Trump First. A tale of American exceptionalism, MAGA baseball caps, a TV show god, and the Grinch
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"The apocalypse is coming!" those of a sensitive disposition are saying, horrified by US president-elect Donald Trump’s remarks about Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal on the eve of his 20 January 2025 inauguration.
"Chaos is the new order," the latent optimists are saying.
But those with at least a passing familiarity with American history are saying: "We’ve been here before."
If you don’t know the historical context, it’s impossible to understand what’s happening in the United States and how it could affect events around the world and in Ukraine in particular – especially if you don’t have an understanding of American exceptionalism and its derivatives that became Donald Trump's campaign slogans: America First and Make America Great Again.
But to stop you going crazy as you wait for the world to end, Ukrainska Pravda spoke with Alexander Motyl, professor of political science at Rutgers University, to explore American exceptionalism.
A little history (scroll past if you get bored)
When English lawyer John Winthrop, the future founder of a colony of settlers in the New World, preached a sermon on 21 March 1630 about a "city upon a hill", he could not have imagined that it would become a sacred cow in the American national myth.
"We will be as a city upon a hill – the eyes of all people are upon us," Winthrop prophesied.
When he spoke of the "city upon a hill", he meant that the British colony on the shores of Massachusetts Bay would become an example for other British colonies in North America. Of course neither the USA, nor the myth of American exceptionalism, nor the American people existed at the time.
Yet Winthrop was later to become a new Moses for Americans, and the descendants of the first Puritan settlers in the New World would become God's chosen people 2.0.
The novelist Herman Melville wrote in the 19th century: "We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people – the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world."
In the 20th century, US presidents from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan dedicated their greatest speeches to American exceptionalism.
In his farewell address to the nation, President Reagan highlighted the "shining city upon a hill" that "stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm".
Two decades later, President Barack Obama carelessly remarked that he believed in the unique destiny and mission of the US in the world "just as the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism". At the time, many people took a swipe at Obama for his insidious devaluation of American exceptionalism. This is actually logical: there shouldn't be too many exceptions to a rule, because that undermines faith in the rule.
While the founding fathers had no doubt about the messianic nature of the American people, views differed on how best to use it.
The so-called messianic internationalists believed that the American nation should "bear the ark of the liberties of the world" to all corners of the globe, whereas the messianic isolationists were convinced that it was better to shut the world out before it led to chaos and war.
President Woodrow Wilson, a messianic internationalist who led America into World War I in 1917, said in a speech:
"It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilisation itself seeming to be in the balance.
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts – for democracy."
After Wilson, America elected three isolationists in a row: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Reading these presidents’ speeches, you could be forgiven for thinking their author has come back from the dead and is working as a speechwriter for Trump.
Harding declared in his 1921 inaugural address: "America can be a party to no permanent military alliance. It can enter into no political commitments, nor assume any economic obligations which will subject our decisions to any other than our own authority."
The Americans’ desire to "go it alone" ended on 7 December 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the US entered World War II. The possibility of living in a tower of exclusivity had turned out to be an illusion, a fact that few American politicians remember today.
Ever since then, the pendulum of American exceptionalism has swung, from president to president, between its two extremes: internationalism and isolationism.
Until Trump came along – the god from a TV show.
Presidential messianism
Alexander Motyl explains:
"Every American president is tempted to feel like a messiah. But in Trump's case, this is taken to the absolute. In his own eyes and in the eyes of Trumpists, he is flawless, he is perfect, he is a god.
Perhaps George Washington was treated in this way to some extent. You can see it in the American art of that time: portraits of Washington on a horse, without a horse; with a sabre, without a sabre; in a ship, in a boat. But Washington himself rejected the role of the messiah; he didn’t aspire to it.
The attitude towards John F. Kennedy was somewhat similar. Kennedy himself did not lay claim to such a role either – unlike, say, Trump. But the attitude of his sympathisers was akin to worship. This handsome young man had come along – attractive, wise, smart, powerful – he was going to change everything, fix everything.
Richard Nixon could be accused of seeing himself as a saviour to a certain extent, but the people didn’t perceive him as one – not even his supporters.
In the past, US presidents either considered themselves saviours but didn’t have a lot of support, or they had that support but didn’t consider themselves messiahs.
