It’s no wonder so many people are confused about how to make sense of Trump’s second term. On January 20, 2025, Americans experienced far more than a shift in the political party occupying the White House. Trump has initiated a change in the very nature of the American political regime. As recent research has shown, Trump is part of a global wave of leaders who are best described as “patrimonial”: they present themselves as powerful father figures who run the state itself as a family business, doling out its assets to cronies and sycophants in return for unquestioned personal loyalty.
To understand Trump’s political order, then, we need to familiarize ourselves with the standard operating procedures of patrimonialism. While this regime type may be novel for the United States, it is quite common in human history. In the 21st century, patrimonial regimes have been consolidated in countries as diverse as Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, Narendra Modi’s India, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel. Drawing lessons from regimes of this type, we can help get our bearings in what, for most Americans, is an unfamiliar new political environment.