Are the factors that propelled Donald Trump to power this time around broadly the same as those that helped him win his first election victory in 2015? While the circumstances are different from a decade ago, the secular societal forces that drive support for Trump are also strikingly familiar. Welcome to the Chicago Booth Review podcast, where we bring you groundbreaking academic research in a clear and straightforward way. I’m Hal Weitzman. Today, as we prepare for another Trump inauguration, we’re digging into the CBR archives to revisit a conversation between Chicago Booth’s Luigi Zingales and Amir Sufi about the fundamentals behind Trump’s appeal. The conversation was filmed in May 2016 as part of our Big Question video series, which brings together Booth faculty for an in-depth discussion. We wanted to bring it back because we were struck more by a sense of continuity than change. For some observers, Trump’s re-election was all about economics, chiefly voters’ experience of inflation and their mistrust of globalization. To others, it reflects a general disenchantment with politicians and political institutions. Those are the same phenomena that Zingales and Sufi pinpoint. The discussion also touched on the rise of the far-right across the world, which at the time was still on the margins of politics, but has since taken power in several large democracies.
