Donald Trump’s all-time slogan, which is made obvious in his 2016 presidency, is « Make America Great Again ».
At first, we would tend to think that MAGA mainly focuses on social aspects. For example, Trump focuses on « the American people »: in his campaign, he promises to « cleanse » the United States of Mexicans, those « drug dealers, criminals, rapists ».[1] This quenches some of the Americans’ thirst for social reforms that put them at the forefront. Most politicians focus on social aspects in their political campaigns, rather than economic ones, and that is for a simple pragmatic reason: not every voter is a banker or an economist, but everyone’s a citizen.
However, when we delve into it, MAGA’s primary focus is the economy. Trump’s arrival to DC comes with an economic plan, in which he promises a blooming economy for the USA, one that focuses on local production. And that is what happened in the US over Trump’s last term: from 2016 to 2020, the number of local businesses has indeed risen. In 2017, there were 29.6 billion small businesses over the USA, 30.7 billion in 2019, and we’d count 31.7 billion in 2020; which makes for a 3.15% increase from the precedent year and an overall 7.9% growth from 2017.[2] The economy thus is not one of the multiple reprimands that may be addressed to the ex-president.
Trump also disrupts the political scene. The USA’s two-party political system has recently been confronted to several obstacles. While it is true that it has known challenges and obstacles over various presidential terms, they have never been more obvious than under Trump administration. Namely, it portrays a new kind of relationship between the President and lobbies.
According to Rachel Augustine Potter, assistant professor of politics at the University of Virginia, « regulatory lobbying has increased under the Trump administration ».[3] In fact, lobbying under the supervision of Trump has made it into the White House, for instance in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).[4] While this is also not new, what is surprising is first, the significant increase in lobbying under the 45th presidency and second, the fact that the lobbyists themselves are part of the Trump administration. This means that lobbyists do not only pressure from the outside, but also from the inside; from within the administration itself. So, this gives lobbyists bigger – even ineluctable – chances of getting what they’re looking for. This changes the entire political scene: the two-party system becomes an abstract concept, since lobbies do not primarily work in politics, do not have a partisan agenda. Where lobbies are involved, it becomes harder to « pinpoint » a global political ideology. Lobbies do not have a clear and stable political ideology, rather their policy is keeping their interest – mostly economic – at bay. And if that interest happens to be confused, intertwined or fueled by politics, then so be it: it will be used for their best interest, since politics can help lobbies reach their goals – or even aim for new ones, when they match a popular agenda. Under Trump’s presidency, it seems that bipartisanship has vanished to be replaced by « business partisanship ».
The 45th presidency of the USA has disrupted the established political system, one that is marked by bipartisanship: the compromise that is found between the two political parties that dialectically oppose each other’s policies.
Bipartisanship is a historical heritage of the genesis of the USA. In fact, in 1787, during the Constitutional Convention, the states’ delegates were so divided in their opinions that the Constitution was in danger. The states with the bigger populations generally demanded that membership in Congress be allocated to the states proportional to their populations, whereas the smaller states argued for equal representation. At the time, Roger Sherman, delegate of the State of Connecticut, proposed a compromise which consisted in a proportional House of Representatives and a Senate with equal representation – this bicameral solution is known today as the basis of bipartisanship. Bipartisanship is synonym today to the presence of two main political parties; but what we tend to forget is that it is due to the dual representation that was granted in Sherman’s Great Compromise.[5]
The USA has long basked in bipartisanship, which is what gave its politics merit, because it distinguished it with simplicity and pragmatism. Trump’s presidency has indeed raised questions and doubts on bipartisanship. Which is why this system’s advocates should – and will – encourage to move « onwards and forwards » in the political scene without any mention of the ex-president.
Christina Yammine
Second year law student
[1] “’Drug dealers, criminals, rapists’: What Trump thinks of Mexicans”, 31 August 2016, BBC News. <https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-37230916> (visited on 4 April 2021)
[2] “How many small businesses are there in the US in 2020”, Oberlo. <https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/number-of-small-business-in-the-us> (visited on 16 April 2021)
[3] “Regulatory lobbying has increased under the Trump administration, but the groups doing the lobbying may surprise you”, Rachel Augustine Potter, 11 July 2018, in Series on regulatory process and perspective, Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets. <https://www.brookings.edu/research/regulatory-lobbying-has-increased-under-the-trump-administration-but-the-groups-doing-the-lobbying-may-surprise-you/> (visited on 4 April 2021)
[4] “Lobbyists in (and out of) the Trump Administration”, Center for Responsive Politics. <https://www.opensecrets.org/trump/lobbyists?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=8ad324dc6bcc270911a4048a69bd09e9dd2db6a4-1618575531-0-Af0ysRvdl12gasmrh-a8_GhAgTvw4fG-PGJe_2keiPKf29MIzrtR5X1Cw7rw-mz96Hwnx-tTYA3IG7h0TL7WqJ13It39ZafY06QhvfT66XBPCs0L5CIgIEK3uj7toH2bXtnDxYpkKPfccS1x05Uj4A1G_2DlC0DzrnmwVnjSotkW270_Lzd2uuZ_Cmy1qnruUF_jLs_DZAo4A2vDu6pMNG98S14RbTAbVgebYm-8cmRXUz3eVql9_XXxtC-zQDIThDG6IR4ItzQgiVAoeWu7sV9VZt2WzvFRlDkSLW2yriS92MEPEJu42t6DXwEQLmJsdeiKR9atYAMOQ7p1H7bEPslIxeaUudqFduYB12ZsDEbi0l6Slv1bk1tJ-lfRZj6AD2bLIlKI2aILBghtIKj7OIrs0CJpGBz5UCCJ9U7unBn8YKEZTSVxnmOcIPlHpGCxFurMuBGAfG7PJlkdtbt233AlpzAlM24Eshek8aaoxi0NhuzvMPyBOIGbR0IiSbYaM_zHM9hYP9UNqW–Dos70bU8_J2EWHY3DtG4LpcMOGZLrvZnDIwTD22DzSp36GsuLT80B9–uPaYl8goOoBT6iKJfUPTNbQttj26mOIJS_U__UT4aCEE_-yfl7NIu2VQe4NaaXDGj8Z_YoapF4RGcF3lMzbI9CBSD94mqyelRpXN> (visited on 16 April 2021)
[5] “A Great Compromise”, in Historical Highlights, United States Senate. <https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/A_Great_Compromise.htm> (visited on 16 April 2021)
Béryte 