Trump's secret sauce

Is the president beloved by conservatives for his platform or his charisma?

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images, TopVectors/iStock, MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Even as the country is poised to debate whether President Trump deserves a second term — or should be allowed to complete his first one — Republicans still haven't settled on why he won in 2016. Is it because he staked out a set of positions on immigration, trade, and foreign policy that set him apart from the rest of the field? Or was it because the rich and famous New Yorker was himself larger than life (or at least the other presidential candidates)?

One test case is Jeff Sessions, the Republican who is running for his old Senate seat in Alabama. The former attorney general was into "Trumpism" — that is, a more populist and nationalist twist on conservatism — before Trump. As a senator, Sessions championed an immigration policy of tougher enforcement and reduced legal entries, favored making national sovereignty a bigger consideration in international trade deals, and talked about transforming the GOP into a workers party. He asked cheerfully, "How many votes does the Chamber of Commerce have?"

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W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.