Being human, all US presidents are flawed, whatever their strengths and achievements. Richard Nixon (1969-1974) was brilliant on foreign policy but was brought down by his lies about the Watergate scandal. Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969) did more for civil rights than any president since Abraham Lincoln, but his escalation of the Vietnam war made him so unpopular that he did not stand for re-election. John F Kennedy (1961-1963) and Bill Clinton (1993-2001), intelligent and widely admired, became notorious for their illicit sexual escapades.
Donald Trump’s supporters say he has flaws like any other president, but that is no defence. Trump is not flawed, because to call him that would imply that he has some redeeming human qualities. Rather, he is a force of nature. You might as well expect rationality or empathy from him as from a shark or a thunderstorm. In that sense, he is totally authentic.
To understand Trump, you need to compare him not to previous US presidents but to absolute rulers. Trump’s sudden and unaccountable changes of mood and behaviour recall the capricious English monarch Henry VIII (1509-1547), who saw no distinction between the state and himself.
Like Trump, Henry demanded personal loyalty from the institutions of state, was hypersensitive to criticism, ruled according to whim, and took vicious revenge on enemies and former supporters.
Like Henry, Trump has been irrational in his dismissals and appointments. Rex Tillerson, a distinguished former CEO of Exxon, lasted 14 months as secretary of state in the first Trump administration until he was fired via a social media post. Tillerson later described Trump as “a moron” who is “undisciplined, doesn’t like to read and tries to do illegal things”. John Bolton, Trump’s first national security adviser (18 months) has said Trump is “stunningly uninformed”. Pete Hegseth, the present secretary of defence, is so out of his depth that he is a threat to global security.
Economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has noted: “Trump has no economic theory behind what he is doing. Because he does not have any principles on which to base his arguments, it is very difficult to negotiate with him. He thinks that trade deficits mean somebody is treating us badly.”
Stiglitz points out that old-style manufacturing jobs won’t return on a large scale, and that for Trump to promise this is a futile attempt to take the US back to the 1950s. “Trump seems hell-bent on hurting America’s major exports.” Trump does not understand that tariffs on imports are in effect a tax on Americans. Growth for the US economy should be found in sectors that are being undermined by Trump’s policies, such as education, health and tourism.
Nobody has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump
— Gen Mark Milley
Trump’s visceral incompetence has been most exposed in foreign policy, notably in his clumsy appeasement of Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Ukraine and his confused vision for the future of Gaza. His approach to civil-military relations and to deployment of the armed forces would be comical if they were not so reckless.
Gen Mark Milley, after his retirement as chair of the joint chiefs of staff (2019-2023), noted with reference to Trump that “we don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.” Nobody, said Gen Milley, “has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump.”
Even when military action under Trump’s administration has appeared justifiable, as in the recent attacks on Venezuelan vessels allegedly carrying drugs, the force used has been disproportionate. In one incident, it is alleged that US forces fired on survivors of an attack, in contravention of international maritime and humanitarian law. It has been pointed out that confiscating a vessel and interrogating its crew would be a far more useful and defensible approach.
Can anything be said in mitigation of Trump? There may be some unintended benefits to his actions. Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day. Certainly, those wanting to enter the US illegally or run drugs will now think twice.
So far, the second Trump presidency must be judged a very bad thing for the US and the world. However, his opponents in the US have real hope where those of Henry VIII did not.
Trump does have the personal legitimacy conferred by the votes of 77-million Americans in November 2024. That is why nearly all Republican members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are in his thrall — they fear losing their seats if they are seen to oppose him.
Everybody likes flattery and when you come to royalty, you should lay it on with a trowel
— Benjamin Disraeli
However, in November next year the 435 seats in the House will be up for election. So will a third of the 100 Senate seats. The Republicans hold the House 219-213 and the Senate by 53-47, so it would take a swing of only four seats in each case to give the Democrats a majority.
If that happens in one or both houses, senators and representatives will be much less likely to fear punishment by the voters if they challenge Trump.
How to deal with Trump? The 19th-century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli said in relation to Queen Victoria: “Everybody likes flattery and when you come to royalty, you should lay it on with a trowel.” Using glittering banquets and pageantry, the UK has shrewdly played to Trump’s monarchical narcissism.
That option is not open to South Africa. Instead of trying to find ways to please him and his senior officers of state, Pretoria needs to build relationships with lower-level officials and businesses in South Africa and the US.
Sooner or later, Trump will have to go. We need to be prepared for when he is neutralised or voted out of office, rather than just withdrawing to fret and sulk.
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