Behind Trump’s Populist Rhetoric

Joe Klein: “Let it be recorded that on March 21, 2016, addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., Donald Trump used a teleprompter. This is progress. It shows that Trump understands that, on occasion, care must be exercised in his choice of words. Not that he had much to say…”

“And while Trump speaking with a teleprompter doesn’t quite approach the awe and wonder inspired by a collie walking on its hind legs, it does serve to illuminate an important point about his presidential campaign. Trump has seemed totally free form, solipsistic and despicable, but there is a method to his madness. Indeed, he has constructed the purest populist agenda, drawing from the excesses of left and right, since Georgia’s Tom Watson led the Populist Party into the racial fever swamps over a century ago. There is one gigantic exception: the anti–Wall Street rhetoric usually at the heart of populism has been limited to the suggestion that fat cats are working the system. But for the rest, Trump has found a way to provide heterodox comfort food to assuage the fear and loathing of the white working class. Each of his dog whistles has been pitch-perfect and, I suspect, carefully selected.”