The press conference following the confidential Trump/Putin summit has caused an uproar as Trump was characterized as defending Russia over authoritative American voices concerning Russia’s behavior, etc. This, in turn, has led to increasing observations, including from myself, that Trump is acting not as a free agent, but as someone who has been compromised by a foreign power, presumably (but not necessarily) that being Russia.
In the spirit of contrarianism, which is at the heart of honest intellectual investigation, I present an alternative hypothesis, discarded by many in favor of the aforementioned hypothesis, to explain Trump’s behavior.
The hypothesis is that Trump, admiring, as do most people, the strong, decisive leader, is simply mimicking those he admires. Notice that he’s expressed admiration not only for Putin, but as well for Duterte of The Philippines and Xi Jinping of China. Even Kim of North Korea, in between insults, has also been buttered up.
This is not a particularly new hypothesis, but it’s worth exploring a couple of facets. First, because Trump not only admires Putin, but may have actually elevated him to a cult-like status, Trump may have easily become what his own followers have become: an enthusiastic tribalist, a follower of strong-man Trump. It becomes relatively easy to find examples among Trump’s tribalists in their behavior towards him that Trump himself is indulging in: defending or trivializing behaviors which, in reality, are quite appalling and unacceptable, proclaiming negative news to be fake news, and that sort of thing.
Secondly, it’s reflective of Trump’s disregard, or lack of respect, for proper procedure. The heart of the liberal democracy which has brought so much to Americans and others of Western Civilization is the recognition of the importance of proper procedures, by which I mean those which bring justice, and safeguard against injustice. Government, as I’ve said many times before, is a different animal from the private sector, and so Trump, who has famously refused to pay his suppliers (an accepted procedure of the private sector), has tried to bring his autocratic style to an institution and sector which has emphatically rejected it as inimical to its very heart.
Putin and Duterte are well known for their essential disdain for good procedure, the former because it would threaten his position, the latter because that appeal to the “strong-man” image of ripping up “troublesome” procedures obstructing progress on important issues was his key to winning a victory. Kim, of course, feels free to ignore good procedure whenever he feels threatened, although the folks at 38 North will point out that poor procedure can have negative results even in an imperious autocracy; Xi may be the most likely to follow procedures, even as he has become the autarch of China.
Trump, as has been extensively noted, has always felt rules applied to others, but not to himself, particularly when it comes to profit. For him, result is all, and procedures meant to safeguard the general institution, be it government or the entire private sector, are mere nettlesome and unneeded regulations. In this regard, he’s similar to his idols, Putin, Duterte, Kim, and Xi, and because he sees them as successful, he sees his own disregard for procedure to be emblematic of his success, no matter how dubious his self-proclaimed successes may be.
That, in a nutshell, is the alternative explanation for his behaviors. I don’t claim it’s better than having been compromised, I simply suggest it as another way to view the debacle currently under way.
