A “Good Populism” Rises in the United States

Detailed summary

Can the same thing happen in Europe?

Since Donald Trump descended that escalator and ushered in a new geopolitical age, eleven years ago, the United States and Europe have each been conducting a similar—if not identical—conversation about the future of their politics and their societies. As an upstart Republican challenger, Trump set himself on course for the Presidency by importing wholesale the language and the animus of the European far right, grandstanding over the threat of Syrian refugees and Muslim migration by drawing on security fears that had little to do with the realities of the United States.

In fact, everyone did not. Orbán’s tenure is, of course, now in the past. He was defeated resoundingly in an election earlier this year by a Hungarian opposition committed to unravelling his illiberal, autocratic legacy. The European leader whom Steve Bannon once described as “Trump before Trump” can model for the lame-duck President what it’s like to be out of office, and his ideological allies elsewhere have recalibrated their positions. Even before last week, when the U.S.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The New Yorker. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.