Looking at Trumpism as the ‘greatest show on earth’

Trumpism is just so much more than The Art of the Deal.Trump is much deeper than the dynamics of The Apprentice. Trumpism has much more depth than his personal branded ‘popularism’. Trumpism consists of a complex mix of his life experience, idealism, pragmatism, skills as an entertainer, businessman, family man, politician, and former president of the United States of America. Trumpism is driven by his own egocentric world view, through the lenses that any successful narcissistic, compulsive, competitive, and dramatic billionaire entrepreneur would hold. Only, Trump holds his views passionately, with an altruism few have.

Trump as President of the United States wants to run the United States as the greatest corporation on Earth. As a person of theatre, Trump wants to set about creating the ‘greatest show on Earth’, and leave a legacy, unmatched by anyone. With one term in office, Trump wants to go out on top and leave a lasting political movement called ‘Trumpism’ to go on after him. This will bring him the immortality he seeks.

The evolution of the MAGA ideology

All corporations have a core ideology, that is expressed as purpose and mission. Trump’s purpose and ideology, expressed personification as leader is to revitalize the United States into a country that once again leads the world. Although Trump often makes ambit claims to bring attention to issues, there is a realism he holds underneath.

Donald J Trump was summed up by many as a personification of The Art of the Deal during his first administration. Trump is inspired by Jacksonian democratic values, the territorial expansionism of William McKinley, Judeo-Christianity, and the belief that government can be run as effectively as a business can. Trump is also a federalist, where he sees the importance of autonomy of the states, within the union. Most importantly, his practicality is based upon ‘common sense’, a trait rarely taught at business schools, but found on factory floors and construction sites.

Trumps popularist direction may have been partly inspired by Steve Bannon, which draws upon public emotion to fire up electorally popular issues. Trump has a New Yorker style charisma, who can pull off stunts in a natural manner, others can’t do in front of mass crowds.

This promises to create a very entertaining presidency, where Trump likes to be accessible to the public and media alike. Trump often uses the royal ‘we’ in public discourse, extolling his mission with a twist and passion. Trump is an action orientated person with a Type A personality, who needs little sleep. He pursues his mission with a courageous passion, and likes to be surrounded by people with a similar disposition. These are the traits of the real entrepreneur.

Trump doesn’t have the same weaknesses as the last few presidents. He is already a billionaire, and sees his mission is not about the money. In his first term, the position didn’t corrupt him, as it would to most other leaders.

As such, Trump is a product of his own life experiences, where the betrayal by those he trusted during his first term, brought him wisdom. His personal suffering through, what can be best described as lawfare, by his adversaries has done nothing more than greatly strengthen his personal resolve.

Trump has definite ideas about what should be, and to some degree this can’t be separated from the man. Make America Great Again (MAGA) is Trump. Trump successfully uses the methods of ‘active listening’, on a mass scale, developed by the famous psychologist Carl Rogers to re-project the aspirations of Americans back to them. This is why he is so popular today. To some degree, Trumps rallies are mass therapy sessions.

Trump makes the best of opportunities that come along, making him an extremely agile politician. Trump has the knack of turning disasters and threats into opportunities. Trump was able to win the presidency on the back of a primarily incapacitated president Biden, and weak vice president Kamala Harris, who enabled Trump to look great in front of the American people, as the person who had the answers and the energy. Its almost as if Trump went along with all the Biden administration dished up, as it assisted him re-enter the White House as president once again. Trump understood that most people compare the two relative choices they have in front of them.  

Building the Trump team

In Trump’s first administration, he selected people who he was advised to select, because of their establishment credentials. Trump soon found out that such people were not loyal to his administration’s interests, but to a group that has become known as the ‘deep state’.

In Trump’s second administration, the primary criteria for Trump is personal loyalty, the MAGA cause, and a passion for action. That’s why Trump selected people like Pam Bondi as Attorney General, Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, and Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff.

Government and Management

Trump convincingly winning both the popular vote and electoral college has provided him with a powerful popular and moral mandate by the people for his second term as president. This provides Trump with a very persuasive disposition to push through his agenda.

To date (one week), Trump’s announcements and executive orders are precisely what he promised the people, and not vengeful, as Trump realises that being vengeful could very possibly destroy his ability to implement promised and desired programs.  

Obtaining the cooperation and control of the civil service will be the largest barrier to Trump’s ability to run an effective administration. Even in the first week of his administration, some agencies have flatly refused to carry out his executive orders.

This is partly why the newly formed temporary Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been set up. DOGE operates from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, within close proximity to the White House.

Although DOGE was initially touted as an organization to expose government waste and inefficiency, according to the executive order changing the name of the United States Digital Service to DOGE, its formal purpose is to ‘modernise federal technology and software to maximise government efficiency and productivity’.

Politically, DOGE headed up by billionaire Elon Musk, seeks to shave off a trillion dollars from government spending, so Trump’s programs can be financed. US government debt, now over $36 trillion will be a major financial barrier for the Trump administration to overcome.

