Poverty is fueling Trumpism -- and there's a sinister reason why

Poverty is fueling Trumpism — and there’s a sinister reason why
Economic insecurity — and a lack of empathy — serves MAGA's ends

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published September 16, 2025 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) Before he died on Sept. 4 at the age of 99, psychologist Robert Jay Lifton left us with stark warnings about President Donald Trump and the American right. One of the country’s leading experts on how societies succumb to authoritarianism and collective cruelty, Lifton’s theory of “totalism” — an extreme, absolute devotion to a particular group or ideology — is essential for making sense of our present moment.

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According to a new poll released by the University of Chicago and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Americans are sharply split along partisan lines over what causes poverty and homelessness — and what responsibility, if any, the federal government bears in addressing them. “Republicans are more likely than Democrats to cite personal choices as major factors for both poverty (77% vs. 49%) and homelessness (77% vs. 51%),” the survey found. “In contrast, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to cite lack of government support as major factors for both poverty (61% vs. 21%) and homelessness (63% vs. 26%).”

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Since Trump’s return to power, this right-wing moral economy has become even more hard-hearted. Today’s conservatives and members of the right increasingly view human empathy as a weakness, something wholly alien. This attitude was reflected in Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s suggestion on the Sept. 10 episode of “Fox & Friends” that mentally ill homeless people should be executed. After facing widespread condemnation, he apologized on Sunday for what he called his “extremely callous remarks.”

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But there’s another issue at play that’s not addressed in the survey, at least not in the form of a question: Whether the American people are capable of connecting poverty, inequality and homelessness to the collapse of democracy and civil society under Trumpism. Sadly, the aggregate findings from the poll — and decades of other research — suggest the answer is no. ............................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/09/16/poverty-is-fueling-trumpism-and-theres-sinister-reason-why/