TRUMP’S INTOXICATING BRAND OF YESTERDAY
Why Poor White People Can’t Quit Donald Trump (Pt. 2)
“Great Again”: nostalgia, identity, and “othering”
Nobody not named Trump (or John Barron) ever described Donald Trump as brilliant prior to 2016. However, he has long proven prodigious in one arena: branding.
Amid the “greed is good” gluttony of the 1980s, Trump successfully established his name as shorthand for American success (and excess) in all of its unrepentant ostentatiousness. All this despite a series of high-profile failures and a business portfolio that, even on its best day, paled in comparison to those of America’s true titans of industry.
That same branding acumen was integral to the meteoric rise of Trump’s political career, driven primarily by the fervent support of poor and working-class whites. Last time, we explored the inherently predatory relationship between Trump and his poor white supporters; essentially that of a con artist and mark. But in order to execute a con, the grifter must first win the belief of his patsies. To this end, Trump deployed a dark variation on one of the oldest and most effective marketing tools: nostalgia.
