Female populist leaders like Georgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen also exist and have significant support, complicating the narrative that populism is specifically male phenomenon, though the masculine performance element is less present.

A core appeal of populist leaders is past-oriented politics promising return to a 'glorious past' where more people had jobs, spoke the same language, looked the same, and the economy was growing, combined with a cult of personality framing ('I alone can solve this') that exploits deep disappointment with modern life.

Milei's promise to dollarize Argentina's economy and his cloning of his own dogs are examples of how populist leaders mix radical policy proposals with bizarre personal eccentricity in ways that defeat conventional political analysis.

Large numbers of American survey respondents increasingly express willingness to tolerate anti-democratic impulses in leaders, stating either that 'the country is in so much trouble we'll need a leader willing to bend the rules' or that 'the country will eventually need people to take matters into their own hands,' reflecting underlying apocalyptic anxiety.

Liberalism has become unattractive to the political middle because it has lapsed into extreme versions of itself: on the right, worship of free markets and free movement of people (globalization); on the left, emphasis on group identities over individualism, creating polarization rather than broad appeal.

Javier Milei, Argentina's president, is a libertarian ideologically, not a typical authoritarian strongman, having been cultivated by Reason magazine and the Ludwig von Mises Foundation, and his Us vs. Them rhetoric targets the federal government rather than immigrants.