The Trump name is stamped on hotels, casinos and consumer products. The former president's ability to sell himself is perhaps his primary asset. After nearly a decade at the forefront of US politics, former US President Donald Trump has defied political conventions, helping him unite support from traditional Republicans, evangelical conservatives and members of the working class — all beneath the brim of his trademark, red "Make American Great Again," or MAGA, baseball cap.
In doing so, the 78-year-old has overcome personal controversies and a criminal conviction to stamp his populist brand of conservatism on the entire Republican Party. The question is whether an even more polarizing relaunch of brand Trump — one that has amplified American nativist rhetoric, seen him survive two assassination attempts and had former high-ranking staffers label him a fascist — can beat Democratic Party nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris to return to the White House. The key to Trump's staying power has been his ability to energize a dormant authoritarian base within the Republican party, Matthew MacWilliams, a political scientist and strategist at the pro-democracy Foundation International Communications Hub, told DW.
This base has executed a "hostile takeover" by purging dissenters in key congressional primaries and the party machinery, making it more of a Trump party, than the Republican party of old. "If you oppose him, he takes you out, he purges you," MacWilliams, an.
