Christopher Caldwell argues Trumpism was a project of democratic restoration, meant to bypass the permanent state of unelected bureaucrats and elite institutions.
Its core promise was to deliver the policies voters chose at the ballot box, not the permanent state's agenda.
Caldwell says the load-bearing pillar of Trumpism was non-interventionism, a rejection of the Iraq War consensus.
This stance broke the old Republican guard and built a coalition of voters left behind by the global economy and military-industrial complex.
As long as Trump avoided major wars, Caldwell argues he had leeway to pursue his broader agenda, despite internal contradictions.
The base tolerated noise like self-enrichment and tax cuts for the wealthy, as long as the core promise of non-intervention held.
Caldwell contends that escalating conflict with Iran betrays the base and makes Trump indistinguishable from the establishment he was elected to dismantle.
Once committed to a major regional war, the constraint of anti-interventionism is off, and the governing program collapses.
Without that pillar, Caldwell says the project reverts to standard, donor-class governance, just another presidency, not a movement.