YOU GET THE MESSIAH YOU DESERVE:

First-wave Trumpism was an economic proposition that fed on racial anxiety, much like the Tea Party earlier in the decade. Its motto was "build the wall." When Britain voted to leave the European Union the following year, first-wave Trumpism was interpreted as the advance guard of a global populist revolt.

If it was a revolution in governance and industrial policy Trump promised, however, it's one he conspicuously failed to achieve in office. His pledge to bring back domestic manufacturing failed to materialize: America shed manufacturing jobs while he was in power. His "big, beautiful wall" was largely a reinforcement of pre-existing infrastructure. His foreign policy had some successes, but was in general a failure even on its own terms.

By the end of his time in office, a second wave of Trumpism had emerged, one that increasingly abandoned the language of economic resentment. An illustrative moment was Trump's Mount Rushmore speech delivered on the Fourth of July weekend in 2020. Flanked by the graven faces of past presidents, he spoke of "a growing danger," declaring, "Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children." It was a pivot to culture--capitalizing, in part, on the progressive zeitgeist of 2020. But it was also a strategic shift: economic populism was not a winning strategy for the incumbent president because Trump, in theory, had his hands on the levers of economic policy and was failing to use them effectively. Newt Gingrich hailed the Mount Rushmore speech as "the most important and historic speech of [Trump's] political career."

Second-wave Trumpism also introduced an existential flavor to the narrative. America didn't just need to be made "great again"; it needed to be saved from cultural forces that threatened its very existence. In time, Trump directly linked this with his own political survival. After he lost the 2020 election he gave the now infamous speech that preceded the storming of the Capitol on January 6. "If you don't fight like hell," he declared, "you're not going to have a country anymore." The message, in contrast to the laundry list of populist grievances from 2015, was clear: the country was staring into the abyss, and Trump, surrounded by enemies on all sides, was the one to save it.

Many people hoped January 6 was the apotheosis of Trump's rhetoric. It was, after all, a clear endorsement of the violence that erupted that day and his supporters took their cue directly from him, even if Trump's language remained somewhat vague and retained a wafer-thin veneer of deniability regarding incitement.

But in the first few months of 2023 the temperature has increased again. As indictments loomed, third-wave Trumpism emerged, and the incitement became more direct. "PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!" he wrote on Truth Social. "IT'S TIME!!!" America doesn't just need to be saved; the crunch point is now. "This is the final battle," Trump had earlier told the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 4th. "Either they win, or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country."

This is the final battle. With these remarks, Trump positioned himself as the leader not of a political movement, but of a millenarian one. 

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