US society

Trump’s anti-growth policies

His administration is dismantling the most important pillars of America’s prosperity

The writer and his family were welcomed with open arms when they arrived in the US almost 50 years ago. Where is that America today, he laments.
THE BROAD VIEW

Where have all the flowers gone?

The writer reflects on how the country that took him in as a teenage refugee from Augusto Pinochet’s Chile has changed

A leader who constantly suspects his own officials of disloyalty may begin to see enemies where none exists – as with President Donald Trump’s perception of threats emanating from the “deep state”.
THE BROAD VIEW

Americans will miss their government when it’s gone

What will follow from the indiscriminate gutting of federal agencies and mass firings

It is typical of personalistic leaders, like Trump, to pit allies (courtiers, really) against each other so that none amasses too much power.
THE BROAD VIEW

The coming showdown in Trumpworld

A coalition comprising incompatible financial and ideological interests cannot last

From left: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms; Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos' fiancee; Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com.; Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet; and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, at the presidential inauguration in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Jan 20.

Donald Trump’s America will not become a tech oligarchy

Reasons not to panic about the tech-industrial complex

Last year's US Supreme Court ruling that outlaws affirmative action in colleges have undercut the footing of diversity and climate programmes.

Is corporate America going Maga?

Donald Trump’s election has accelerated a cultural shift in the nation’s boardrooms

The US homicide rate homicide rate of 6.8 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 was almost six times as high as that of the UK and 30 times that of Japan.

What makes the US truly exceptional

Are American pathologies the necessary price of economic dynamism?

Trump-style populism taps a yearning for some ill-defined past, before globalisation unleashed a flow of jobs to China and illegal immigrants into the US.
THE BOTTOM LINE

Trump’s victory represents a historic protest vote, no more and no less

Antipathy to big government and big business has helped spur the rise of a third force in US politics

A billboard in New York showing US presidential election odds on Nov 6. Data suggests that non-voters and self-declared independents in America are dissatisfied with the dominant parties there and, as yet, not convinced by any third party.

US election points to growing public alienation

More Americans chose not to vote than cast their ballot for Trump or Harris

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (right) at a town hall moderated by Fox News broadcaster Sean Hannity in Pennsylvania, on Sep 4.

Trump’s not-so-secret weapon

The rise and role of the right-wing media machine supporting the former president