Joseph S. Nye, Jr. seems to believe that Trump’s disruptive presidency would not have a huge impact on America’s political system in far-reaching ways, thanks to its resilience. Trump’s hostility to immigrants reflects the views of Stephen Miller, his 33-year old far-right senior policy adviser. On the whole, “attitudes toward immigration improve as the economy improves, but it remains an emotional cultural issue.” Trump taps into the country’s psyche and divides the nation when it serves his purpose.

The author says, although Trump embraces economic nationalism and “America First” in his foreign policy approach, some “65% of Americans thought that globalization is mostly good for the US, despite their concerns about jobs,” according to a September 2016 poll. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has been asking Americans yearly since 1974, “if the US should take an active part in, or stay out of, world affairs.” The number of “isolationists” has been declining constantly. In a 2018 poll, some 70% Americans supported the US playing an active role in global affairs.

Trump’s win was partly a populist reaction to the liberal internatonal order that stands for globalisation and free trade for much of the post-war year. The author says, “one should not read too much about long-term trends in American public opinion into the heated rhetoric of the 2016 election or Trump’s brilliant use of social media to manipulate the news agenda with cultural wedge issues. While Trump won the Electoral College, he fell three million short in the popular vote.” No doubt Russia’s disinformation playbook lent him a helping hand too.

In fact populism has a long and durable tradition in American politics. It is in many ways an appealing doctrine, and “as American as apple pie.” Trump’s campaign rhetoric echoed the 1892 platform of the People’s party – known as the Populists – from its denunciations of media and “imported pauperised labour” to its insistence that the nation had been “brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin”.

Trump won because he was told, that many of the “plain people” – a phrase from the Populists’ 1892 platform – felt ignored and despised by the elites of both parties. An increasing numbers of citizens believe that the economic and political systems of their country are rigged against them. Trump had the ear of many union members who felt threatened by free trade and globalisation.

Historian note that many successful presidents, from Franklin D Roosevelt to Reagan to Bill Clinton, have been populists to some extent. But leaders of both parties have also been wary of populism’s tendency to slide into demagoguery. History has shown that populists find it difficult to resist scapegoating minorities and outsiders, offering simplistic and unrealistic solutions for complex issues and destroying trust in social or government institutions.

Trump in many ways resembles previous populists who ran for presidency, such as Patrick Buchanan – who also campaigned on the slogan “America First” – and Alabama governor George Wallace. But there has never been a vigorous populist in the White House, with the exception of Andrew Jackson, whose portrait now hangs in the Oval Office, because Trump cites him as his hero.

Trump also reminds of Barry Goldwater, the rightwing Arizona senator who was the Republican presidential candidate in 1964. Like Trump, Goldwater was an anti-establishment firebrand with a habit of making extreme statements on sensitive subjects, such as race and nuclear weapons. After presiding over a divided party convention, the prickly Goldwater refused to pivot toward a more measured, level-headed “presidential” posture. Like Trump, he had no interest in reaching out to groups that were sceptical of his candidacy, such as minorities and college graduates. He also appealed to the less-educated voters in the white working class who had not previously taken much interest in politics.

The author says “the lesson for policy elites who support globalization and an open economy is that they will have to pay more attention to issues of economic inequality as well as adjustment assistance for those disrupted by change,” both at home and abroad. While “strong support for immigration and globalization in the US sits uneasily with the view that populism is a problem,” one can be hopeful that “support for the political forces it attempts to describe seems to be on the wane.” It remains to be seen whether this development is universal.