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| Ralph Bristol |
…or is it “Trump nurses the DSA”
by Ralph Bristol, Facebook, Aug. 18,2026 - There is very interesting recent history involving President Trump and the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Immediately after Trump's 2016 victory, 1,000 people joined DSA in a single day. DSA says that previously, 1,200 new members in an entire year would have been exceptional. Another contemporary DSA account reported 1,600 new members in the first six days after Trump's victory—an 18% increase.
In 2017, DSA wrote that its membership had nearly tripled because: “Bernie Sanders brought democratic socialism into the political conversation, while Trump's election sent thousands looking for an organization to oppose him.”
A 2026 academic study (by the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society) describes the post-2016 DSA surge as the "Trump Bump," noting that DSA membership had been relatively flat before spiking immediately after Trump's election.
Successful populism on one side can encourage counter-populism on the other, because both movements draw strength from the same underlying dissatisfaction with institutions and elites.
The proposed villains and solutions are radically different, but the political structure is remarkably similar: ordinary people versus an entrenched establishment.
Once Trump demonstrated that an insurgent could capture one of America's two major parties by attacking its own establishment, the lesson wasn't confined to Republicans. Politicians on the left reasonably concluded: “We do the same thing to the Democratic establishment?”
Trump may ultimately have changed American politics more by demonstrating the viability of anti-establishment politics than by the specific policies he enacted. If that model is successfully copied by the left, his longest-lasting political legacy could include movements he vehemently opposes.
Donald Trump didn't create American populism and he certainly didn’t create democratic socialism. But he demonstrated that an anti-establishment populist movement could overthrow a major party's establishment and become the dominant force within that party.
His success also produced a powerful counter-mobilization on the left. Together, those effects helped create fertile ground for the rise of DSA-style politics. Populism can be contagious without ideology being contagious.
One of Trump's most consequential political legacies may eventually prove to be teaching his ideological opponents how to overthrow their own party establishment.
If the political establishment on both sides are kicked to the curb, that may be a good thing, but it depends on who’s doing the kicking.
That, my friends, is far from settled.
Ralph Bristol is the former long-time morning talk radio host broadcasting on Supertalk 99.7 WTN. He was one of the less provocative and bombastic of conservative radio personalities, more thoughtful and grounded in conservative ideas. He left talk radio in 2018 and retired. He lives in Nashville.
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