Trump, turbulence, territory

Two years into the Trump administration there remains heated discussion of what exactly his presidency means for contemporary political trends. Much of this debate has focused on two topics in particular: right wing populism and the return of authoritarian forms of politics associated with the early twentieth century. Here commentators have returned to older themes about the nexus between personality and politics (Gordon, 2017; cf.; Löwenthal & Guterman, 1949). Some of this discussion has centered on the President's psychological state and his fitness for office, while another strand of popular commentary has focused on the mass psychology of Trump supporters (Lindén, 2017). At the same time, there has been an ongoing critique of liberal-left fascination with authoritarianism in the Trump era. As Robin (2018) points out, despite Republican control of all three houses into late 2018, the Trump administration has struggled to pass policies or even appear legitimate in the eyes of its own party. But this is not to say that the renewed focus on the intersection of personality and politics has been irrelevant or misguided. Indeed, Trump's personality has had turbulent effects not only on America's domestic politics, but on territorial configurations in other parts of the world that are germane for political geographic analysis...