[Gerald Horne] How Trump Happened

AlternativeRadio

David Barsamian

Government & Organizations, Non-profit, News & Politics

4.5 • 530 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How Trump happened is a question a lot of people ask. From an aggressive foreign policy to an immigration crackdown to cutting Medicaid to tax breaks for the super-rich to undermining environmental regulations and much more. Where did these policies originate? A good place to start is Project 2025. It’s a detailed 900+ page agenda designed to reshape the government, specifically focusing on expanding executive power and implementing conservative policies across federal agencies. Organized by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a road map for this administration. Its policies have generated pushback. Recent polls show rising opposition. David Brooks, the noted PBS conservative commentator, says of Trump, “This is the most imperial presidency in American history.” Recorded at Macalester College.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The battering of the black community also weakened the most dedicated electoral opponent of the right-wing forces that propelled Donald Trump into office in 2024.
0:15.2	Today, the battering of immigrant labor by ICE obviously hampers their organizing for better wages and working conditions,
0:23.6	serves as a precursor to fascism, and states the primordial urges of the Trump base.
0:31.6	That's Gerald Horn, and this is alternative radio. I'm David Barsamian. This edition of AR features Gerald Horn,
0:41.8	How Trump Happened. How Trump Happened is a question a lot of people ask. From an aggressive
0:49.4	foreign policy to an immigration crackdown, to cutting Medicaid, to tax breaks for the super rich, to
0:57.4	undermining environmental regulations, and much more. Where did these policies originate?
1:04.6	A good place to start is Project 2025. It's a detailed 900-plus page agenda designed to reshape the government,
1:15.6	specifically focusing on expanding executive power and implementing conservative policies across
1:24.5	federal agencies. Organized by the Right Wing Heritage Foundation, Project 2025,
1:32.3	is a roadmap for this administration. Its policies have generated pushback. Recent polls show rising opposition.
1:43.3	David Brooks, the noted PBS conservative commentator,
1:48.0	says of Trump, this is the most imperial presidency in American history. Our guest today is Gerald
1:57.5	Horn, his chair of history and African-American studies at the University of Houston.
2:05.3	Cornell West calls him one of the great historians of our time. He is the recipient of the American
2:12.6	Book Award and the France Fanon Lifetime Achievement Award.
2:24.8	A prolific author, among his many books, are the apocalypse of settler colonialism.
2:30.7	He spoke at McAllister College in St. Paul, Minnesota in February.
2:37.0	And now, Gerald Horn, How Trump happened. How and why did Trump happen? The short answer is that class collaboration, that is
2:45.0	collaboration between the settlers of European descent, irrespective of socioeconomic background, class collaboration
2:53.6	inheres in settler colonialism, as I'll try to explore shortly. This class collaborationism
3:01.6	sheds light on how the current U.S. President got 77 million votes in 2024.
	...

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