ABSTRACT
The election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States in November 2016 signalled the implosion of the liberal democratic state as well as alarming threats to efforts to limit climate change and species extinction, along with new threats to the peace, health and safety of the world. Using a multifactorial analysis, this chapter ties Trump’s election to the effects of neoliberalism, the exceptional characteristics of the American political system and political culture, the changing media environment, and Russian interference in the American electoral process. It then presents a preliminary assessment of the Trump administration’s assaults on the environment already undertaken or signalled and a prognosis for the future of American environmental governance.
