Virginia Postrel, Columnist

‘Trumpism’ Without Trump Is an Inkblot Without Ink

The word has become a Rorschach test of views about the Republican Party. But it’s really just a one-man brand.

November 15, 2020 at 1:00 PM UTC

Virginia Postrel is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a visiting fellow at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University and author, most recently, of “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World.”

The one and only.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

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Even in defeat, President Donald Trump is a master of branding. People are rushing to slap his name on their favorite version of the Republican Party.

“Whatever the GOP once stood for, voters today associate it with one thing: Donald Trump,” writes Bloomberg’s Joshua Green. “Trumpism” is the word of the season.