When many Americans feel frightened that both US power and their own living standards are in decline, Mr. Trump is making an appeal to American ruthlessness. The US president says to voters that the country cannot afford to be “politically correct” any more. The way to Make America Great Again, in the words of his slogan, is to rediscover the ruthless instincts that made America great in the first place…
…In a nod to past American ruthlessness, Mr. Trump has hung the portrait of Andrew Jackson, US president from 1829-1837, on the wall of the Oval Office. Jackson was once seen as one of the great builders of the American nation and his statue stands in Lafayette Square, opposite the White House. But a more recent generation of historians has accused Jackson of complicity in genocide for ordering the forced removal of Native Americans from their land a policy that led to the “trail of tears” in which thousands died. By honouring Jackson, whom he praised as a “very tough person”, Mr. Trump is honouring the brutal policies that allowed the US to conquer the west…
…By celebrating presidents like Jackson, and recently praising the Confederate commander and slave-owner, Robert E. Lee, Mr. Trump is telling rightwing Americans what they want to hear that there is nothing to apologise for in American history…
…Donald Trump says so many strange and outrageous things that it is impossible to remember them all. But one Trumpian remark that has stuck with me is the US president’s repeated insistence that, after conquering Iraq, “We should have kept the oil”.
To the ears of the Washington establishment, this was yet another Trump gaffe. Even Dick Cheney, the former vice-president and most hawkish of hawks, had never portrayed Iraq as a war of conquest. But Mr. Trump’s deliberately provocative remark was an insight into both his philosophy and his appeal to voters. When many Americans feel frightened that both US power and their own living standards are in decline, Mr. Trump is making an appeal to American ruthlessness. The US president says to voters that the country cannot afford to be “politically correct” any more. The way to Make America Great Again, in the words of his slogan, is to rediscover the ruthless instincts that made America great in the first place.
In a nod to past American ruthlessness, Mr. Trump has hung the portrait of Andrew Jackson, US president from 1829-1837, on the wall of the Oval Office. Jackson was once seen as one of the great builders of the American nation and his statue stands in Lafayette Square, opposite the White House. But a more recent generation of historians has accused Jackson of complicity in genocide for ordering the forced removal of Native Americans from their land a policy that led to the “trail of tears” in which thousands died. By honouring Jackson, whom he praised as a “very tough person”, Mr. Trump is honouring the brutal policies that allowed the US to conquer the west.
The president’s approach signals to voters that he too is a tough guy. And it has the added political benefit of playing into America’s domestic culture wars. By celebrating presidents like Jackson, and recently praising the Confederate commander and slave-owner, Robert E. Lee, Mr. Trump is telling right wing Americans what they want to hear that there is nothing to apologise for in American history. This is not just a historical debate. It is also intensely political and contemporary.
These Trumpian provocations are coming at a time when the left particularly at universities is taking a much more assertive stand on facing up to the ugly aspects of American history. Buildings associated with supporters of slavery have been renamed at Yale and Georgetown; Amherst College has dropped Lord Jeffery Amherst as its mascot because the colonial-era commander was an advocate of genocide against Native Americans.
Mr. Trump’s praise for Lee came amid continuing demands for the removal of the general’s statue from Charlottesville, the scene of violent clashes between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators in 2017…
…Those who want to embrace the viciousness of the past need to be asked just exactly how far they want to go back: are they endorsing racial segregation; slavery; giving your enemies blankets covered in smallpox, as Amherst wanted to do in 1763?… …
*An America that turns its back on liberal values will also be weaker internationally. If the struggle with China is only about the relative power of the US and Chinese economies, America could well lose: China’s economy is already larger than that of the US in purchasing-power terms. As for weaponry, Russia has a nuclear arsenal that is as formidable as that of the US; and China’s fleet is now larger than America’s*…
…The US president was once routinely labelled “the leader of the free world”. But it is hard to apply that label to Mr. Trump a man who seems to envy dictators and to feel only contempt for liberal values. That weakens America’s ability to attract allies and partners around the world. As the saying goes, “It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.”…