What Trump’s Ascent Shows About American Identity

WUNC | By Laura Lee,

Published February 1, 2017 at 12:53 PM EST

The first weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency have been marked by a slew of controversial executive orders prompting sweeping policy changes on immigration and healthcare. But what does a Trump presidency show Americans about their perspectives on government, society and their role in the world?

Host Frank Stasio talks with Jedediah Purdy about Trump and the current state of American politics.

Duke Law professor Jedediah Purdy examines the mechanisms Trump uses to gain support and the ways in which a Trump administration might echo political structures in history. Host Frank Stasio talks with Purdy about Trump and the current state of American politics.

Laura Lee

Laura Lee began her journalism career as a producer and booker at NPR. She returned to her native North Carolina to manage The State of Things, a live daily statewide show on WUNC. After working as a managing editor of an education journalism start-up, she became a writer and editor at a national education publication, Edutopia. She then served as the news editor at Carolina Public Press, a statewide investigative newsroom. In 2022, she worked to build collaborative coverage of elections administration and democracy in North Carolina.

Laura received her master’s in journalism from the University of Maryland and her bachelor’s degree in political science and J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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