Donald Trump’s calls to “Make America great again” show that American Exceptionalism is still a powerful idea

In his calls to “Make America great again” Donald Trump is making both a threat and a promise. What it signifies more fundamentally, however, is that Donald Trump understands how important American exceptionalism is in US electoral politics. Hilde Restad gives an overview of the history and role of the idea of American exceptionalism in US politics. She writes that despite concerns over its end during the 1970s and 2000s, American exceptionalism never really went away, something which was proven by conservatives’ doubts about President Obama’s stated belief in the ideology.