The best populist leaders are those who manage to appeal to stirring themes of nationalism and fears of persecution without doing it so explicitly that their tricks are revealed. A good populist instils just the right amount of national righteousness without revealing the ugliness that lies at its heart. Theresa May’s “citizens of nowhere” soundbite had enough nativism without going all the way out into the territory of xenophobia. Michael Gove’s singling out of identity politics was a dependable trope that sent out the right signals about how minorities seek exceptional treatment. By this measure Donald Trump, the most successful contemporary populist, lacks the finesse, the flair for euphemism, the gentle breath on the dog-whistle that is required to galvanise a wide array of people. His foreign policy tweet last week about South Africa is a study in both how he is moving from populism to becoming an extremist, and how his pronouncements need to be analysed exclusively for their intent rather than their content.
With the conviction of both his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, and former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Trump reached for his most crude cudgel – playing on white nativist angst. While watching Fox News, he tweeted that he had asked his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, “to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers”. Then he quoted the headline from the Tucker Carlson show that had alerted him to this injustice: “South African government is now seizing land from white farmers”.
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