Now we have an example of a man who thinks he’s a messiah and whose supporters think he is too. Perhaps that’s what’s unique about the Trump story."
The TV show god
The path to the presidency can be measured in money, in time, in victories and defeats, in the candidates’ marriages and divorces.
The paths that both Trump and Zelenskyy took to the presidency can be measured in the seasons of the TV shows in which they starred. Zelenskyy comes out on top in this respect, as it took him only three seasons of Servant of the People to get to Bankova Street, where the Office of the President of Ukraine is located.
Trump achieved his first presidential triumph after 14 seasons of the reality shows The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice.
At the end of each episode, Trump decided who to keep on the show and who to kick off. He enjoyed watching the candidates try to win his favour by undermining each other. He found this model of the world order very appealing.
In the show’s finale, the best candidate won a US$250,000-a-year contract to manage a business project, reaching the pinnacle of the American dream.
But in the eyes of millions of Americans, the main winner was Trump himself. Those 14 seasons made him a household name and turned the tabloid pariah and bankrupt into a titan of industry, as The New Yorker mockingly put it in 2017.
Trump's catchphrase from the show, "You're fired!", has become his calling card.
"Donald takes no prisoners," said Mark Burnett, the show's producer. "If you’re Donald’s friend, he’ll defend you all day long. If you’re not, he’s going to kill you. And that’s very American. He’s like the guys who built the West."
Trump has played many roles in his life. Military academy cadet, billionaire, defendant in criminal cases, Forbes-lister, TV presenter, showman.
But his favourite role was God.
American exceptionalism: a worm’s-eye view
Alexander Motyl:
Belief in their own exceptionalism is deeply rooted in American society and political culture – so deeply that most people don’t even think about why they’re so exceptional. To them, American exceptionalism goes without saying.
The past few decades have seen growing polarisation between America’s political left and right, both of which have become increasingly critical of the US for failing to meet their ideals. The left thinks the US doesn’t embody the concept of equality enough, the right thinks it does too much. The left blames the right for everything and the right blames the left. But both of them, especially the right, are for the most part convinced that the United States is a unique nation that simply does not live up to its exceptionalism and its mission.
Of course, in academic literature you’ll find reflections for or against the notion of US exceptionalism. But they’re written in a language inaccessible to the average US citizen and published in journals that nobody reads.
If we look at the general discourse, I would say that the myth of exceptionalism has been and remains fundamental to the USA’s national identity. America wouldn’t be America without it.
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The red baseball cap that won the election
Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) was born on 7 November 2012, four years before he first ran for president. The story has been told in detail by The Washington Post.
Trump was sitting in his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan the day after the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, had lost out to Barack Obama in the presidential race.
Different versions of a phrase kept running through his head, and he kept refining it.
"Make America Great." That sounded insulting to the country – as if it had never been great before.
Finally it hit him.
"Make America Great Again."
"I went to my lawyers. I have a lot of lawyers in-house. I said, ‘See if you can have this registered and trademarked’," Trump recalled in an interview.
Five days later, he signed a patent application for the exclusive rights to use the slogan "Make America Great Again" and paid a US$325 registration fee.
Trump didn’t care that Ronald Reagan, for instance, had used this slogan in his 1980 election campaign.
"He didn’t trademark it," Trump said.
In the universe where Trump is God the Father, things are only deemed to exist if a patent has been granted and a registration fee paid.
There were no groundbreaking ideas in Trump’s election campaign, but his slogan "Make America Great Again" brought comfort in a time of pain to a country weary after two terms of Obama and the Democrats.
Steve Bannon, the chief strategist for Trump’s 2016 election campaign, advised him to keep it simple. "She [Hillary Clinton] is the guardian of a corrupt and incompetent establishment that is revelling in the face of decline. You are the guardian of the forgotten people who want to make America great again." Democrats accused Bannon of racism, anti-Semitism and sexism, but that didn’t stop him from becoming one of the most influential members of the Trump administration. In 2024 he was jailed for four months on charges of contempt of Congress and refusing to provide documents for the investigation into the 6 January 2021 riots at the Capitol.
Trump's recipe for "making America great" consisted of three main points. Stop illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration. Bring manufacturing jobs back to the country. Stop getting involved in wars abroad.
It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the 2016 election was won by a red MAGA baseball cap.
