ABSTRACT
It is intriguing that the rise of Donald Trump is mostly analyzed with a comparative European framework, given the usually parochial nature of US public debate. Whereas global values like democracy and freedom are usually described as "American values", Donald Trump is, implicitly or explicitly, portrayed as "un-American" – a European Fremdkörper (foreign body) in the pure American democratic polity. While there is much to be learned from contemporary European developments, rather than historical ones, this one-sided frame obscures at least as much as it highlights. The main problem with understanding the Trump phenomenon is that Trump is an ever-moving target that we are studying with blurred vision. Trump has held contrasting views on most key issues (e.g. abortion and guns) and people (e.g. Hillary Clinton) in US politics. Although "Trumpism" is not a particularly coherent or developed ideology, it has some consistent and dominant ideological features.
