The Nietzschean President
In 2016 I quit the Republican party because it accepted Donald Trump as its presidential candidate. I complained then about various policy proposals made by the candidate, but I think now that the real source of my discomfort was Trump’s lack of beliefs. “Trumpism” is all about Trump, not any of the policies he announces.
Marjorie Taylor Greene learned this truth recently. For more than three years she loudly and consistently endorsed anything that Trump wanted to do. But she made the mistake of thinking that Trump really meant it when, on the campaign trail, he would reveal all the secrets about Jeffery Epstien. Trump decided he didn’t want all the dirty details exposed, and he derided MTG as a “traitor” when she joined with Democrats to call for release of Epstein files. Seeing that the move in Congress to release the files would pass, Trump flipped: vote to release them, he said. But he would never forgive Greene for her disloyalty.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated in the summer. Kirk unapologetically combined conservative politics with Christian faith. At his televised funeral, Kirk’s widow rose to the occasion; she said she forgave Charlie’s killer. Trump followed Mrs. Kirk to the podium and used the occasion to say he would not forgive his enemies. Trump believes in pay-back.
Was Trump aware that he was publicly repudiating a central Christian doctrine? I don’t think he cares.
Trump wants peace between Russia and Ukraine. I do too! Every Christian should desire and pray for peace. But from the news I get the suspicion that Trump wants peace mostly because he wants a Nobel prize. It seems he is willing to endorse Russian dictator Putin’s every demand and push Ukraine to accept them to get “peace.” The affair sounds much like Mr. Chamberlain’s “peace in our time.”
Much of Trump’s electoral appeal rested on his demonization of illegal immigrants. He often emphasizes the crimes committed by immigrants (especially drug trafficking or human trafficking), without ever acknowledging that the vast majority of the people rounded up for deportation have committed no crime in our country except one: crossing into the US without proper authorization. It is surely true that we need comprehensive immigration reform. I would agree also that under President Biden (until 2024, anyway) our lax immigration enforcement invited many undocumented immigrants. Now, in Trump’s second term, fear has settled over immigrant, especially Hispanic, communities. Workers needed in agriculture and other industries are disappearing. For economic reasons, some of Trump’s supporters are realizing that mass deportation is a problematic policy.
What does the Bible have to say about justice for the alien and the foreigner? Mr. Trump doesn’t care.
Trump touts “America first” and “Make America Great Again.” But these are merely slogans. He doesn’t believe in anything except his own greatness.
There was a philosopher whose doctrines could be cited as fundamental to Trumpism. Friedrich Nietzsche called for the “revaluation of all values” and prophesied the emergence of the “over-man.” Nietzsche thought it obvious that there are no objective moral values, just as there are no objective truths about anything. One could argue that Trump is a Nietzschean “over-man.” Unconstrained by any truths or values, the over-man lives to assert his will.
Is Trump really a Nietzschean? If so, I suspect he got there on his own; Trump would never actually read philosophy.
