The return of Trump: is inequality behind the rise of the populist president?
Tuesday 4 February 2025, 6.30pm to 7.45pm (UK time) 8th Floor (North Side), Bush House, 30 Aldwych, London WC2B 4BG
President Trump is in power once more. His victory is complete but the business of understanding just what happened has only just begun as we seek lessons – and warnings – for UK politics and this year’s European elections.
Why were the Democrats defeated? Is America’s surging inequality the root cause of President Trump’s victory? What connections can we draw between growing inequality and the populists’ clarion call for a “revolt against elites”?
Join the Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation as we convene some of the leading thinkers and analysts who have studied the American campaign up close for a discussion about what is fuelling populist politics in America, what we can learn from what happened – and how the UK government should respond.
This event is part of our Fair Society series, in partnership with the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
Speakers
- Claire Ainsley, Director of the Project on Center-Left Renewal, the Progressive Policy Institute and former Executive Director for Policy for Sir Keir Starmer
- Professor Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions, Nuffield College Oxford and author of Why Politics Fails
- The Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill and author of The Inequality of Wealth
- Peter Hyman, Former Senior Advisor to Sir Keir Starmer
- Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London (chair)