The anti-elite elite has risen to power in the US

If one of his promises of Donald Trump has always been to overthrow the “corrupt elites” who accuse of flooding the American political scene, in this second term he led to the leadership of the country chosen, especially for his loyalty to him.

Does the new presidency of Donald Trump Will you fulfill the promise of the arrival of “the people to power and the end of the corrupt elites,” as he said during the election campaign?

Contrary to what this populist rhetoric says, the president -elect It is actually leading to power an “anti-elite” elite.

Trump’s extravagant positions over Canada and Granelândia and the support of Elon Musk To European far-right parties, who occupy the center of attention in the media, hide the ambitious federal government transformation program that the new political elite that will come to power after Trump’s inauguration intends to put into practice.

Following the ceremony of January 20, 2025, the faction of the most faithful republican elites to the leader Maga (“Make America Great Again”), who share a common and strong aversion to democratic elites and their policieswill monopolize the executive, judicial and legislative powers.

As noted, the political project of Donald Trump’s field has less to do with the contestation of elitism in general than with a specific view of the elite that is characteristic of liberal democracies.

Rhetoric that punishes “democratic elitism”

Typical anti-elist political propaganda (“I speak for you, the people, against the elites who betray and deceive you, etc.”) states that the populist leader would be able to exercise power to and in the name of the people without mediation of an elite disconnected from the needs of the people.

Or neo-theitist theorist John Higley see, behind this form of anti-elist speech, a Association between the so -called “vigorous leaders” and the “leonine elites” (who take advantage of the first and their political success).

A phenomenon that threatens the future of Western democracies.

Since World War II, a consensus in American politics has reigns around the idea of ​​democratic elitism. According to this principle, elitist mediation is inevitable in mass democracies and should be based on two criteria: respect for election results (which must be free and competitive) on the one hand; and the relative autonomy of political institutions, on the other hand.

The contestation of this consensus has been growing since the 1990s, with the increase in the bipolarization of American political life, and has gained a new impetus from the 2016 presidential campaign, marked by the anti-elite rhetoric used by populist leaders, both republican like Democrats.

Trump’s reelection, who never admitted defeat in the 2020 presidential elections, the growing political hostility, and the direct involvement of high -tech mogates in political communication – especially on the republican side – further reinforce the denial of democratic elitism.

Trump’s “from top to bottom” populism

The idea that democracy could be betrayed by a “Elite Revolt”proposed by the American historian Christopher Lasch (1932-1994), it is not new.

For the anthropologist Arjun Appaduraiit is particularly characteristic of contemporary populism, which comes from above.

In fact, if the twentieth century was the age of the “mass revolt,” the 21st century will be that of the “elite revolt.” This would explain the rise of populist autocracies (Orban in Hungary, Erdogan in Turkey, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Modi in India, etc.), but also the victory of populist leaders in consolidated democracies (Trump in the United States, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, for example).

As Appaii explains, in The Conversation, the success of Trump’s populism, which makes him the standard port of a revolt of ordinary Americans against the elites, covers the fact that, after his victory in the last presidential elections, “It was a new elite who expelled from power the despised democrat elite who occupied the White House for almost four years”.

The purpose of this “another elite” is to replace the “normal” democratic elitesbut also moderate republicans, deeply discrediting their values ​​(liberalism, “wokism”, etc.) and their supposedly corrupt political practices.

From then on, this populism “from above” taken by the supporters of the president is a alternative elite configurationwhose consequences in the transformation of American democratic life may be greater than those observed during Trump’s first term.

Over the idea of ​​a “muskoligarchy”

The idea that we are watching the formation of a “muskoligarchy” – in other words, an economic elite (where other technology barons are included as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zukenberg, Marc Andreessenetc.) gathered around Elon Musk’s bow figure, invested since November 2024 as a tsar of government efficiency – is seductive.

It wonderfully combines the vision of an alliance between a “conspiring, coherent and conscious” ruling class and an oligarchy consisting of the “ultra-rich.” For the celebrated columnist of Financial Times, Martin Wolfit is really a sign of the development of the “Pluto-populism”.

Other observers are, however, cautious about the advent of this “muskoligarch”. Point to the sociological eclecticism of the new Trumpian elitewhose facade of unity is maintained above all by political loyalty, for now unshakable, to the leader “Maga”.

But the fact is that the different factions of this new anti-elite elite converge around a common agenda: to rid the federal state of the alleged dominance of Democrats insiders.

The desire to get rid of the “deep state”

In his inauguration speech in 1981, Ronald Reagan said:

“The government is not the solution to our problem; The government is the problem ”

Trump’s anti-elitism is inspired by this diagnosis and defends a simple political program: free democracy from the “deep state”.

Although it is known that this idea that the American Republic is besieged by a government of initiates that subverts the general interest is unfounded, it is, however, predominant in the new Trump administration.

This conspiracy theory was taken to the extreme by Kash Patelthe candidate who is being considered to direct the FBI.

In his book, a manifesto against the federal administration, which describes as a “Government of gangsters“the former lawyer talks about the need to resort to “purgos” to bring the Democratic elites to justice. Lists about sixty personalities, including Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton e Kamala Harris…

Remodeling the state, stating political loyalty to the executive branch

To put into practice their “deconstruction” plan of the American state, the “anti-elite” elites support themselves in the Project 2025a program of over 900 pages, co-signed by over 400 experts.

Second Paul indirector of the conservative reflection group The Heritage Foundation, which published the text, never before a group of this wingspan had elaborated a program with so much political ambition. Its purpose: to impose the loyalty on the 2025 project on the administrative executives of each of the ministerial departments of Washington.

The declared objective of this “populism” of anti-elite elites is no longer reducing the dimension of the state, as was the case during Reagan’s “neoliberalism”, but deconstruct the state in favor of a presidential power with potentially arbitrary.

Trump’s inauguration take on January 20, 2025 will pave the way for an openly partial democracy, in which elites in power can act only according to their perception of the head of state’s interests and desires, without any concern with justice or truth.