In one of his most astonishingly oblivious moments, President Donald Trump may have revealed more about himself — his honest, true beliefs regarding his “talents” and place in history — than at any point in his public life. During an interview with Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman for their forthcoming book, Trump proudly offered what he called an “expert historian’s” impression of his raw fortitude. As you might guess, Trump bragged he topped a list of history’s most powerful rulers.
Now, that cringe you already feel is more than warranted. Presidents and other leaders are rarely measured by raw power alone. Nixon was an extremely powerful president in many ways, and you know how that played out. But everyone understands that this particular president sees power for power’s sake as the gold standard — the measure of the job. Prepare for that cringe to evolve into rage upon learning of the leaders he “trumps,” so to speak. “Our” president believes he tops a list that includes Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin, Mao, and Hitler.
Sweet Jesus.
With the possible exception, and only to a degree, of Napoleon, every other ruler on that list accrued power by killing people in the sole furtherance of “more power,” and thus killed even more people as both a means of expanding and keeping it. Looked at another way, Trump excitedly showed Swan and Haberman a list he believes puts him atop history’s greatest monsters.
Well, that fits. And it is scary AF.
Because there is nothing wrong with seeking power if it’s in the pursuit of something worthy. Martin Luther King Jr. surely sought every ounce of authority that his gentle hands could hold, but made non-violence his most powerful ally to accrue, well, power. To the extent that the United States even approaches racial equality, at least in written law, we owe it in large part to MLK Jr., who sacrificed his life for it, and that’s pretty damned powerful, especially given his influence extended far beyond this nation’s boundaries. King’s words and message are remembered today at least as much as any American president’s — the most “powerful man in the world.” Gandhi is cut from the same cloth, to use an apt metaphor, and took on an entire empire and subcontinent.
The West defeated Soviet Communism without firing a direct shot, a pretty impressive power move. And yes, part of the “fall” owed itself to an American President in Ronald Reagan, whose main tactic was to militarily spend the U.S.S.R. into oblivion — the Soviets unable to keep up. But Reagan couldn’t have succeeded without the real power of a fairly humble but stubborn and infinitely brave Polish shipyard worker named Lech Wałęsa, and an even more humble Polish Pope in John Paul II, who both stood up to communism on moral grounds, smothering a communist empire unable to keep up.
There is also power over our day-to-day lives that we all but take for granted now. Alan Turing ushered in the idea of “computation,” but Steve Jobs gave the average person the desire to even have one at home, and that was just the first act; he then changed how the world does nearly anything, bringing about the smartphone. Ideally, Steve Jobs’ “power” will infinitely impact your life more than anything Donald Trump ever does… ideally, no guarantee. Elvis Presley forever altered the role music plays in our lives.
Power comes in many forms. Whoever came up with high definition television deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, but I digress.
Given we’re sure that Trump is talking about national leaders, we can circle back to that category and ably come up with many who managed to accrue far more power with far less brutal killing. George Washington founded this nation by fighting a king who wouldn’t peaceably deal with the colonies. Abraham Lincoln almost personally kept this nation together for four years, certainly killing a lot of people in a war that he would have given up everything to avoid except for continued slavery. And FDR not only kept this nation’s head above water during the worst worldwide depression since the Dark Ages, but he also invented modern economic liberalism in America, and then went on to rally a nation to defeat Hitler. That is a pretty powerful guy.
The story gets even Trumpier. He told Swan and Haberman that he got the list at a golf benefit with Gary Player, handed to him as a paper put together by a noted historian. But when Swan and Haberman investigated the matter further, the “report” had been put together by golfer Gary Player’s caddy. But the list's scholarly authority couldn’t matter less. It’s Trump’s reaction to having his name among those names that takes one’s breath away.
We weren’t in the room and thus can’t know how the conversation went, but wouldn’t it have been wonderful to hear Trump’s response to a follow-up: “Mr. President, why would you even want to be on this list? This is essentially a list of ‘worst people in human history.’”
