Exceptional “We” or Exceptional “Me”? Donald Trump, American Exceptionalism, and the Remaking of the Modern Jeremiad

Abstract

This article examines how Donald Trump remade the modern jeremiad during his 2016 presidential campaign. We argue that Trump differed from recent oppositional candidates for the presidency in his invocation of American exceptionalism. Our findings show that unlike his predecessors: (1) Trump's use of the jeremiad was constrained by his limited conception of American exceptionalism; (2) Trump routinely portrayed the country as no longer exceptional; and (3) Trump offered a vision for restoring American exceptionalism, focusing primarily on "self-exceptionalism." We discuss how these findings contribute to our understanding of the modern jeremiad and examine how these dynamics may play out during Trump's reelection campaign. On July 17, 2016, the Republican National Committee (RNC) released the party's official campaign platform for the 2016 election. The document was unequivocal in establishing that the philosophical foundation of the Republican Party was centered on a single idea-American exceptionalism. Notably, the preamble of the platform began with this stand-alone statement: "We believe in American exceptionalism [full stop]" (RNC 2016, i). It then emphasized: "We believe that American exceptionalism-the notion that our ideas and principles as a nation give us a unique place of moral leadership in the worldrequires the United States to retake its natural position as leader of the free world" (41). Finally, it declared that the Republican Party "embraces American exceptionalism and

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