Mr. Trump, after all, was always an unlikely populist, a self-proclaimed billionaire with a private plane and gilded estates. Mr. Trump, who by one count switched political parties seven times before last year’s campaign, seems less driven by ideology than by instinct borne out of his own resentment of elites who, in his view, have never given him the respect he deserves.


As Trump Drifts Away From Populism, His Supporters Grow Watchful

WASHINGTON — President Trump visited the Tennessee estate of Andrew Jackson last month to symbolically claim the mantle of the first genuinely populist president since the 1830s. Just like Jackson, Mr. Trump defeated a political dynasty to take power and was now determined to challenge what the new president called “the arrogant elite.”

But last week suggested the limits of the comparison. Where Jackson made it his mission to destroy the Second Bank of the United States, which he viewed as a construct of the nation’s wealthy to wield power over the people, Mr. Trump saved the Export-Import Bank and signaled that he may preserve the leadership of the Federal Reserve, two modern-day tools of federal power in the economy.

As he nears 100 days in the White House, Mr. Trump has demonstrated that while he won office on a populist message, he has not consistently governed that way. He rails against elites, including politicians, judges, environmentalists, Hollywood stars and the news media. But he has stocked his administration with billionaires and lobbyists while turning over his economic program to a Wall Street banker. He may be at war with the Washington establishment, but he has drifted away from some of the anti-establishment ideas that animated his campaign.

The shift comes as the president has moved to marginalize their most outspoken proponent, Stephen K. Bannon, the White House chief strategist who made it his mission to deconstruct “the administrative state.” On the rise are Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, and Gary D. Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president serving as the president’s national economics adviser.

Much of this has stoked dismay among the conservative populists who saw Mr. Trump as a once-in-a-lifetime figure. “Stay true to populist nationalism, sir,” Patrick Howley, who worked for Mr. Bannon at Breitbart News, wrote in a recent open letter to Mr. Trump on The American Spectator’s website. “I know you believe in it. It carried you over the goal line in the Midwest to victory.”

“If you abandon populism,” he added, “then you will not really have any constituency anymore. Will you be an establishment Democrat? Will you be a neocon? How will people even think of you? You will be adrift.”

Ned Ryun, founder of American Majority, which trains political activists, said Mr. Trump’s core supporters were watching. “There’s definitely some concern that’s starting to grow,” he said. “I do believe that Trump has some populist beliefs and undertones himself. But he has to have Steve Bannon whispering in his ear saying, ‘Hey, stick with these ideas; these are winning ideas.’”

Even some of Mr. Trump’s friends worry that he has gotten away from the policies that fueled his success in the campaign. “He ran as a populist but so far has governed as a traditionalist,” Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media, said. “They might break out and do some more populist stuff, but I wouldn’t call his presidency so far populist.”

That may underscore just how much Mr. Trump’s populist frame was the inspiration of Mr. Bannon in the first place. It was Mr. Bannon who suggested the comparison to Jackson, whose painting now hangs in the Oval Office.

Mr. Trump, after all, was always an unlikely populist, a self-proclaimed billionaire with a private plane and gilded estates. Mr. Trump, who by one count switched political parties seven times before last year’s campaign, seems less driven by ideology than by instinct borne out of his own resentment of elites who, in his view, have never given him the respect he deserves.

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