Description
This paper examines the impact of Trump's 'New America' on world order. The 2025 US election has resulted in a comprehensive vote for change, emanating from multiple tensions in domestic politics. In the first part of the paper, we examine the takeover of the Republican Party by Trump, arguing that this second term takes us beyond Trump-ism as a cult into an era of fascist politics. Scholars have, for years, whispered the F word in relation to these developments, with commentators often positing that it is 'wilful blindness' not to recognise the fascist trajectory. We outline reasons why the unfolding of Trump 2.0 provides an evidentiary basis for crossing the threshold into explicitly naming it as an instance of 21st century fascism. Fascism as a revolutionary anti-establishment movement of radical conservatism presented itself as resistance. Its resemblance to right-wing radicalism notwithstanding, we argue that the specific nature of Trump-ism in 2025 and its characteristics that we elaborate, provide sufficient basis for using the term. In the second part of the paper, we consider the anti-hegemonic nature of the emerging world order, and specifically its implications for global governance. We investigate the global impact of an ostensibly nationalist and transactional foreign policy promise offered by his regime. Here, we consider the different regional theatres, with special attention to China and East Asia. In Trump's New America, marked by a different interpretation of American exceptionalism, we are interested in studying what the significant continuities/changes might be in an ideologically polarised era of policymaking, further steered by billionaires. We outline different scenarios concerning the emergent global order. This will be crucial for understanding how the necessary coordination will be achieved for global governance, as it has most direct implications for a range of issues, not the least of which is climate change.
