Trump: en del av eliten och folkrepresentant?

Sammanfattning: Populism has been on the rise in Europe and North America the past decade. Donald Trump is an example of the type of populist politician who has in recent years managed to build a steadfast voter base in part through depicting a world that can be divided into two camps: the pure people and the corrupt elite. He portrays himself as being part of “the people”, but in actuality it can be strongly argued that he is part of the same elite that he criticizes. He is for instance the only president in the history of the United States to be a billionaire. The research question of this paper is following: How does Trump manage to portray himself as a representative of the people while he in actuality is part of the elite? To answer this question we are going to do a qualitative analysis of one of Trump's speeches and a Republican primary debate, both from 2016. To aid us in this we are going to start by looking at definitions of populism as well as elite theory and the concept of affective polarization. We are also going to use three core concepts throughout our paper – the people, the elite, and the general will – when looking at how Trump manages to tackle this issue. What we found in our analysis is a heavy usage of affective polarization, a simplified worldview depicted in Manichean black and white with the corrupt elite on one side and the pure masses on the other. Trump manages to avoid the issues that follow the discrepancy of him being part of the elite while claiming to represent the people by declaring that his unique knowledge of the elite guides him in his representation of the people. He also heavily uses affective polarization by focusing on personal attacks and critique of character instead of on political issues when targeting his political enemies.