Berkeley Conversations panel discusses growth, impact of Trumpism Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons During a virtual Berkeley Conversations panel, five speakers reflected on the emergence and effects of Trumpism in the United States. One of the topics the panelists discussed was the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Gage Skidmore under CC BY SA 2.0 .) Months after former president Donald Trump lost his bid to reelection, five UC Berkeley professors addressed the implications and impacts of the Trump presidency during a virtual Berkeley Conversations event Friday. Named “Trumpism and its Discontents,” the conversation followed the five speakers’ involvement in writing a book of the same name. They discussed why Trumpism gained massive traction among Americans and how it has affected the United States.