Donald Trump and the Cultural Atmospheres of American Populism
This article examines Donald J. Trump’s populism as a mediatized and culturally produced phenomenon shaped by popular entertainment and contemporary media economies. Unlike earlier American populists, Trump’s rise has been inseparable from his long-standing presence in celebrity culture, reality tel...
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Mise au point
2026
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openedition-oai:revues.org:map_8890 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:map_8890 https://doi.org/10.4000/15vbw urn:doi:10.4000/15vbw https://journals.openedition.org/map/8890 2026-03-13T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/15vbw https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Donald Trump and the Cultural Atmospheres of American Populism Mise au point Association française des enseignants et chercheurs en cinéma et audiovisuel info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2261-9623 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/map Rocavert, Carla spectacle fiction populisme Trump télé-réalité fiction populism Trump spectacle reality media This article examines Donald J. Trump’s populism as a mediatized and culturally produced phenomenon shaped by popular entertainment and contemporary media economies. Unlike earlier American populists, Trump’s rise has been inseparable from his long-standing presence in celebrity culture, reality television, tabloid media, and digital platforms. The analysis foregrounds how Trump’s rhetorical style, affective appeals, and antagonistic performances draw on televisual conventions of spectacle, dramatization, and character-play, while aligning with authoritarian forms of personalization, demagoguery, and leader-centered legitimacy. Through qualitative analysis of speeches, media appearances, The Apprentice, and social-media messaging, alongside scholarship on competing conceptions of populism, the article shows how constructions of populism on the American screen have evolved from twentieth-century fictional models to contemporary reality-TV logics of governance. Situated within an attention economy structured by techno-capitalist imperatives, these logics privilege affect over deliberation and enable the normalization of authoritarian power. The case contributes to debates on the cultural foundations of contemporary right-wing populism and the role of entertainment media in producing political legitimacy. Cet article examine le populisme de Donald J. Trump comme un phénomène médiatisé et culturellement produit, façonné par la culture du divertissement populaire et les économies médiatiques contemporaines. Contrairement aux populistes américains antérieurs, l’ascension de Trump est indissociable de sa présence de longue date dans la culture de la célébrité, la télé-réalité, les médias tabloïds et les plateformes numériques. L’analyse met en évidence la manière dont son style rhétorique, ses appels affectifs et ses performances antagonistes s’appuient sur des conventions télévisuelles de spectacle, de dramatisation et de jeu de personnage, tout en s’inscrivant dans des formes autoritaires de personnalisation du pouvoir, de démagogie et de légitimation charismatique. À partir d’un examen qualitatif de ses discours, de ses apparitions médiatiques, de l’émission « The Apprentice » et de sa communication sur les réseaux sociaux, ainsi que des travaux portant sur diverses conceptions du populisme, l’article montre comment les formes de construction médiatique du populisme ont évolué, passant des modèles fictionnels du XXᵉ siècle aux logiques contemporaines de gouvernement inspirées de la télé-réalité. Inscrites dans une économie de l’attention structurée par les impératifs du techno-capitalisme, ces logiques privilégient l’affect au détriment de la délibération et contribuent à la normalisation de formes autoritaires de pouvoir. Ce cas contribue aux débats actuels sur les fondements culturels du populisme de droite contemporain et sur le rôle des médias de divertissement dans la production de la légitimité politique. |
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OpenEdition Journal |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
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0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
spectacle fiction populisme Trump télé-réalité fiction populism Trump spectacle reality media |
| spellingShingle |
spectacle fiction populisme Trump télé-réalité fiction populism Trump spectacle reality media Rocavert, Carla Donald Trump and the Cultural Atmospheres of American Populism |
| description |
This article examines Donald J. Trump’s populism as a mediatized and culturally produced phenomenon shaped by popular entertainment and contemporary media economies. Unlike earlier American populists, Trump’s rise has been inseparable from his long-standing presence in celebrity culture, reality television, tabloid media, and digital platforms. The analysis foregrounds how Trump’s rhetorical style, affective appeals, and antagonistic performances draw on televisual conventions of spectacle, dramatization, and character-play, while aligning with authoritarian forms of personalization, demagoguery, and leader-centered legitimacy. Through qualitative analysis of speeches, media appearances, The Apprentice, and social-media messaging, alongside scholarship on competing conceptions of populism, the article shows how constructions of populism on the American screen have evolved from twentieth-century fictional models to contemporary reality-TV logics of governance. Situated within an attention economy structured by techno-capitalist imperatives, these logics privilege affect over deliberation and enable the normalization of authoritarian power. The case contributes to debates on the cultural foundations of contemporary right-wing populism and the role of entertainment media in producing political legitimacy. |
| author |
Rocavert, Carla |
| author_facet |
Rocavert, Carla |
| author_sort |
Rocavert, Carla |
| title |
Donald Trump and the Cultural Atmospheres of American Populism |
| title_short |
Donald Trump and the Cultural Atmospheres of American Populism |
| title_full |
Donald Trump and the Cultural Atmospheres of American Populism |
| title_fullStr |
Donald Trump and the Cultural Atmospheres of American Populism |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Donald Trump and the Cultural Atmospheres of American Populism |
| title_sort |
donald trump and the cultural atmospheres of american populism |
| publisher |
Mise au point |
| publishDate |
2026 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/map |
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https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/15vbw https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/map/8890 |
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