Donald Trump and the Turn to Right-Wing Populism in the Republican Party, 1990–2024

Abstract This paper traces the way(s) Republican political leaders have infused a right-wing populist ideology at the heart of Republican Party programs over thirty years. It does so through analysis of the institutional supports and historical factions that have shaped the evolution of the Republican Party over the last century. A change in coalition forces that control the Republican Party has encouraged the emergence of a Republican Party that holds, among other things, that some radical political actions (such as the 6 January insurrection) are legitimate, while other radical political action (such as the George Floyd protests) is not. For many Republicans in the newly dominant Trump coalition, some seemingly anti-state action is in fact legitimate when undertaken in defense of a “true” US Constitution, while other action, even when clearly legal, is inherently a threat to the “true” US Constitution.