Abstract
This contribution tackles the Trump phenomenon from a Machiavellian perspective. Divided into three parts, Landon’s chapter covers (1) Trump’s candidacy, his election, and his presidency up to the present (October 2020); (2) the setting in which Machiavelli authored The Prince, the reasons why Machiavelli authored it, and how it situates his “little book” in the broader context of Machiavelli’s political “opere” (special attention is paid to The Discourses); and (3) how Trump, without ever having read The Prince, has managed to follow a good deal (but certainly not all) of Machiavelli’s advice therein … instinctually.
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Notes
- 1.
For a timely example which demonstrates this inclination, see Morson (2020). In that interview, Professor Morson argues that there are many correlations between the present state of unrest in The United States and the years leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Whether one agrees with his conclusions is beside the point.
- 2.
In the first book of his Divine Comedy, The Inferno, Dante wrote that he found himself lost in the midst of a dark forest (selva obscura).
- 3.
The Ciompi (Florentine Wool Combers) began one of the first workers’ revolutions in early Renaissance history (1378–1382). Cut out of gild memberships, over-taxed and lacking political representation, they briefly overthrew Florence’s communal government.
- 4.
And this is where arbitrariness inevitably enters into the selection. Of all scholarly disciplines, history is the most unscientific, because it possesses or can possess least of all an assured, approved method of selection; that is, critical research has a very definite method, but the presentation of it has not. It is on every occasion the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another. Every historian will have a special selection, a different criterion for what is worth communicating, according to his nationality, subjectivity, training, and period.
- 5.
See Anglo (2005, 679–680): “Neatness in the history of ideas is a short cut to falsification; and it is especially suspect when an attempt is made to create a scale of acceptation based upon how nearly a reader was able to ‘swallow Machiavelli whole’—as though people were not (and are not) inclined to hold contradictory views, or adopt contradictory stances, simultaneously. Yet every day we see politicians expressing ideals which they cannot hope to put into practice, and assuming postures of probity which conceal dishonesty or incompetence. We see too, personal obsessions where the rectitude of one’s own opinion—be it righteous fervor, civil liberty, or some other cause—becomes a moral imperative rendering it necessary to deprive dissenters of their liberties and even their lives. It is naïve to make acceptance of either a wholly secular of wholly religious morality into a shibboleth whereby one may identify Machiavelli’s true followers.”
- 6.
I send my sincere thanks to the editors of this volume for giving me the liberty to write what will certainly be considered a controversial piece. The opinions concluded herein are my own, and do not reflect those of my editors. On a very personal note, it is appropriate for me to share that I am a registered independent whose political inclinations are distinctly libertarian. I neither “hate” nor “love” Donald Trump. When the policies that he puts forth seem to support the common good, I applaud them; when they seem otherwise, I seek to understand them, and to counter them—as much as such a thing is possible for an individual.
- 7.
In 1824, John Quincy Adams lost the “popular vote” but won the Presidency via the electoral college; in 1876 so too did Rutherford B. Hayes; as did Benjamin Harrison in 1888; George W. Bush in 2000; and Donald Trump in 2016.
- 8.
When comments such as these are offered, please do keep in mind that my own political views here are irrelevant. Objectivity is the goal. Therefore, the conclusions drawn in this chapter will likely offend just about anyone who reads it. Trump’s strategy won him the White House.
- 9.
As I noted above, I do not intend to analyze Trump’s handling of the Black Lives Matter protests or “Covid-19”. But, I will say that if Trump continues, at least verbally, to demand that the American economy disengage from China’s, thereby repatriating American manufacturing jobs—he is likely to win the Presidency. Moreover, if the Democrat party allows “Defund the Police” to become a campaign platform, Trump will almost certainly win. Added to these problems, despite what polls indicate (ask Hillary Clinton about the reliability of polls), Joe Biden, whatever one thinks of his political career, cannot beat Trump. This leaves the Democrat Party in a very difficult position. Biden is the presumptive nominee for his party. He ought to be replaced at a brokered convention. BUT, such a strategy would undermine the democratic processes which are essential to Presidential primaries. Talk concerning the importance of his running mate is, at least where history is concerned, overblown. The American electorate has never voted a Presidential candidate into office because they found his Vice-Presidential choice compelling.
- 10.
Please understand that I am using this word “opposition” in its classical sense; that is, the opposing party or parties.
- 11.
Harvey C. Mansfield (Harvard University), offers an interesting view of Trump and Machiavelli. On the one hand, Mansfield suggests that Trump is in fact practicing many Machiavellian arts (“Winning dishonorably is better than losing honorably”), but on the other that he is incapable of performing the subtler aspects of The Prince ’s program; in large part because Trump is incapable of being a gentleman (Mansfield 2016). Maurizio Viroli (Princeton), argued that Machiavelli would not have approved of Trump, much, if at all. And Viroli took issue with Mansfield’s assessment (Viroli 2016). While both Mansfield and Viroli suggest that Trump has been influenced by Machiavelli, Peter Adamson (Ludwig Maxmillian University, Munich) wrote that while Trump might be trying to be Machiavellian, that he is in fact a failure at being “Machiavellian” (Adamson 2019/2020, 51).
