Trump’s critics often claim that he embodies the worst aspects of American culture: vulgar ostentatious luxury, love of violence, smug ignorance, braggadocio – the best, greatest, MOST BEAUTIFUL SHOW ON EARTH!!!!!
There’s something to that. But there are darker forces lurking behind Trump’s ostentatious manner.
The man is not ideological. Despite his prejudices, he is not driven by firm political convictions. Ideas and beliefs are a way to gain power and can be discarded when they are no longer useful. To see Trump as a fascist is to imagine a political coherence that simply does not exist.
In some ways, the Trump administration resembles a mafia operation. Forcing elite law firms and universities to pay huge sums to stay out of trouble is classic blackmail. But unlike Trump, most mafia bosses prefer to stay behind the scenes and avoid the limelight. Their business is to exploit and corrupt existing institutions, not overthrow them.
The American stereotype that Trump most resembles is that of a peddler, a ringmaster, a showman in a flashy suit who knows how to manipulate and rip off simpletons. As is often attributed to F.T. Barnum, the 19th century businessman, politician, con man and founder of the famous Barnum and Bailey circus, “There’s a simpleton born every minute.”
From this point of view, the world is full of gullible losers who do nothing but believe promises of fast money, instant fame, or a wonderful future. Nothing scares a peddler more than to find oneself deceived. This is one of the major themes underlying Trump’s career: the idea that other countries are cheating the United States, that foreigners are laughing at Americans. He seems to be projecting his own anxieties onto the country.
There is a connection between this attitude and the American dream. The fact that success, fame and fortune remain out of reach for most Americans does not make the prospect of achieving them any less attractive. The promise that everyone can “succeed” in the United States has generated a lot of positive – as well as negative – energy. The related belief that enough money is enough to solve any problem has fueled American optimism as well as a deep cynicism: everyone has a price.
This spirit does not allow for a sense of tragedy, let alone irony. Fatalism is the lot of world-weary countries that people have left to try their luck in the United States.
But cynicism, and especially the peddler’s conviction that everyone is driven by material greed, has a flip side: dangerous naiveté. Some people are not seduced by the promise of wealth and fame. Such enticements can be resisted from the best moral motives as well as from the worst. After all, people who do evil often act out of deep conviction, driven by religious or political fervor.
Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been amused by Trump’s flattery at the Alaska summit, from the red carpet and ride in the presidential limousine to the warm smiles and promises of a “good deal.” But it almost certainly made no impression on a man whose wealth eclipses Trump’s and whose goal of recreating imperial Russia cannot be achieved through compromise.
Unlike Trump, Putin has a keen sense of history. He wants to become a great Russian leader, following in the footsteps of Joseph Stalin and Peter the Great. Putin’s idea of restoring Russia’s greatness is not just a slogan on a baseball cap, but a real plan to expand its territory and influence, regardless of the number of lives lost.
Trump’s mistake is that he thinks he and Putin are soul mates, even friends. He fails to see that Putin is not a bargaining chip. In a subsequent meeting with European leaders at the White House, a loaded microphone captured Trump whispering to French President Emmanuel Macron, “Putin wants to make a deal for me, you know? As crazy as that sounds.” This showed Trump to be the real naive one. He’s a peddler who believes his own hype, like that gloating man bragging about his MAGA caps. That makes him a simpleton and Putin, realizing this, is playing him for one.
Ian Buruma
is the author of numerous books, including “Year Zero: The Story of 1945”,
“Collaborators: Three Stories of Deception and Survival in World War II,”
and, most recently, Spinoza: Messiah of Freedom (Yale University Press, 2024).
© Project Syndicate, 2025
www.project-syndicate.org
