Ep. 300: Gary Gerstle on Decoding Trump: Power & Chaos (Live at Cambridge University)

Gary Gerstle is the Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus and Paul Mellon Director of Research at the University of Cambridge. He is the author and editor of more than ten books, including two prize winners, American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century (2017) and Liberty and Coercion: The Paradox of American Government from the Founding to the Present (2015). His most recent book, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era (2022), was chosen as a Best Book of 2022 by the Financial Times and Prospect Magazine. He has also testified before the US Congress on immigration matters. This podcast was recorded before a live audience at the University of Cambridge. It covered the following topics: 

• Differences between Trump 2.0 and Trump 1.0 
• Unitary executive and the increasing concentration of power in the presidency  
• Public displeasure with the government, inefficient federal government, and DOGE 
• Applying a private business model to government agencies 
• Trump’s tariff policy, targeting allies like Canada, and implications for global neoliberal order 
• Trump’s relationship with Russia, admiration for strong leaders like Putin, potential motivations related to oil prices and weakening the Russia-China alliance (a reverse Kissinger) 
• US military expansionism versus unilateralism, Trump’s reluctance to engage in war, and a potential ‘hemispheric policy’ 
• Realist view of climate change and securing resources in temperate climates 
• Are concerns about authoritarianism in the US exaggerated? 
• Have Democrats been incompetent? 
• Rapid societal change and nostalgia  
• Future of diversity and DEI 

You can follow Gary on X and see his work on his homepage. 

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