How Trump's Populism Shapes the Uptake of New Social Facts

How does Trump's populist message shape the uptake of new social facts? The answer, I argue, arises from the type of populist language spoken by Trump, which involves a triadic form of populism that champions ordinary people not just against an elite but also against a third group that the elite are said to protect at the expense of the ordinary people. This form of populism plays to prejudices and anxieties while sowing a post‐truth cynicism that erodes trust in the ability of established democratic institutions to make and validate truth claims. As trust in established norms erodes, Trump wields power to fill the gap with new “common sense” understandings about marginalized groups and socioeconomic discontent.