Neelab Khan
Despite being a phase in American history that begs to be forgotten, Trump’s time as President has all the reasons to be remembered. Playing a major role in the recent rise of populism across the globe, it is the US’ position as the super power and Trump’s personality in itself that subject it to such scrutiny.
From claims to ‘build a wall’ on the Mexico border, the Muslim ban (which, by the way, involved only impoverished countries, having negligible impact on the economy), what could be termed as brinkmanship with North Korea threatening Nuclear War, labeling China as a direct threat, his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, sporadic provocations directed towards Iran, to pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, his foreign policy has been subjected to great criticism for its extreme and rampant nature. On the domestic front, on May 25th 2020, a grave occurrence drew in worldwide attention. It was the death of a black citizen named George Floyd, who was brutally killed by two police officers in their violent attempts to restrain him, which eventually gave international impetus to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ cause. This is something his tenure has forever been marred by. An impeachment trial is just what was needed to top everything off.
These have generally been perceived as actions of an impulsive, prejudiced leader that is just the tip of the iceberg. He was brought forth by the American population just to do what they wanted to see and say what they wanted to hear: their prejudices and inhibitions. All the issues exacerbated under his president ship, have been significant components of the socio-political matrix in the US. What he managed to do was bring something that had been simmering forever to the forefront in its true and rawest form. He channelized these internalized feelings into political rhetoric, enabling people to freely act them out in social fronts as well.
The importance of human psychology and language is obvious when it comes to politics. George Orwell’s essay ‘Politics and the English Language’, gives us an idea about how language shapes our thoughts, actions and eventually, politics. In Trump’s case, let us see first and foremost his ‘America first’, slogan. The question is, when has America ever been second? It seems Trump only changed the tone, not the substance. He ended up pulling out of international agreements in which he thought the USA was giving ‘too much’, broadly adhering to the approach of economic nationalism. In a time which is considered to be the apex of the anthropocene, during which norms and values of democracy are deemed the highest, the fact that a man with such dispositions and antics came to rule what is known as the ‘epitome’ of liberal democracy still has people scratching their heads.
What he managed to do, as many successful businessmen and corporations do, was capitalize basic human psychology for his ends, only this time it was political. We humans generally tend to harbor affinity of sticking to extremes rather than moderation. This is because maintaining a mid-way while maneuvering through varying phases is far more cumbersome than the former; it gives a relieving sense of closure and kindles a sense of purpose, a driving force that is felt in its highest degree through fanaticism. In order to utilize this facet of human psychology, all he had to do was keep his speech highly charged and candid. A survey conducted in 2017 showed that highly ideological congressmen’s followers on Facebook were more than moderate ones. Why would the people not want a highly ideological president then? In addition, Social Media platforms are themselves fuelled by emotions and extremes, people’s pathos, to be specific. They are designed to be more addictive, just as Trump managed to keep his policies addictive, keeping the communities on the edges of their seats, giving apt dosages of adrenaline time and again.
Analyzing his tenure would be incomplete without mentioning his tweets, which have a legacy of being crisp, laden with tribal language, heavily showcasing an ‘us versus them’ mindset, appealing to the understanding of laymen and without any verbosity or complex political jargons. ‘Sounding like a 14-year old bully’, as I have found myself stating on several occasions. However, according to a study conducted by Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of United States of America (PNAS), moral-emotional words like ‘blame’, ‘hate’ are more likely to be retweeted, which I think sounds pretty familiar considering the ex-President’s Twitter account.
In his tweets and political rhetoric in general, he appealed to what psychologically are known as ‘inner demons’, our impulses towards dominance, predation and vengeance, completely rendering the ‘better angels’ like compassion, fairness, self-control and reason irrelevant. An example of this is how he would not hesitate one bit in blatantly referring to immigrants as ‘murderers’ and ‘rapists’ and implying they are ‘our enemies’. Another manifestation of this is his speech in Warsaw on 6th of July, 2017, during his international tour as president. He ended it on an ‘us versus them’ note, saying “Our own fight for the West does not begin on the battlefield—it begins with our minds, our wills, and our souls.” “Our values will prevail,” he promised. “Our people will thrive. And our civilization will triumph.”
He has now managed to secure himself a place among right-wing radicals and white supremacists, both key groups in garnering political support in the country. While doing so, what has been sparked is a wildfire with everlasting repercussions. Ruth Ben Ghiat, a New York University Professor with expertise on authoritarianism writes that “Trump has achieved basically all that a leader wants to in the long term”: establish ties solely on loyalty to him as a person rather than the institutions. Constantly discrediting institutions that would hold him accountable, he emphasized his belief in tradition and family, rather than bureaucracy and legislature as a whole. On several occasions, he even dismissed their position in regards to the Russian interference in the 2016 elections and rather consorted with America’s long-term adversary, much to the Congress and his countries agencies’ disapproval.
By constantly pushing polarizing agenda, he has managed to spark a civil war which has now rendered him capable of mobilizing his base. In gist, his political rhetoric has been all about catering to basic human instincts: extremism, prejudice and discrimination, all of which pop up now and then be it on personal levels or political levels. It has been a heavily class, gender and race-based politics.
Critics worldwide find his incompetence and inability in policy-making questionable as much as his mental health. But what he managed to achieve is to establish himself as an autocrat as well as the face of a cult, primarily white supremacist.
His Presidential term serves as an alarming reminder that even in the most liberal of democracies, psychological notions like these can be used and abused for stirring up any upheaval and that the politics of hate and alienation is here to stay, as long as people’s ‘dark demons’ are. Even his mishandling of a pandemic did not cost him votes. He has left the people with feelings of belongingness and empowerment, enough to leave a mark at the Capitol, the heart of the world’s most powerful democracy.
After completing my Master’s (MA) in International Relations, I am now pursuing further studies. Though my discipline is quite vast in itself, I aim to contribute to the research domain by applying other dynamic and holistic lenses to various social and political tropes. While research-based objective work is primarily what I have experience with, matters of more subjectivity and individual value interest me as well.
