The Past, Present, and Future of the Trump Era: A Mini-Conference

If he serves out his second term, Donald Trump will have dominated American politics for twelve years, 2017 to 2029, a longer span than any president in American history other than Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself. And yet, scholars, journalists, and public commentators have struggled to make sense of the Trump Era on its own terms. Trumpism has often been cast as derivative, transitional, or symptomatic rather than as a governing project in its own right. It is frequently framed simply as a backlash against the preceding neoliberal order or as a forerunner of a new reactionary epoch. Its blend of expansive executive authority, deference to oligarchic power, aggressive nationalism, populism, and sophisticated command of media and social media has resisted easy characterization. This mini-conference examines the Trump Era from a range of penetrating interdisciplinary perspectives, dissecting its roots, its trajectory, and the politics and economics that define its present moment. When and among whom did Trumpism originate? Why did it triumph over left populism in the 2010s? How coherent is MAGA’s vision today? What are its central tensions, as well as its principal successes and failures, both domestically and on the world stage? And what kinds of political coalitions, social conflicts, and institutional transformations has Trump assembled or set in motion in the US and beyond?

The three panels approach these questions from complementary angles. The first examines the politics of populist upheaval on the right and the left that reshaped the United States between 2010 and 2020, situating Trump’s rise within a broader crisis of representation, authority, and political order; the second turns to the longer genealogy of Trumpism in the neoliberal transformations and dislocations of the 1990s; and the third asks whether Trumpism has developed a coherent political economy of its own, or whether its governing project remains defined by internal contradiction, elite improvisation, and deep-seated conflict. Taken together, the panels aim to illuminate the historical origins, political logic, and future trajectory of the Trump Era.

1 June 2026 4-5.30 PM
Location: Jesus College (Sibilla Room, West Court)

This session is co-sponsored by the Cambridge American History Seminar

Chair: Mia Bay, University of Cambridge

Presenter: Gary Gerstle, University of Cambridge

(discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper)

Commentator: Alice Figes, University of Cambridge

2 June 2026 10 AM-Noon

Location: Sidney Sussex College (Old Library)

Chair: Caroline Johnston, University of Cambridge

Presenter: John Ganz, Writer and Unpopular Front Substacker, New York City

(discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper)

Commentator: David Edgerton, King’s College London

2 June 2026 Noon-1.30

Location: Sidney Sussex College (Mong Hall)

2 June 2026 1.30-3.30 PM

Location: Sidney Sussex College (Mong Hall)

Chair: Noam Maggor, Queen Mary University of London

Panelists:

Jostein Hauge, University of Cambridge
Lee Jones, Queen Mary University of London
Helen Thompson, University of Cambridge

Info: Location: Jesus College (Sibilla Room, West Court)

Info: Location: Sidney Sussex College (Old Library)

Info: Sidney Sussex College

Info: Location: Sidney Sussex College (Mong Hall)

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Host or Publisher Gary Gerstle and Noam Maggor