Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Mobile, Alabama, August 2016

The Populism in Action Project is preparing a series of analyses of Coronavirus’s effect on politics in the European countries which they are examining: Belgium, Finland, Italy, and Switzerland.

They asked me for some thoughts on the parallel situation in the US. But when I thought about it, there was a contrast with the European populisms.

The issue isn’t Coronavirus and an American “populism” which may be more myth than reality today. It’s the effect of Coronavirus on Trumpism — and whether, after Trumpism, the crisis leads to a better America.