One of the core elements of the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement that helped Donald Trump survive defeat in the 2020 presidential election and emerge as a decisive victor in the 2024 elections is the new power of ‘anti-woke’ ideology. In the MAGA discourse, woke politics is defined as the comprehensive reflection of liberal extremism, elite condescension, and identity-based governance that destroys traditional American life and values. Trump’s anti-woke coalition brings together very diverse forces in American society—including evangelical Christians, white working-class voters, suburban conservatives, and internet activists on the political right. The anti-woke agenda has found broad resonance among a large swath of American society that was appalled by the impositions of a self-righteous liberal elite.
‘Culture wars’ have long been part of American polity—recall the contentious and continuous debates on abortion, gun control, teaching of evolution theory in schools and environmentalism. So have the bitter arguments about the size and control over the expanding state, immigration, the resentment against the rise of an unelected bureaucracy that allegedly overrides the people’s will, the rise of the ‘expert’ or ‘managerial class’ that undermines American democracy, the censorship of speech in the name of political correctness, and the rewriting of familiar American history. But they never have enjoyed the kind of political support from the White House. Unlike his conservative predecessors, who were reluctant to confront the might of the liberal establishment, Trump has taken the old elite head-on in the second term as President. This has had a far-reaching impact on America’s domestic and foreign policies.
Domestic Agenda
Trump has wasted no time in decisively pushing for a quick transformation of America’s cultural landscape. Leveraging the full powers of the White House, Trump ordered sweeping policy changes to promote a definitive cultural revolution in the federal government and beyond.
Trump issued a series of executive orders overturning the long-standing norms on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) within the federal government, military, and private sector. Trump now demands that hiring and promotion must be based only on merit. Under the new rules, private companies that maintain DEI policies risk losing government business. Much of the big corporations that deferred to the liberal demands in recent years, were quick to fall in line with the new mandate. Trump also insisted that the federal government must interpret “sex” strictly as a binary biological classification, effectively reversing the powerful recent movement towards the promotion of ‘transgender rights’. He also ordered that schools, universities and sports bodies that allow transgender athlete participation in women’s games be denied federal funding.
The military was of special interest in reversing the DEI rules promoted by the Democrat administrations in the past. In his inaugural address, Trump had promised to “reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate with full back pay”, and added that he would “sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. It’s going to end immediately.” This is part of a broader effort to restore what Trump calls “traditional values.” Ridding the education system of woke ideology has also been a major priority. The Trump administration will now withhold federal dollars from universities and schools that do not comply with the anti-woke directives. Critical race theory and gender studies are special targets for the Administration.
