Trump and the new transnational right

An interview with David Nemer

Abstract

The interview with David Nemer analyzes Donald Trump’s second administration as both a continuation and radicalization of Trumpism, marked by the centralization of power, attacks on university autonomy, and the consolidation of a digital authoritarianism. Nemer describes Trumpism as a multi-platform communication ecosystem that combines open and closed networks to disseminate narratives, monetize activism, and sustain a permanent cultural war. According to him, the phenomenon has become a transnational matrix for the new right, inspiring movements such as Bolsonarism in Brazil and Spain’s Vox, which replicate strategies of communication, disinformation, and digital mobilization. The interview also addresses the symbiosis between the Trump administration and Big Tech companies, the political use of digital platforms, and the normalization of exclusionary racial and gender discourses. Nemer defines Trumpism as a “platform authoritarianism,” in which digital technologies function as both the infrastructure of power and a mechanism of legitimation. Finally, he highlights three main contributions of academic research on the digital far right: the ethnographic diagnosis of disinformation ecosystems, the mapping of information flows between platforms, and the design of public policies and social practices to confront extremism without resorting to authoritarian measures.