It is a force of mindless anger, by definition directed against an amorphous "the establishment," though secondary victims are often targeted, such as immigrants for trumpsters. Populist leaders are threatening to destroy democracies around the planet. Hitler was one, and populilsm is raising its ugly, destructive head across Europe once again.
Populist fears and resentments can be harnessed by charismatic, usually authoritarian-sounding ("strong" ) leaders of virtually any ideology, and leaders using them to gain power can often turn out to be very bad. Not only do they not need to tell anything resembling the truth when feeding this negative force with populist rants, but truth, rationality, intellect, morality and temperance are virtually always obstructions the mob is turned on to destroy. (Trump.)
Btw, since this is a liberal forum, it's important to realize a large portion of any populist group will be people who combine a desire for public programs for themselves and theirs and social conservatism. Yup: social conservatives, the world's big troublemakers for other people. When you think about it, of course those aggressive hostiles will be drawn to populist movements, left or right depending on what's most important to them. Trump's leading a right-wing populist movement, and Sanders was leading a combination left-wing movement that included a strong populist element, hoping to draw more voters away from Trump.
So, maybe this guy's not really a "super populist"? If true, that would not be a good thing.
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