Never mind truth and lies - 'Trumpism' rejects very idea of making sense

Trumpism is both a bigger threat and a bigger opportunity than we might imagine

A colleague recently asked me how I would define “Trumpism”. Where do you start? Is it a new political ideology, or a revival of dangerous old populisms? A flash in the pan, or a draining of the swamp? Are we seeing the beginning of a new era of social media politics, or just a descent into pantomime?

There has been much concern over what the Trump era has done for our ideas about truth and falsity, but viewed philosophically, the problem with Trump is something more fundamental still: it’s a problem not of establishing truth, but of making sense.

This distinction is