Is Donald Trump Really All That Unprecedented?

Donald Trump at CPAC.
Photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr. Creative commons license.
Author: Dan Sally
Published: 10 Mar, 2025
Updated: 18 Jun, 2025
1 min read

Donald Trump's address to Congress last week is the latest in a string of highly partisan moves designed to please his base and needle his opponents. While his divisive approach seems unusual by modern standards, have we been here before? In this episode, Dan and Shawn plumb the depths of American history and find a president not all that dissimilar from our 45th/47th, discuss whether Trump is leading a lasting transformation of the GOP, or one that will fade like past populist movements, and what Democrats (and disaffected Republicans) can learn from history to mount an effective resistance.

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