"There were plenty of snickers when his Federal Election Commission filings showed that his campaign was spending more on ‘Make America Great Again’ trucker caps than on polling, political consultants, staff or television ads," The Washington Post wrote on the eve of Trump's first inauguration in January 2017.
Before he took office, Trump told his aides that every day of his presidency should be like an episode of a TV show in which he defeats his rivals.
Trump also used the series principle to choose the slogan for his second presidential campaign in 2020. "Make America Great Again" was supposed to be replaced by "Keep America Great".
But it couldn’t recapture that magic. After Trump lost the election, it was under the banner of "America First" that his supporters stormed the Capitol in January 2021.
The world is waiting for Trump's second inauguration speech in January 2025.
"Even two years ago, most analysts thought the likelihood of him returning was minimal," says Professor Motyl. "But the Trump we have today is far worse than the one who was first elected president eight years ago. The things we’re hearing him say today are about destroying every element of the liberal international order – trade, alliances, the inviolability of borders, migration, human rights."
Trump's hardcore Americanism and Ukraine
Alexander Motyl:
MAGA is not a Trump innovation. All US presidents have pursued the America First policy in one way or another. The US is the most important, the strongest, the most influential, the richest, the best, etc.
There was rhetoric like this during the Clinton, Obama and Biden eras too, but it was subdued. It was a version of soft Americanism.
Trump is reviving hardcore Americanism. He’s doing what he wants to do and what ought to be beneficial for America. But there’s a twist: what’s best for America is decided by Trump himself. If it was at least the Republican Party that was deciding, then okay, why not? But given Trump’s personality, you have to wonder how he makes sure he knows what should be a priority.
A friend of mine, an influential journalist with connections to insiders in Washington, told me a couple of weeks ago that Trump never reads anything. He watches Fox News and gets his information from his advisers, his sons, and maybe Melania.
His European partners expect him to have a clear strategy. He can’t deliver one. He doesn’t think in terms of logic.
This is who Trump is, and this is the new reality we’re going to have to live in.
One constraint on Trump is that the American political system is still democratic. Will it remain so for the next few years, or maybe even months? I hope that democratic institutions are strong and flexible enough to survive.
But I think the biggest risk to Trump's plans is from the incoming Trump administration itself. To a large extent, these are incompetent people. Like his nominee for defense secretary [Pete Hegseth] – the person who’ll have to make changes in the Pentagon. The Pentagon is a monster, and this man has nothing to do with defence, still less bureaucracy.
What’s positive for Ukraine in all this? Strangely enough, Trump’s very nature.
He’s a narcissist, and in his own eyes, he’s a messiah. When we take a closer look at Putin, we see the same traits. Putin also believes he’s a saviour – Make Russia Great Again. Given Trump's personality, his hot-headedness, his impulsiveness, I find it hard to imagine Trump and Putin coexisting.
To some extent, Trump created a trap for himself when he promised that he could end the war in 24 hours or one hundred days.
If, God forbid, some kind of disaster happened in Ukraine, it would hit Trump himself incredibly hard. He doesn’t really care about Ukraine. But to start his presidency with a disaster that would show that he’s weaker even than Biden – sleepy Joe Biden who couldn’t pull US troops out of Afghanistan properly – that would simply be unacceptable to Trump. That’s where I see hope for Ukraine.
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Deus ex machina (God from the machine) was the name given in ancient theatre to an actor who descended from heaven to the stage by means of a special crane and saved the characters from a situation where there was no way out. There was often no logic or credibility about these endings. But what kind of logic and credibility can there be when it comes to MAGical thinking, where the main narrative is "God will come and set things right"?
Deus ex machina is exactly the role the 47th President of the United States sees himself playing on the stage of global geopolitics.
In late April 2015, Trump was asked how he felt about the idea of American exceptionalism.
"I don't like the term. I don't think it's a very nice term, 'We're exceptional'... First of all, I want to take everything back from the world that we've given them. We've given them so much."
When Trump says he wants to take back everything that Americans have given to the world, instead of a deus ex machina, we have a humanoid Grinch appearing on stage – one who lives alone on a mountain-top and steals Christmas.
But unlike Trump, the Grinch at least had a strategy.
Mykhailo Kryhel, UP
Translation: Myroslava Zavadska and Violetta Yurkiv
Editing: Teresa Pearce
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