Epilogue: The Enduring Punitive Turn

Donald J. Trump’s candidacy and presidency tapped into the ugliest dimensions of the punitive turn, including its roots in the American experience of war and its pursuit of vengeance. Those dimensions were borne out especially in Trump’s immigration rhetoric and policy and his language about presumed enemies, including Hillary Clinton. Yet he so undercut the rule of law and administrative competence that he made the punitive turn not so much harsher as more chaotic and capricious. Rollback of the punitive turn gained further rhetorical support as his presidency ended, but detaching crime-fighting from war-fighting remained difficult. The nation still waged “war on crime,” even if fewer people now called it that.