and documented history, the very basis of national identity and common understanding.
Assaulting truth, rejecting science. America First consistently advocates “alternative facts” and “alternative realities” over logic, common sense, assessment and fact-checking. Public opinion, which never supported Trump and America First, counts for little.
On one hand, the anti-social Trump Agenda rejects documented history. Trump attempted to replace it with a highly selective, incomplete, and inaccurate alternative. He tried to substitute his notorious 1776 Commission on “patriotic education,” a distorted version of the national past, for well-documented curricula like the 1619 Project.
The continuing attempt to ban racial sensitivity training (among others forms of affirmative action and DEI) and the condemnation of “critical race theory” are parallels, rooted in fear of the truth. An effort to block modern architecture and mandate neo-classical design for federal buildings remains one of the sillier examples.
On the other hand, the assault on science and denial of public health is a more immediate and deadly element of the anti-social Agenda. Rejecting scientific expertise and empirical data — tools of the “deep state” — is another plank in the unwritten platform. Trump’s personal contempt for science punctuated his rhetoric and characterized his policies, exemplified by the EPA’s unscientific and sometimes illegal deregulations.
The greatest damage — so far — came with the Covid-19 pandemic, which fully exposed the Agenda and its consequences. Trump hid compelling evidence of the virus, then denied its severity. He refused to accept responsibility, then recklessly interfered with HHS, CDC and FDA.
Without evidence, Trump proposed ingesting bleach and endorsed taking hydroxychloroquine. He blamed China and the WHO for his failures. Trump simultaneously claimed absolute federal authority but held the states — without adequate guidance or resources — responsible for public health actions. The result: more than 700,000 lives lost in 2020-21, with only 56% of the country fully vaccinated by the end of 2021 due to massive disinformation and deep social divisions.
Vance for his part denies climate change, despite growing up in Appalachia.
Promoting cruelty, inciting violence. America First is also committed to cruelty and violence. Beyond verbal incriminations, it embraces the resumption of the federal death penalty after a lengthy hiatus; law enforcement agencies’ violence against peaceful protesters, especially people of color; and family separation and inhumane treatment of immigrant children.
It accepts attacks against Asian and Muslim Americans and refuses to condemn white supremacists. It fails to endorse international human rights campaigns or ban animal abuse (due to failed or rejected regulatory efforts in various federal agencies).
Gun violence becomes the accepted “fair price” for an expansive view of Second Amendment rights. Trump regularly sanctions his supporters’ violent responses to those with whom he disagrees, including the media and protesters.
Exposing More Layers
Endorsing the Big Lie(s). Overshadowing these characteristics is Trump’s Big Lie: denial of the truth about the 2020 presidential election, leading to the January 6 insurrection and deadly attack on Congress. Trump and his allies continue to challenge access to voting across the country, dismissing the testimony and evidence of knowledgeable parties — including the Director of Cybersecurity; the Attorney General; secretaries of state, governors, and local elections officials; and state and federal judges, including the Supreme Court.
Threats of protecting “election security” or “election integrity” substitute for evidence of irregularities. They are also racist dog-whistles. America First denies reality, propagates radical disinformation on social media and allied right-wing media, and foments dangerous extremism and violence.
Cancelling culture. America First is obsessed with an incoherent phenomenon that it calls “cancel culture.” Rich in contradiction and hypocrisy, condemning “cancel culture” inadequately stands in for policy. It pretends to replace politics, economics, and socio-cultural issues with a distracting and blurring pivot to “culture.”
“Cancelling” refers to any criticisms, actions, or opinions with which adherents disagree. It is boundless, ranging from an odd obsession with Dr. Seuss’ publisher removing six books from print (within their legal rights) and a brief removal of “Mr.” from the Potato Head doll to publishers ending contracts (also within their rights).
“Cancelling” also comprises the legitimate actions of both public and private organizations, including Major League Baseball’s moving its All Star game away from Atlanta in response to Georgia’s restrictive new voting law, or statements of private corporations on civil rights and voting legislation.
These actions are purposefully confused with unconstitutional censorship. At the same time, the Trump Agenda’s own efforts to restrict women’s or LGBTQ rights, limit voting access, “ban” basic parts of historical and legal education or penalize corporations for public statements are not viewed as “cancelling.”
Limiting communication. America First’s approach to communication and governance links all these components. Both are minimalist and depend on Twitter or X, Truth Social, Facebook, and Instagram, rather than coherent expression, arguments, or cogent explanations. Soundbites, punchlines, slogans, and dog-whistles are the lingua franca.
Trump himself is a product of Facebook, his principal source of fund-raising, and Twitter — his favorite means of communication until he was banned following the insurrection. Failure to communicate responsibly parallels refusal to govern responsibly.
Hitting Bottom?
The final element is our defining question: Is there a Trump Agenda or America First without Donald J. Trump? The answer will tell us something about how far U.S. politics will go before hitting bottom.
Harvey J. Graff is Professor Emeritus of English and History at Ohio State University. He is the author of many books on social history. Most recently, they include Searching for Literacy (2022); My Life with Literacy: The Continuing Education of a Historian (2024); and Reconstructing the “Uni-versity” from the Ashes of the “Mega- and Multi-versity” (forthcoming).
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