Trump presidency is all about fear of the unknown

The name Donald Trump is synonymous with impulsiveness, fear, war-mongering, if not some juicy insult freely retailed on Trump’s Twitter handle. The insults Trump throws at others would be mere fodder for gossipers if Trump wasn’t the president of the United States of America. Why? Because the USA is not just some geographical point on the globe.

America may no longer be the only superpower in the world today — clearly China is a superpower, whatever way one wants to look at it — but America is still a big bull on the field. From being the trendsetter in technological innovation, to being the centre of global financial dealings, America is still the place that defines global identity — think sports, fashion, music, film, or the whole identity politics thing.

So, why does Trump evoke so much fear, disdain or even hatred in some people today? Why is Trump not a ‘normal’ president that people all over the world expected of the occupant of the White House? Because Trump was never a conventional candidate for the president of the USA; Trump probably never expected to be nominated by his party or even to win the presidency. And because Trump is not necessarily beholden to any major constituency that has significant sway on the American president, he behaves exactly as if America is just another of his companies. And isn’t America just one big business!

AFRAID

Trump scares people because, like any other businessman running a personal company, he often, too often, speaks his mind, can betray friends without appearing to be morally disturbed, would insult a leader of a friendly or enemy company without qualms, or he would hire and fire members of his government without following the many bureaucratic norms that a ‘normal’ president would have to contend with. Trump is Trump’s own man. He is neither conservative nor liberal. He is driven by a personal ‘profit’ motive — it doesn’t matter the consequences of his words or actions, all he needs is to gain an advantage.

But is that not what many politicians would wish to be? Is this not the kind of president we probably would wish to have in this country? Reading Bob Woodward’s book Fear: Trump in the White House (Simon & Schuster, 2018) leaves one without doubt that not many people will ever know what drives Trump. How can a man not have loyalty to anyone as Trump is? How can the president of America be so disdainful of protocol and bureaucratic order? How can a father, husband and son speak so disparagingly about women? Trump, Bob Woodward tells the reader, is a man afraid of being over-influenced or being controlled by the Washington politicians and bureaucrats. As a shrewd businessman, he knows that every piece of advice, even from the best of his advisors, is about some ‘interest.’

But the other fear, it seems, is that Trump holds his cards close to his heart. Woodward seems to suggest in Fear that no one, not even his closest advisors, knows what card Trump will pull out at any one time. The best example of this state of affairs is the way Trump parted ways with Steve Bannon, the man credited with popularising Trump’s presidential candidacy. Bannon believed that he had Trump’s ear. But when the end came, Trump dismissed, disowned and dissed him.

Trump is quoted to have said, “Real power is — I don’t want even to use the word — fear”, when he was running for the president of the USA. Thus, it is not just by chance that the White House is a place dominated by fear. What would a bureaucrat who has prepared a very diplomatic speech do when his boss veers off the politeness of such an occasion and begins to speak his mind using nasty words?

Or as Bob Woodward writes in Fear quoting one of Trump’s advisor saying, “In some moments it was almost the incapacity of the president to be president”, how are his handlers expected to respond in such situations? That real power derives from fear is a truism. There can never be political power if the person exercising that power isn’t feared. The very foundations of modern politics rely on inducing fear in those who oppose the status quo or even the citizens.

FEAR-INDUCING PRESIDENT

Thus, Trump mongered fear throughout the campaigns against Hillary Clinton. His misogynist utterances were meant to induce fear in men that a takeover by women would lead to their emasculation. He spoke in a manner to suggest to white middle class or working Americans that their livelihoods were threatened by Latinos or immigrants. The fear of a foreign invasion, apparently carrying with it diseases, violence and death, apparently explains Trump’s obsession with erecting a wall on the border with Mexico.

It shouldn’t have been surprising, therefore, to the civil servants tasked with managing Trump that he would be a fear-inducing president. One who isn’t committed to the old ideals of global politics, seeing America as a global policeman, a bigger funder of the United Nations and other global ‘do-good’ organisations and initiatives, a protector of weaker nations against aggression from neighbours etc. Trump arrived in the White House with a promise to Americans to make America great again. Clearly, he never spelt out how exactly he would reinstate America’s greatness.

However, even the vague ideas of returning Americans corporations that had relocated to countries where labour was cheaper and where they paid less taxes, and stopping the migration wave which supposedly took jobs away from Americans, resonated with the constituency that voted for and made him to the president. Trump’s ideas and ideals themselves were founded in a fear that has been coursing through the world, a fear that has separated Britain from Europe, a fear that one sees in Italy today — a fear founded on the return of nationalism, even as globalisation is touted to have flattened the world into one big village.

In Fear, Bob Woodward shows us what fears drive Trump to erratic action, as well as the fears that define his presidency. Fear among friends and foes that the president is could easily be driven over the edge of sanity by a hounding media. Fear by his advisors and handlers that he could easily cause a major global crisis through his unpredictable twitter rants.

But was the fear of Trump unexpected? Did those who supported him during the campaigns expect that he would really become ‘presidential’ — a nice phrase that means controllable? Was there any doubt that he would behave like Trump the judge on The Apprentice? Woodward’s book shows not just the difficulty of being the president of America — something Trump may never have imagined — but also the fact that the tragedy of Trump’s presidency is that there seems to be nobody around Trump who really ‘knows’ who Trump is.

Fear is not Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff, for it invites the reader to inspect Trump’s life, through the eyes of others, and make up their own minds. This is a very compelling reading, quite suitable for the Christmas break.

Dr Odhiambo teaches literature at the University of Nairobi. [email protected]