Perhaps some of the most important choices we make in life are who we chose to lead us. Whether it be a supervisor we agree to work for, or a Mayor, or a President, it’s essential that we secure a well-founded sense of their character and motives. Those are hard things to judge, but they portend conduct that may meaningfully impact our future. Sadly for America, the character and motives of our current President have been more polarizing than perhaps anyone in recent history.
Most of President Trump’s supporters seem to believe he’s a great leader and benefactor to the nation. He’s fighting crime and illegal drugs, pushing back against all that took advantage of us, protecting and rebuilding our economy, trying to stop wars, securing our elections, and leading us out of social decline and economic malaise. To most of President Trump’s supporters, he is fulfilling their hope to “make America great again”.
To many others however, the full context surrounding his conduct reveals a character that is Machiavellian to the core. Many of President Trump’s critics, believe that while he’s always trying to speak and look like he’s acting justly, and on our behalf, his conduct indicates he’s working solely in his own self-interest.
Here are a few significant acts for you to judge for yourself.
President Trump often said we must stop illegal immigration, drugs and criminals from crossing our border. And yet, in January 2024 he torpedoed a bipartisan immigration bill that would have added more border wall, border security agents and immigration judges. He could have kept quiet, let it pass, and then built upon it. Instead, he chose to thwart progress, so he could win the election and crack down hard on immigrants later.
President Trump also tries to look like a protector and benefactor in fighting crime and gun violence. Sadly, President Trump used high crime rates as the pretext for inserting troops into cities, while he laid the groundwork for increased crime. He rescinded funding for gun violence prevention programs, relaxed common sense gun control laws, and undermined the ACA, the only law that requires healthcare plans include mental healthcare. His withdrawal of funding for local police followed by insertion of troops into cities, looks dubious at best, and more like the intentional moves of an authoritarian.
President Trump has also tried to look like a peacemaker and someone who cares about the loss of life in Ukraine. And yet, immediately after taking office he stopped shipping weapons to Ukraine, hamstringing Ukrainians from defending themselves and emboldening Putin to continue his aggression. Several times he also publicly tried to look tough on Putin, threatening to impose severe sanctions, only to back down every time, enabling Putin to bide time and continue to pound the Ukrainian people into submission.
More recently, while President Trump tried to look like he’s protecting Americans from the scourge of cocaine, he attacked Venezuela which provides less than 10% of the cocaine coming into the US. Sadly, the fact that 90% of cocaine originates in Columbia, Peru and Boliva, did not deter President Trump from launching an illegal military operation, or pitching a justification he knows to be false. As events unfold, hopefully all will see that this has always been about trying to grab Venezuelan oil and intimidating weaker nations.
The examples above, and hundreds more like them, provide a clear record of deception and ulterior motivates. We’d all like to believe that the weight of responsibility of the presidency would guide our President in being magnanimous and a benefactor to the people. Tragically, President Trump’s focus on sounding good and growing his personal prestige belie conduct that is Machiavellian through and through. Little does he know, or seem to care, that the threats and intimidation he unleashes daily, not only on other nations, but on those he swore an oath to serve, serve only punctate his true motives.
Trump is the reality TV president: he is all about creating “leadership” images for his followers and doing so primarily to attract and keep their attention. I doubt that Trump cares about policy at all. His presidency is all about holding the media spotlight while keeping all the reins of power in his own hands (while making as much financial gain for himself and his family as he can). Actually, the historical Machiavelli had nothing to do with any of that, and Machiavelli would have despised Trump had he known him.