- 12.
For a book-length discussion of these ideas, see Landon (2005).
- 13.
Borgia’s actions are most famously described in The Prince , chapter 7 (Machiavelli 2005, 58-64).
- 14.
Machiavelli ’s The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy—a text alluded to in his The Prince —contains some of the Florentine’s most detailed descriptions of the republican form of government. However, while a good deal of what Machiavelli discusses in the Discourses is based upon ancient Roman examples, there is also some overlap between the historical personae described therein, and those included in The Prince .
- 15.
(Machiavelli 2020). This recent book illustrates how politicians apply “Machiavellian” strategies to be elected. “Nick Machiavelli” is the author’s pseudonym; revealing his true name he believed, would have earned him the ire of his colleagues. I provided the Foreword to “Nick’s” book.
- 16.
If a Google search tells us anything, the phrase “Trump as Tyrant” returned, as of the writing of this essay, 3,660,000 hits.
- 17.
See, Murray (2016). Murray’s insightful piece argued that Trump is not a tyrant, but that his vocabulary focused, generally, on “authority”. In the article, Murray wrote at great length about the vocabulary of authority: “Words that reflect authority include: obey, duty, respect, authority, permission, command, and comply. On the other hand, words that indicate subversion include: defiance, disobey, lawless, protest, disrespect, unfaithful, and obstruct.” These are included in the “Moral Foundation Theory”. Murray concluded his study of Trump’s word usage: “Do these results mean he’s a “wannabe” or “thin-skinned” tyrant? To me it means he frequently thinks in terms of social hierarchies and accompanying norms. Tyrant though? Maybe. But given the extraordinarily negative connotations of the word, I’d urge great care in the use of term. I suspect tyranny, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.” It would be interesting if Murray were to conduct a similar word study of Trump’s tweets over the previous four years. One wonders what he would conclude today.
- 18.
See, McQuade (2020).
- 19.
See the very interesting article by Singh (2016).
- 20.
Klick (2017).
- 21.
Machiavelli does use “tyrant,” and variations of that word (“tyranny,” etc.) in his The Discourses , The Florentine Histories and The Art of War In those works, generally speaking, Machiavelli spoke of “tyrants” and “tyranny” as arising from within ancient republics and democracies. In The Florentine Histories, he put words into the mouths of Florentine patriots who resisted the Medici; overlords who he branded “tyrants”.
- 22.
Diodorus’ coverage of Agathocles’ life and reign are, like many sources from the classical world, heavily biased. In other words, Diodorus described Agathocles in a very unfavorable light. For the liveliest recent discussion of Machiavelli, Agathocles, tyrants and tyranny, see McCormick (2015).
- 23.
Consider Trump’s last-minute decision not to retaliate against Iran for their having shot down an American surveillance drone. The planned strike (pushed by John Bolton) would have killed at least 150 Iranians; a death toll that Trump believed was disproportionate to the injury that Iran had inflicted (Baker, Schmitt and Crowley 2019).
- 24.
Julius became known as “The Warrior Pope” because he personally led his armies into battle. When the young pilgrim, Martin Luther, visited Rome, he witnessed the Pope, dressed in full armor, returning from campaign. That sight, among many others at Rome, in part, instigated Luther’s desire to reform the Church. For an excellent biography of Julius, see Shaw (1993).
- 25.
France and Spain intermittently engaged in war on the Italian peninsula since 1494. The heads of both states claimed ancestral rights to the Kingdom of Naples in southern Italy. Under the leadership of Charles VIII, France had invaded Italy in 1494, eventually taking Naples, until it was re-taken by the Spanish. This two-ing and frowing between Europe’s two great powers made Italy a continual battlefield.
- 26.
In an off the cuff moment, candidate Biden did, famously, call one of his rally attendees a “Lying, dog-faced pony soldier” (Noor 2020).
- 27.
John Bolton is the most recent to make such claims.
- 28.
I do not mean rogue individuals, such as those whose tactics have led to prison time, but rather people who share in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” ideology.
- 29.
Chapter 21: “What the prince should do to be outstanding” (Machiavelli 2005, 111).
- 30.
This is more than speculation. The “progressive” wing of the current Democrat Party is backing its own candidates to “primary” long-standing members of the “traditional” party. And, “Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, told CNBC on June, 2020 that Black Americans should form their own political party to concentrate their electoral influence” (Stankiewicz 2020).
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Landon, W. (2021). Donald Trump, Niccolò Machiavelli, the Establishment, and the People: Words of Advice and Warning from The Prince. In: Polegato, A., Benincasa, F. (eds) Machiavelli in Contemporary Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73823-5_8
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