Populism, political polarization and the coronavirus pandemic: Donald Trump and public opinion in the United States

Abstract

Fighting the Covid-19 pandemic does not solely rely on measures like social isolation and massive investments on public health, but also lies on combating fake news and discourses that downplay its seriousness. In the USA, the populist discourse of President Donald Trump, which frequently defies the World Health Organization’s recommendations, might be reflected on the statistics of the disease, given that the country shows the highest numbers of infected and deaths. Knowing that one of the main consequences of populist discourses is the polarization of opinions, this paper aims to verify the formation of public opinion regarding Covid-19 in the USA through Trump’s discourses. We depart from the hypothesis that the polarization created by the President’s right-wing populism is affecting the way people react to the restriction measures, by generating opposing opinions regarding the seriousness of the new coronavirus. The data analyzed suggests a polarization beyond the political level, affecting the way both groups experience the Covid-19 pandemic.