Right-Wing Populism and the Politics of Insecurity: How President Trump Frames Migrants as Collective Threats

Abstract

Despite the recent multiplication of publications on populism, an area that remains underexplored is the relationship between populism and the politics of insecurity, which refers to how perceived collective threats are framed and acted upon. The main objective of this article is to formulate an ideational framework for the analysis of populism as it intersects with the politics of insecurity. More specifically, the article focuses on right-wing populism, turning to the framing of migrants in the United States during the Trump presidency to illustrate specific claims about the relationship between populism and the politics of insecurity. As argued, the political framing of collective threats is a central aspect of populism. The role of framing points to the ideational side of populism, which is not a coherent ideology but a type of discourse through which perceived threats are strategically framed to both exacerbate collective insecurity and gather popular support by promising to shield citizens against these threats.