Keywords: Political behavior, participation and culture

In the last eight years, the Presidency of the United States has been handled with two different styles of leadership. On the one hand, Barack Obama was recognized for his sophisticated used of language, his measured tone and his reasoned process of argumentation. For many academics, the Obama’s election, produced what they called the ‘Obama Effect’ in American society, which resulted in the reduction of implicit racial bias (Plant et al, 2009; Bernstein et al, 2010), a change in racial attitudes and race relations (Nelson, 2010) and a reduction in implicit prejudice against African Americans (Columb and Plant, 2011).

On the other hand, the current President Donald Trump is well known for his simplistic language and his brusque tone, and his rhetoric has found resounding support in groups of the extreme right. According to an article in the New Republic Magazine, minorities have claimed they experience more racism now than before Trump declared his candidacy. The publication bases these arguments in different reports that show, for instance, that targeting of mosques had quadrupled on 2016, and that the Southern Law Center is inundated with reports from teachers declaring that Trump is exacerbating ethnic tensions in schools across the country (Beutler, 2016).

Then, it is possible to talk about a Trump effect, that contrary to his predecessor’s is increasing racial biases, racial resentment, and negative stereotypes toward African American communities? This paper examines this question and makes empirical and theoretical contributions to understand this dilemma. Our hypothesis is that the diffusion of Trump’s messages with comments against immigrants, Hispanics, African Americans, and Muslims, have created a climate of opinion in which people with extreme views feel more able to express their hate and stereotype minorities.

Based on 2008 and 2016 American National Election Studies Data, we analyzed the changes in racial biases, racial resentment, and negative stereotypes toward African American people in 2008 and 2016. We conclude that people who consider themselves as an extreme Republican are more willing to express negative bias against the black community in the Trump era than in the Obama period.