# Trumpism

> a contested label for the political style, coalition, and governing project associated with Donald Trump

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Stable ID | `node:kiduna:political-change:populism-nationalism:trumpism` |
| Family | Populism & Nationalism |
| Domain | Ideology |
| Kind | formation |
| Archetypal function | The People Named |
| Epistemic status | synthesis; tentative |

## Concrete anchor

Trumpism belongs to the **Populism & Nationalism** family. It is treated as a specific political object, role, institution, tactic, event, ideology, or mechanism before any symbolic transfer is made.

## What it does

The label is used analytically for personalist leadership, populist anti-elite rhetoric, nationalist policy, media conflict, and institutional confrontation; supporters may reject the term or define it differently.

## Who gains and who loses power

The mechanism can increase the capacity of actors able to use Trumpism, while shifting cost, delay, risk, exclusion, or dependence toward actors with less authority, information, organization, money, or safe access. The distribution is conditional, not an essence of the node.

## Archetypal function

**The People Named.** a contested label for the political style, coalition, and governing project associated with Donald Trump

## Gift

Names a durable political formation that cannot be reduced to one election.

## Wound / Shadow

A label becomes a substitute for distinguishing voters, policies, institutions, rhetoric, and events.

## Conditions

- scale and jurisdiction are explicit
- affected people and absent stakeholders are named
- time horizon and countermoves are considered

## Strategic meaning

Use Trumpism to identify the operative target, resource, dependency, decision forum, and likely countermove. Ask what would make the mechanism stronger, weaker, more legitimate, or less necessary.

## Divinatory meaning

The People Named enters through Trumpism. Read for the capacity seeking expression, the cost displaced from view, and the relationship that changes if the frame moves.

**Question:** Which mechanisms persist beyond the leader?

## Game function

**role.** Reveal one hidden dependency connected to Trumpism; another player names a countermove. Initiative 5.

## Relationships

- **depends on — MAGA:** MAGA depends on Trumpism by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **institutionalizes — Strongman Politics:** Trumpism institutionalizes Strongman Politics by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **translates into — Rally:** Rally translates into Trumpism by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_
- **institutionalizes — Protest:** Trumpism institutionalizes Protest by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_

## Countermaps and polarity prompts

- Read Trumpism from the viewpoint of the actor who bears its cost.
- Reverse cause and symptom: what if Trumpism is an effect of the system it appears to drive?
- Change the clock: what looks different over a day, an election cycle, a generation, and a century?
- Ask when the Gift becomes the Wound through scale, secrecy, intensity, latency, or unequal reciprocity.

## Epistemic and Sentinel note

Claim layers: synthesis, interpretive, symbolic_divinatory. Analytical label or current interpretation remains contested.
Sentinel factors: current political movement; real person; contested analytical label. These are descriptive handoff annotations, not a verdict and not a mutation of Engine Output.

## Visual direction

A text-free enamel expression of Trumpism: one dominant mechanism, one counterforce, raised warm-metal linework, midnight field, restrained civic red, teal, ivory, and amber. No party logo, national flag, sacred symbol, or recognizable person.

## Research / provenance

- [Introduction to Political Science](https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science) — OpenStax, 2022. Comparative institutions, political behavior, and public policy foundations.
- [2024 Republican Party Platform](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-republican-party-platform) — Republican National Committee, 2024. Party self-description and program; not an external assessment.
- [Donald J. Trump Platform](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform) — Donald J. Trump campaign, 2024. Campaign self-description and policy claims; claims require independent verification.
- [President Donald J. Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/donald-j-trump/) — White House, 2026. Official biography and administration self-description; evaluative claims are attributed to the administration.
- [Fascism](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/fascism-1) — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2019. Historically bounded definition and features; avoid use as a generic insult.

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Engine Output version 1.0.0; generated 2026-08-24T00:00:00Z. Sentinel annotations are stored separately in `sentinel/handoffs.json`.