Pity. Because it’s tough to predict how Trump would’ve talked himself around that one, probably something along the lines of, “But see? I’m more powerful than them, and I’m one of the most loved men in…”
It should go without saying that a president should enter that office committed to doing the best he or she can for the American people — do that, and the power takes care of itself. Lincoln saved the Union. FDR brought us Social Security and led us through World War II. Lyndon B. Johnson made us a greater society by bringing in Medicare and Medicaid and signing the Civil Rights Act (and yes, got a lot of Americans killed in Vietnam, duly noted). Ronald Reagan did open up a real dialogue with the U.S.S.R. that helped lead to communism’s downfall (I don’t need a primer on all the horrid things Reagan also did). George W. Bush — for all his innumerable faults — got this nation through the first month after 9/11 with bravery, resolve, and love toward American Muslims, not a single act of vigilantism. Barack Obama made universal healthcare an expected right, perhaps saving millions of lives. Pretty powerful.
If one really wants to get cynical, look to Mitch McConnell, who engineered the process by which we have a Supreme Court that managed to give Trump a free pass with respect to criminality, steal a woman’s right to control her body, and disenfranchise Black Americans in the South. Pretty powerful.
Donald Trump effected the first violent transfer of power in American history, and perhaps therein lies a clue to his “formidability.” Like Khan, Stalin, and Hitler, Donald Trump is out to get all he can personally get in his name as American president, whether it is semi-invading Venezuela, dropping billions in bombs in Iran (killing a school full of little girls), threatening war over Greenland, and this new “thing” with Cuba — and that’s just on the international scale. At home, Trump has organized masked stormtroopers marching around the country, rounding up brown people, changed the structure of Congress, put his name and face on money, and strongly considered suspending habeas corpus to do it, avoiding courts altogether. If there is a secret sauce to Trump’s power, it is that he is constrained only by balancing what he can get away with at no personal cost.
And, to be sure, if you have the most powerful military force ever amassed on the planet and the personal fealty of nearly every Republican in government to back domestic efforts, that affords someone an enormous amount of power. But if Trump has proven anything, it is that he seeks power to improve his fortunes, and only his fortunes. In that respect, he most certainly is right at home with Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Hitler, etc.
Last, to the extent one ever needed more concrete evidence as to the danger in mixing self-glorification within a uniquely undereducated man, the fact that Trump is proud to head up this list is Exhibit “A,” and all that would ever be needed to demonstrate that he lacks the emotional IQ to even understand the position he holds. The fact that it didn’t occur to Trump, “What if fifty years from now, someone reads a list about history’s most powerful leaders, and Donald Trump is alongside Stalin, Hitler, and Genghis Khan — is that bad branding?” should scare us all. Not that we weren’t already scared.
Nor are we surprised.
Check that. Some of us are indeed surprised, surprised only in the way Trump continues to find astonishingly original ways to evidence his true weakness. Leaders who seek power as the goal in and of itself are, by definition, some of the most dangerous figures in history. Leaders who dare to dream so powerfully of all that good that can be done if one only had the power are some of history’s most revered leaders, as they selflessly work to get it done. MLK Jr., Nelson Mandela, Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, Isaac Newton, Carl Jung, St. Francis of Assisi, Shakespeare… The list of history’s most powerful people who never sought “power” itself, merely propounded ideas so powerful they still impact us today, is a list to which one should aspire.
It is doubtful that anyone, even the most hardened MAGA, is surprised by the slot into which Trump most comfortably slid himself. The only somewhat surprising — and worrying thing is his obliviousness as to what it says about him, near and long term.
Indeed, history will have a lot of powerful things to say about Donald J. Trump and, perhaps topping the list, will be that from day one, he sought evermore personal power as both goal and measure.
Pretty weak.
Jason Miciak is a Rawstory Columnist, former editor at Occupy Democrats, political consultant, author, attorney, and single parent girldad, please follow on Bluesky and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com