Perhaps P.J. O’Rourke put it best. When explaining, in 2016, why a self-declared ‘Republican Party Reptile’ was voting for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, O’Rourke admitted that the former first lady was ‘wrong about absolutely every-thing’. But at least she was ‘wrong within normal parameters’. A decade later, conservatives are paying the price for ignoring O’Rourke’s advice. Donald Trump has weakened the western alliance and undermined America’s constitution; he has demeaned himself, his office, his country and, perhaps most of all, his supporters. With Republicans facing a congressional reckoning next month, it is time for conservatives to dis-avow the President and face up to the damage that he has done.
Until now, many on the right who find Trump distasteful have held their noses and supported him because they disliked his opponents. Clinton, with her characterisation of Trump supporters as a ‘basket of deplorables’, seemed to embody the elitist hauteur of an entitled Washington establishment. Joe Biden promised a return to normality – but was instead a model of senility and unable to control either his increasingly woke party or the southern border. Kamala Harris, the DEI hire par excellence, parachuted in to replace her ailing chief, always seemed faintly absurd as a potential leader of the free world.
To keep them out, Trump seemed necessary – but there was also a dark attraction to ‘owning the libs’: through his sheer force of personality, he offered a brave new right, clear-sighted about its enemies and acting with unabashed vigour. Republicans should have been more wary. Trump is a Caesarist, not a conservative. Whatever goals he might advance, supporting him means subordinating politics to the whims of one man.
Like other little Caesars, Trump had his successes. In his first term he repaid his voters by tightening borders and cutting taxes; until Covid struck, the American economy boomed. He rolled back Isis and killed Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s leading architect of terror, while the Abraham Accords normalised Israel’s relationship with several Arab states. He renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement and put pressure on other Nato signatories to rebuild their militaries.
But in response to his 2020 defeat, Trump revealed the fundamentally undemocratic and unconservative nature of his leadership, showing himself to be unfit for office and shaming his nation. Those conservatives who did not bend to Trump’s exaggerated aspirations found themselves like Cicero and Cato, watching in horror as the Roman Republic collapsed, with laws and institutions giving way to the brute force of a charismatic strongman.
The 6 January Capitol attack was too chaotic to be considered a true insurrection attempt. But it was still a violent attack by a pro-Trump mob on the constitutional norms that have underpinned America’s greatness for two centuries. Trump’s treatment of Mike Pence – a decent, patriotic and traditionalist conservative – after the vice-president refused to declare the election in his favour showed a disdain for the freedoms and decencies that underpin political life.
After 2021, it seemed Trump had been cast out and was hampered by legal battles, many politically motivated. But as Biden’s presidency floundered amid surging prices, the Afghanistan withdrawal and the Ukraine war, Trump’s dark vigour drew support once again. As he railed against ‘Deep State’ corruption, establishment incompetence and woke excesses, his sins were excused, even as he sought office to shore up his own position and pursue vendettas against his enemies.
Trump has paved the way for a future president on the left to break constitutional norms
Rather than usher in the new ‘golden age’ he promised at his second inauguration, Trump’s second presidency has swiftly and spectacularly unravelled.
Genuine achievements, such as a precipitous fall in Mexican border crossings and Nicolas Maduro’s swift removal, have been overshadowed. His incoherent tariff policy and the war with Iran have alienated allies and undermined his hopes of restoring prosperity. His attempts to slim down the government have failed. In the early days of Doge, there were members of the administration who believed they could clear the national debt. It recently surpassed $40 trillion.
Trump’s domestic agenda will be hampered by the expected loss of the House of Representatives and potentially the Senate in the midterms. In an attempt to win voters back, he wants to surrender Ukraine’s sovereign territory to Vladimir Putin in return for cheap fuel. He has secured America’s borders while demanding that Volodymyr Zelensky carve up Ukraine’s. The appointment of Pete Hegseth – currently plotting the livestream of an execution – is a grim encapsulation of an administration that prizes loyal brutality over basic morality. Meanwhile, the Trump family has made billions through cryptocurrency and other questionable ventures. Most damaging of all, however, is the precedent that Trump has set.
By passing so much of his agenda via executive orders, showing disdain for election results and setting the criminal justice system against his critics, Trump has paved the way for a future president on the left to break constitutional norms with the same alacrity. If conservatives find Trump’s behaviour uncomfortable, consider the precedent he has set for a President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Abdul El-Sayed. The orange Caesar could be followed by a red Octavian. On both sides of the Atlantic, conservatives must restore some semblance of sanity by rejecting the rage-fuelled populism Trump embodies.
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