The Six Logics and the Permanent Attack
Trumpism is neither an ideology nor a consistent project. It is a political power complex that draws on a toolbox of six distinct logics – each designed to maximise attention, dominance and loyalty. The digital attention economy enables the power complex: Trump intuitively understands how to ‘flood the zone’ with conflicts, scandals and emotional attacks so that traditional institutions and opponents lose their footing.
Trumpism is often read as a unified movement – either as an authoritarian landslide, a media phenomenon or a cry from disillusioned voters. But this is a misconception, and perhaps the reason why we underestimate its reach.
Because Trumpism is not one thing. It is a confluence of overlapping forces – strategically disjointed, but systemically powerful. And for European politicians and business leaders, that matters. Because what may look like an American sideshow is actually a new political technology that is already changing alliances, market logics and the very assumptions on which our democracies are built.
If we continue to see Trumpism as a passing storm, we miss the structure it actually has. That’s why it’s crucial to understand how it works – not to mirror it, but to navigate its reality.
Here are six of the most central logics of the project.
1. The businessman’s project: Deal over ideology
Trump thinks in transactions. Everything is something you win or lose. His approach to politics is business logic: create a negotiating advantage, act tough and take the credit if you succeed. Consequences for socio-economics or institutional trust are secondary.
A current example is the new, all-encompassing tariffs announced by the Trump administration. Economically, it’s an own goal – but politically and communicatively, it’s a powerful signal that strengthens Trump’s profile as a job-creating nationalist. Politics becomes a question of signalling value rather than long-term impact.
According to virtually all economic analyses, such measures will lead to higher prices for American consumers, increased uncertainty among businesses and declining competitiveness. Jens Nærvig Pedersen, Chief Strategist at Danske Bank, soberly states that ‘Trump’s tariffs can simply no longer be explained by economics’ – they make no sense either in reason or effect (Politiken, 3 April 2025).
Wall Street has reacted with shock. In just a few days, stock markets have fallen by up to 15% and profiles such as Bill Ackman and Stan Druckenmiller – former Trump supporters – are now warning of ‘an economic nuclear winter’ and a serious loss of global confidence in the US as a trading partner (Børsen, 7 April 2025).
While Trump claims to use tariffs as leverage in negotiations, it increasingly appears that in practice they function more as a fiscal tool to fill the treasury – and as political symbolism to core voters. As economics professor Philipp Schröder puts it: ‘It’s nonsense’ (Politiken, 3 April 2025).
2. Sado-populism: Affect over solution
Based on Timothy Snyder’s concept of ‘sado-populism’, Trumpism can be understood as an affective political logic: It’s not about helping voters, but about punishing the enemy. Culture wars become more important than welfare, and the humiliation of opponents more important than concrete results.
Snyder elaborates on the concept in several contexts – including an interview with the Canadian media The Tyee – where he describes sadopopulism as a form of government in which the population is made co-responsible for the constant humiliation of ‘the other’. According to Snyder, the key is not to promise improvements, but to ensure that voters are allowed to be spectators to the suffering of others – creating an emotional bond rather than a political contract (The Tyee, 2024).
Snyder further expands on this analysis in his latest book On Freedom: The Collapse and Reconstruction of Civic Life (Penguin Press, 2024), where he explores how populism, media and power strategies together undermine the concept of freedom from within.
As Snyder describes it, sadopopulism is characterised by the fact that it does not give people benefits, but pleasure in seeing others lose. Freedom is reduced to a matter of being able to harm without being held responsible. Instead of solidarity and common good, democratic politics is replaced by revenge and spectacle. This is not just an emotional direction, but a structural danger to freedom itself. When public institutions are eroded and truth is made relative, it’s not just opponents but the very foundations of society that are threatened – and that, according to Snyder, is the real method of tyranny.
JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential candidate, represents this movement in its purest form: the hatred of the woke, media, universities and the federal bureaucracy is not just rhetorical, but existential. This is where politics becomes performance. Vance himself has said that the liberal order must be broken down from within. This creates division, but also loyalty in a time when emotions often trump arguments. The trade war with China and the aversion to climate regulations have hurt American industry in real terms, but provided symbolic political gain. In reality, the policies have often cost the same voters who support them billions.
3. The libertarian capital wing: The market as resistance
Behind the scenes, there is a strong wing of the rich right that wants less government, fewer regulations and more freedom for market players. Here we find names like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, who sympathise with Trumpism – not necessarily for its rhetoric, but for its dismantling of the systems that inhibit private dominance: regulation, taxes, government regulation.
Elon Musk has donated significant amounts of money to pro-Trump super PACs and has been appointed head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Likewise, David Sacks, another prominent tech investor, has been named the administration’s ‘AI and crypto czar’, signalling a move towards deregulation in these sectors.
This wing sees the state as the problem. Trump – and even more so his administration – is setting the stage for a future where tech, private ownership and individual agency take precedence over collective solutions. It’s not just politics; it’s a strategic privatisation of social responsibility. The massive contributions from tech billionaires to the Trump campaign and the desire to gain control of AI and energy without government interference show that there is a consistent strategic axis in the otherwise chaotic Trump project: a clear trend towards promoting technological progress and economic growth through the reduction of government regulation, in line with the libertarian capital wing’s vision of a maximally market-driven society.
