Talking Trump: Bridging Campus and Community in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

Even before Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, an urgent feeling developed among scholars and teachers that Trump and what some called “Trumpism” needed to be explained. In June 2016, for example, a group of scholars published in The Chronicle Review, the “Trump Syllabus,” called “Trump 101” (2016), a set of readings and lectures on a range of topics. Shortly thereafter, “Trump Syllabus 2.0” appeared on Public Books (Connolly and Blain 2016b). That syllabus noted the nearly complete absence of nonwhite scholars and readings from the initial one (Connolly and Blain 2016a). Those were followed quickly in turn by a “revisionist” syllabus by African-American scholars posted to the African American Intellectual History website (for example, Hall 2016). This compulsion to “teach” Trump and to define “Trumpism” bespeaks the crisis of Trump himself; history seemed to catch everyone by surprise with his rise and polarizing effect. As Trump’s voluble sexism, racism, xenophobia, and misogyny spilled over the boundaries of standard political discourse during the campaign, this feeling only deepened. It was exacerbated by signs and symptoms of real and rhetorical violence around Trump’s campaign; recall the scenes of dissenters being forcibly removed from Trump rallies escorted by hooting crowds egged on by Trump’s exhortations, “Get him the hell out of here” (“Donald Trump on Rally Protester” 2016). Another way of interpreting this moment is the creation of a new public. Trump mobilized political opinion and political will like few other candidates