The power of the civil service comes from the regulations it generates. In order to prevent the civil service straying from the Trump agenda through issuing regulations, another Trump executive order has frozen all new regulations. Trump has promised for every new regulation created, there will be 10 existing regulations revoked.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies are seen by Trump as dysfunctional government, eroding the concept of meritocracy. DEI also goes against Trump’s Christian outlook. Trump respects the ALPHA people, who show intelligence and the ability to achieve. To all intents and purposes, DEI is seen by the Trump administration as a manifestation created by elements within the so-called ‘deep state’ to prevent optimal government. The recent Los Angeles fires have exposed the weaknesses of DEI.

The ’deep state’ made up by elements within The Pentagon, Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a number of major corporations, and a caucus within the Congress is another major barrier to the Trump administration. This is perhaps part of the reason Trump has agreed to release the files relating to the assassinations of John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, to expose the excesses of the ‘deep state’.

Returning to MBO

In the first week of the Trump administration, a number of government spending areas have been frozen. New regulations have been stopped. Steps have been taken to starve Ukraine of arms, and ESG and other green policies reversed. Border security has been reinforced by the military, two genders restored within federal jurisdictions, censorship by government abolished, troops recalled from Europe, and the US withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO). Civil service employees have been called back to work in their offices, and assistance given to the disaster areas of North Carolina. Pardons have been given to those involved in the J6 incident.

Trump’s policies are all objective based. The cabinet will most likely be run by Trump, playing the role as a chief executive, where all secretaries will operate their departments based upon specific objectives to meet the MAGA mission. This will be a radical change in the way cabinet conducts its business.

Foreign Policy

Trump is a firm nationalist in foreign affairs, following along the lines of Reagan. He is primarily concerned with the direct interests of the United States, especially within the western hemisphere. The early issues of Greenland and Panama are reflective of this.

US foreign policy will be primarily concerned about returning American manufacturing back to the United States. The idea of global corporations, where manufacturing is undertaken in one country, and customer service is outsourced to another country, is contrary to the Trumpian view of US industry.

Trump will be much less ideological, and focused on the practicalities of the MAGA mission. Trump may not be as concerned with containment as a doctrine, where Russia and China will be allowed their spheres of influence, as long as the western hemisphere is not contested by others.

There is some evidence to support the above hypothesis. Up to 20,000 troops have been recalled from Europe and Trump is insisting NATO countries spend 5.0% of their GDPs on defence, as the Trump administration doesn’t want to continue subsidizing European defence, especially where Trump sees that Europe has poorly handled the Ukraine issue.

Challenges Ahead

There are numerous challenges ahead for the Trump administration that could jeopardise its mission.

The world is now a much different place than it was during his first term in office. All the major actors have changed, as well as the situations they may want to engage Trump in. The US economy is structurally very different, which may require a major rethink of the MAGA-mission. The nature of work has changed, and many more families have slipped into relative poverty. It may not be as easy to create more jobs as the MAGA mission has promised. Bringing America back to its former glory might be more of a dream rather than an achievable mission. The United States has lost its primacy, technology leadership, and position as the largest economy in the world.

These realities have never been espoused by Trump, and in the future results, or lack of them, could easily become his Achilles Heel.

Getting accurate information from the intelligence, military, and bureaucracy is already a major issue. Trump’s decision making could be based upon flawed information.

Many moves the Trump administration has made are based upon executive orders, where a couple have already been challenged in court. Ensuring the bureaucracy takes these executive orders seriously, and doesn’t sabotage Trump initiatives is on the cards. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America, and planting a US flag on Mars are purely aspirational, rather than substance.

With USD 36 trillion public debt, the Trump administration is severely hampered financially. It’s unsure whether the debt limit could be raised by the Congress, and the prudency of this is questionable. A major part of the Trump administration’s economic policy must be concerned with lowering debt, inflation, thus requiring some curtailing of spending. Whether DOGE has the ability to pursue its mission effectively, with very limited resources, is a major question?

Trump faces an unreliable Congress. Republican senators have already defected during cabinet confirmation votes, and the skills of JD Vance and other cabinet members will be thoroughly tested by the Congress.

The Trump administration 2.0

The second Trump administration will be a mix of technocrats and politicians working in a very unfriendly sea of government. Yet, we observe the successes of Argentina’s Javier Milei who has achieved a miracle in economic management in his country over a very short time. This shows proof of concept, that may carry over to other countries, if signs of success are there.

In retrospect, four years out of the presidency gave Trump a great advantage for both Trump the man and Trump the politician. Four years gave Trump time to reflect upon the weaknesses of his first administration, to prepare for the second. Definitely Trump 2.0 will be very different than what Trump 1.0 was.

There is still a lot we don’t know. Are the Trump tariff threats theatre or is it a major restricting of fiscal and foreign policies? Columbia’s very quick reaction to the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on its exports to the United States for refusing a planeload of Columbian national is telling.

Trump is promising the ‘greatest show on earth’, and that’s what we may certainly see over the next four years. At the same time, Trump may also bring efficient government to the United States, and do something big on the international stage on the scale that Reagan achieved.

Viewers must sit back and watch. Its about what Trump actually does, not what he says.