4. Amateurism and anti-expertise
Trumpism is also a protest against expertise. Government officials, professionals and institutions are seen as part of the problem, not the solution. This is where Trump’s intuition and gut feelings become the focal point. One example is the proposal to buy Greenland – a proposal with no diplomatic or strategic backing, but with maximum media attention.
Anti-expertise is dangerous because it undermines the administration’s ability to make coherent policy. But it works because it appeals to voters who feel that their lives have not been improved by the experts’ recommendations. As with COVID-19, when Trump refused to follow scientific guidelines, it creates a systematic distrust of knowledge that provides short-term political capital.
5. Kleptocracy and monetisation of politics
Trumpism is also an economic model. Politics becomes business. Trump and his network have built a parallel economic system through donors, campaign organisations and loyalist media. Every conflict can be translated into clicks, donations, merchandise or direct profit.
Trumpism has not only changed the political agenda, but has also given rise to a new economic model where politics and business merge, as described in the Economist – here. Key players in Trump’s network have established a parallel economic system that appeals to conservative consumers and businesses who want to distance themselves from ‘woke’ culture and liberal values.
This movement is supported by significant investments from key members of Trump’s inner circle. For example, Donald Trump Jr. has become involved in several companies in finance, media and technology, all seeking to capitalise on the conservative wave. His involvement ranges from advisory roles to board positions, emphasising the close link between Trump’s political movement and these business initiatives. A fusion of politics and business within Trumpism that manifests itself in the creation of a parallel economic system where conservative values and economic interests go hand in hand.
It’s not just Trump himself who profits from chaos. It’s his entire ecosystem. Politics has become a platform where media attention and polarisation is converted into money. It’s a form of democratic monetarism where attention is currency. In particular, revelations about how Trump has channelled funds from donation platforms to his own companies and made millions on merchandise during the election campaign document how the entire political communication has become a kind of shop.
6. Geopolitical cynicism: US withdraws from the role of Western guarantor – and Asia over Europe
Finally, Trumpism embodies a foreign policy cynicism where the US withdraws from the role of Western guarantor. The focus is directed towards Asia – especially China and Taiwan – and away from Europe, NATO and multilateral co-operation. Investments in US chip production and moves to decouple from Chinese suppliers show that the US is really shifting gears – not just rhetorically, but institutionally and geopolitically.
Fareed Zakaria – an Indian-American journalist, host of the CNN programme ‘Fareed Zakaria GPS’ and writer for The Washington Post – warns that Trump’s foreign policy revolution has shaken the global system to its core. The US is not only abandoning Ukraine and reneging on its own security guarantees, but demanding access to Ukrainian raw materials as ‘payment’ for its support. At the same time, the Trump administration is waging trade wars against close allies like Canada and Mexico, pulling the US out of the World Health Organisation and cancelling much of its global aid.
According to Zakaria and other commentators, this is creating a dangerous vacuum. In Europe, German leaders declare they must build independent security without the US. In Asia, Taiwan fears being left behind and countries like Japan and South Korea are considering nuclear weapons as an alternative to the US umbrella. The international system that the US built and has dominated for eight decades is crumbling – and that, as Zakaria puts it, is a gift to Russia and China. He concludes with a warning: when the rules-based world order falls, it will not only weaken Europe’s security – it will also make the US poorer, more isolated and far more exposed.
The perspective going forward
Trumpism is not a project, but a condition – a new political technology that functions because it doesn’t play by our usual rules. That’s why it’s not enough to call him an idiot, kleptocrat or populist. Because he is – but he’s all of those things at the same time. And that’s what makes him powerful.
We often react field by field. When Trump pursues economic policies, we criticise him with economic arguments. When he attacks universities and media, we respond as cultural defenders. When he raises money through merchandise and donations, we call him corrupt.
But it is precisely this piecemeal resistance that makes us politically powerless. Because Trumpism is not piecemeal. It is a power complex. And if we want to understand – and resist – it, we must see the totality. Not to mirror his methods, but to develop strategies that go beyond the next reaction.
This applies to politicians who want to defend democracy. It applies to companies that want to act in a divided public. And it applies to us as voters and citizens, if we want to maintain a somewhat common reality to discuss.
Understanding Trumpism is not an intellectual exercise. It’s a necessity.
Sources:
- The Post-American World is now in plain sight, Fareed Zakaria, The Washington Post, 7 March 2025.
- Sobel, M. and Kamin, S., The tariff plan is meaningless, ineffective and destabilising. Financial Times, 4 April. 2025.
- Timothy Snyder, On Freedom: The Collapse and Reconstruction of Civic Life, Penguin Press, 2024.
Credits:
Picture of Kresten Schultz Jørgensen by photographer: Jens Honoré.
This article was first posted in Danish on LinkedIn on 8 April 2025.
