Introduction

In December 2019, impeachment proceedings against US President Donald Trump began; the following month, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 emerged in the city of Wuhan, China. From the start of the pandemic, accurate and accessible testing for SARS-CoV-2 was poorly managed or left to happenstance, with President Trump actively working to minimize testing efforts because, as he stated in his customary incoherence, “When you test, you create more cases”. Much has been written about the impact of white nationalism in relation to the Trump administration, but what has been less often discussed in mainstream critiques of the last four years is the authoritarian trajectory the Trump administration has sought to compel. But the particular American form of authoritarianism is worth discussing further. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.