Like everyone else, I have been watching and waiting to see what Donald Trump will do next. I have been shocked at his apparently soft approach to Russia and hostility towards Ukraine. I have been amazed at his absurd demands to annex Greenland and make Canada the fifty-first state. I have been appalled and staggered in equal measure by the imposition of tariffs on almost the entire world (but not Russia) and then by his sudden change of mind, cutting them back to 10 per cent (except for China).
Yet, somewhere underneath the shock, amazement, and anger, I keep asking myself a single, simple question. What does Trump actually want? What is he trying to achieve? It is all very well to chant the famous slogan, “Make America Great Again” (now understood throughout the world by its initials ‘MAGA’), but what does that mean in practice?
All politicians have something they wish to do during their term in power, something they wish to be remembered for. There have been some – a handful perhaps, and mainly in the 19th century – who sought to turn their country into a beacon of civilisation and morality for others to follow. But Trump has not the slightest interest in civilisation or morality, or in the rule of law, or even common honesty, come to that.
There have been others – John Kennedy might be an example – who sought to offer a lead to western nations in a time of crisis. But Trump is no kind of international leader. He offers nothing to the rest of the world. He doesn’t care about other countries – as long as they do what he wants.
And so – call me cynical, if you like – we are down to sex, money, and power. There is a long list of politicians (Kennedy again, among them, but don’t forget John Major) who exploited the sexual attraction that power brings. But Trump, as we know, has no inhibitions and no shame when it comes to sex. It is not sex which is motivating his overturning of the western political and economic consensus.
Trump’s fortune probably [possibly! Ed] amounts to something approaching US$ 5bn. Most people would be happy with that. But Trump is clearly greedy. The idea of forcing Ukraine to sell mineral rights to the United States shows that he cares more for money than for the rights of Ukrainians (and don’t tell me that Trump and his family would not profit from the deal). The same is true of his longing to take over Greenland. It’s nothing to do with security. Greenland is already protected by Denmark’s NATO membership, not to mention a large US air base. He wants its mineral wealth. Does he feel small by comparison with the real big boys – Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos? Is simple greed sufficient to explain the havoc he has wrought?
As for power, he got himself elected for the second time to the world’s most powerful job. But – this time at least – everything he has done seems designed to reduce the Unites States’ power and, by extension, his own. Slashing international aid has already weakened the US’s ability to exercise soft power – and where the US cuts aid and leaves a vacuum, the Chinese and the Russians are already moving in. The perceived coolness of the Trump administration towards Europe as a whole and European defence in particular has weakened US influence with the EU and with other European countries. Trump may choose to do one of his celebrated U-turns, but the Europeans are never going to trust him again – and their faith in the US as a whole will take a very long time to be restored (if it ever is).
The administration would no doubt argue that their real power is demonstrated by the economic impact Trump’s tariffs are having. But the reverse is actually true. Bullies are by their nature weak. What Trump is actually doing is overturning the traditional capitalist, free(ish) trade model that the US has dominated and (because major commodities such as oil are priced in dollars) effectively controlled for the last 80 years. Tariffs will not only cause short term chaos, but they will also reduce US power by forcing the creation of a handful of loose economic blocs which will offer competition.
So, what does drive Trump? He clearly loves the sound of his own voice. Rather than wanting international power, he appears to want to be utterly supreme in the US. He sees himself as an autocrat loved by ‘ordinary Americans’ because the puerile, regressive policies he espouses (kick out the immigrants, deny trans rights, and so on) are, he believes, what ‘ordinary Americans’ want. That is how he sees himself – a hero in the eyes of his people. And that explains the strange story of the portrait painted by Sarah Boardman. Trump didn’t like the way he appeared. He claimed she had purposely distorted his appearance to make a political point. He forced it to be taken down and publicly insulted the artist.
Is that it? Is all the braggadocio, all the chaos and confusion, all the uncertainty and upheaval, just a matter of vanity? Is the current President of the United States nothing more than a posturing little rich boy who wants the rest of the world to look at him? Does he make wild claims that he can end the Ukrainian war in a day, because he knows that there are people who will believe him? Did he impose imposes tariffs so that he could enjoy world leaders (and our own dear Prime Minister) bowing and scraping to try and avoid them? Does he see himself as an American Louis XIV: “L’état c’est moi”?
I fear it is true. Vanity is the beginning and end of Donald J. Trump.
