Abstract
As a candidate and as President, Donald Trump’s rhetoric of “Make America Great Again” echoed policies of the Whig Party, including tariffs, internal improvements, immigration, and war. He adopts the Whig championing of striving Americans. Without overt references, Trump reflects Lincoln in his emphasis on patriotism and duty of Americans toward each other. Trump’s nationalism is not one of race but of a common good in one country. Both the 16th and 45th presidents identified conspiracies against the people’s liberties (“the slave power” and “rigged system”), a majority faction. Both promoted patriotism in a multiracial, multicultural nation. Trump’s inaugural address, among his principal speeches, synopsizes his contrarian policies on borders, trade, war, and political correctness. As Harry Jaffa has shown with Lincoln, classical political philosophy, especially Aristotle’s teaching on the best regime and friendship of virtue, illuminates the intentions of both presidents and provides the standards of their success and failure.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
As a “methodological” issue: Why even bother to look at speeches? Isn’t the real Trump the tweeter? Aren’t his books ghost-written? But this overlooks the purpose of the tweets and the message in the books. We need not inquire into the extent of Trump’s Jesuit education in logic and rhetoric at Fordham University.
In the 1980s columnist George Will offered an insight into Trump’s national outlook and ambitions.
Donald Trump is not being reasonable … But, then, man does not live by reason alone, fortunately. Trump, who believes that excess can be a virtue, is as American as Manhattan’s skyline, which expresses the Republic’s erupting energies. He says the skyscraper is necessary because it is unnecessary. He believes architectural exuberance is good for us [and] he may have a point. Brashness, zest and elan are part of this country’s character.
George Will, as quoted in Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, (New York: Ballantine Books, 2015, originally published 1987), p. 341.
The March 1990 Playboy interview reveals something of Trump’s self-understanding and his long-standing political ambition: http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboy-interview-donald-trump-1990.
- Playboy::
-
How large a role does pure ego play in your deal making and enjoyment of publicity?
- Trump::
-
Every successful person has a very large ego.
- Playboy::
-
Every successful person? Mother Teresa? Jesus Christ?
- Trump::
-
Far greater egos than you will ever understand.
- 2.
The “slave power” label originated from the fleeting flash of the now defunct, iconoclastic pro-Trumpism website The Journal of American Greatness, succeeded by American Greatness, https://amgreatness.com/.
- 3.
The study of Lincoln here relies on Harry V. Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982, originally published 1959).
- 4.
Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Slaveholding Republic, compiled and edited by Ward M. McAfee (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
- 5.
Jaffa , Crisis, 228.
- 6.
“[James] Ceaser’s characterization of Trump as “post-ideological” misses that Trump is in fact pre-ideological—he thinks in terms of the whole American nation, not in terms of the groups that comprise it. Trump is more like Lincoln at Gettysburg than Madison in Federalist 10.” See my reflections on Trump’s campaign in this book review of James Ceaser, et al., Defying the Odds: The 2016 Elections and American Politics, https://amgreatness.com/2017/06/30/coarse-correction-real-significance-2016-election/.
- 7.
See Marc Sable, “Learning and Humor, Friendship and Democratic Politics,” in “Lincoln’s Virtues and Aristotle’s Ethics,” unpublished manuscript, 2016. On the compromise of friendship, see Eva Brann, “On Compromise,” a lecture delivered at the John M. Ashbrook Center, Ashland University, October 27, 2017. http://ashbrook.org/event/eva-t-brann/.
- 8.
Inaugural Address, January 20, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/inaugural-address. Key Lincoln speeches on similar themes include his First Inaugural, March 4, 1861; Speech to Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859; and his speech to the 166th Ohio Regiment, August 22, 1864.
- 9.
“Remarks to Congress,” February 28, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/28/remarks-president-trump-joint-address-congress. Key Lincoln speeches on similar themes include his July 4, 1861 Message to Congress; his Cooper Institute speech, February 27, 1860; speech at Independence Hall, February 22, 1861; and Sanitary Fair speech, April 18, 1864.
- 10.
- 11.
The Warsaw speech is here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/07/06/remarks-president-trump-people-poland-july-6-2017. For foreign policy purposes, this speech should be compared and contrasted with his Saudi Arabia Summit remarks. May 21, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/21/president-trumps-speech-arab-islamic-american-summit.
- 12.
Indeed, Trump sees the West as founded on Socratic inquiry: “And we debate everything. We challenge everything. We seek to know everything so that we can better know ourselves.” Lincoln speeches on similar themes include his Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865; Chicago, July 10, 1858; and his early Perpetuation, January 27, 1838, and Temperance Addresses, February 22, 1842.
- 13.
See the op-ed by F.H. Buckley, “How Trump Won: In Two Dimensions,” Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2017. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-trump-won-in-two-dimensions-1502320256.
References
Brann, Eva. “On Compromise,” a Lecture Delivered at the John M. Ashbrook Center, Ashland University, October 27, 2017. http://ashbrook.org/event/eva-t-brann/.
Buckley, F.H. “How Trump Won: In Two Dimensions,” Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2017. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-trump-won-in-two-dimensions-1502320256.
Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Slaveholding Republic. Compiled and Edited by Ward M. McAfee. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the House Divided. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. Originally Published 1959.
Journal of American Greatness. On-line Journal. Succeeded by American Greatness. https://amgreatness.com/.
Lincoln, Abraham. Available Online. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/. His major writings may be found in Lincoln, Abraham. Writings of Abraham Lincoln. Edited and with an Introduction by Steven Smith, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
Masugi, Ken. “Coarse Correction.” Review of James Ceaser, et al., Defying the Odds: The 2016 Elections and American Politics. https://amgreatness.com/2017/06/30/coarse-correction-real-significance-2016-election/. American Greatness Online Journal, June 30, 2017.
———. Bimonthly Postings. American Greatness. Online Journal. https://amgreatness.com/author/ken-masugi/.
Trump, Donald. Donald Trump Interview. Playboy, March 1990. http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboy-interview-donald-trump-1990.
———. The Art of the Deal. New York: Ballantine Books, 2015. Originally Published 1987.
———. Presidential Speeches. Inaugural Address, January 20, 2017; “Remarks to Congress,” February 28, 2017; Warsaw Speech, July 6, 2017; Saudi Arabia Summit Remarks. May 21, 2017; United Nations remarks, September 19, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-and-remarks.
———. Trump Campaign Speeches and Remarks Are Collected at Various Websites, Including C-SPAN. https://www.c-span.org/person/?donaldtrump, and the American Presidency Project, Hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara Site. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/2016_election_speeches.php?candidate=45&campaign=2016TRUMP&doctype=5000.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Masugi, K. (2018). The Great Emancipators Oppose the “Slave Power”: The Lincolnian—and Aristotelian—Dimensions of Trump’s Rhetoric. In: Jaramillo Torres, A., Sable, M. (eds) Trump and Political Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74445-2_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74445-2_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74444-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74445-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)