In the week since it became clear that former U.S. President Donald Trump would be returning to the White House, much discussion has centered on whether he will be willing and able to follow through on some of his most extreme campaign promises. Trump’s election victory in 2016 took the U.S., the world and by some accounts Trump himself by surprise, and his lack of any real power base within the Republican Party’s policymaking elites complicated his efforts to pursue his iconoclastic policy agenda during his first term.
By contrast, the tight grip he now wields over the Republican Party, along with the much deeper roster of eager personnel at his disposal to staff his next administration, has convinced many observers he will be in a better position to pursue his authoritarian goals in domestic and foreign policy. But even as supporters of MAGA Republicanism celebrate their moment of triumph, a closer look at the movement’s internal tensions and contradictions indicates that rather than imposing authoritarian order, a politically resurrected Trump is more likely to once more be an agent of chaos.
During the presidential election campaign, the emphasis that Trump’s Democratic opponents put on Project 2025—an authoritarian policy agenda produced by a think tank close to MAGA Republicans—focused attention on the fascistic undercurrents within the elite networks that enabled Trump’s return to power. The extent to which raw nativism and contempt for rule of law will shape Trump’s agenda is already visible in the appointment to key administration positions of figures close to the far right, such as Stephen Miller as chief of staff for policy and Thomas Homan as head of immigration policy and border security. Their plans to deport millions of migrants as well as implement repressive policing against both criminals and purported political threats to national security is an indication of how much U.S. domestic politics over the next four years is going to be shaped by an authoritarian turn that will enjoy Trump’s full support.