<P> The September 11 attacks of 2001 led to a wave of nationalist expression in the United States . This was accompanied by a rise in military enlistment that included not only lower - income Americans, but also middle - class and upper - class citizens . </P> <P> U.S. President Donald Trump has been described as a nationalist, and has embraced the term himself . Several current and former officials within his administration, including White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Senior Advisor to the President Stephen Miller, Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka, Special Assistant to the President Julia Hahn, Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications Michael Anton, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn have been described as representing a "nationalist wing" within the federal government . </P> <P> In a February 2017 article in The Atlantic journalist Uri Friedman described "populist economic nationalist" as a new nationalist movement "modeled on the' populism' of the 19th - century U.S. President Andrew Jackson" which was introduced in Trump's remarks to the Republican National Convention in a speech written by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon . Miller had adopted Sessions' form of "nation - state populism" while working as his aid . By September 2017, Greg Sargent, a journalist with the Washington Post observed that "Trump's nationalism" as "defined" by Bannon, Breitbart, Miller and "the rest of the' populist economic nationalist' contingent around Trump", was beginning to have wavering support among Trump voters . </P> <P> Some Republican members of Congress have also been described as nationalists, such as U.S. Representative Steve King . </P>

As american nationalism took root who was deemed eligible for u.s. citizenship and on what basis