Trump as Ozymandias: The Bleak Moral Desert That Will Be His legacy
Vast graveyards of reputations are filled with the brittle bones of blindly ambitious old men.
The heated debate about presidents and old age leads me to wonder: what drives the ambitions of men in or approaching their ninth decade of life? To me, old age and ambition seem incongruous, even sinful, like oatmeal prepared by a Michelin chef. What’s the point?
In the race for the White House, I can forgive 81-year old Joe Biden for wanting a second term in order to “finish the job.” Biden, after all, entered politics at 29 and has never left. What I don’t get is what drives 77-year old Donald Trump, whose only turn at public office was a failed and chaotic single term as president, one that has saddled him with two impeachments, 91 felony counts, likely bankruptcy and possible jail time — not to mention a legacy of treason. It is widely believed that he is running again in in order to try to escape legal punishment. But I believe it is more than that.
This gets us into into psychoanalytical and literary territory.
First, to the psychoanalytical. Research suggests that ambition tends to level off as we enter middle age. The youthful drive to succeed and achieve gives way to resting on one’s laurels, enjoying the fruits of one’s life and the family. There is a point in the aging process when reflection begins to eclipse ego.
Sure, there are plenty of people who retain ambition into old age, though seldom does it take the form of raging passion and overreach much less ardently seeking vengeance and retribution on one’s enemies. Such people tend to have disordered personalities. Donald Trump is a prime example.
In their 2023 paper, “Ambition and Its Psychopathologies,” psychiatrists Joel Yager and Jerald Kay explore the link between ambition and narcissism (they neither analyze Trump nor cite his name).
Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder are overly boastful; exaggerate their achievements; pretend superiority to others; lack empathy; look down on others as inferior; monopolize conversations; are impatient, angry, unhappy, depressed or experience mood swings when criticized; are easily disappointed when expected importance is not given; always crave “the best” in everything; and have very fragile self-esteem.
They add that malignantly “narcissistic individuals may initially seem charming, but they frequently use the word ‘I’ in conversation, and progressively seem self-centered, game-playing, controlling, and deceptive.”
Yager and Kay further address what form ambition takes when it is merged with a Machiavellian personality, specifically: callousness, cynicism regarding human nature, lack of conventional morality, exploiting others for personal gain, psychopathy and impulsivity. They refer to a “dark tetrad” which includes “sadism, manifest as direct verbal, direct physical, and/or indirect sadism — enjoying violence committed by others… These qualities damage numerous domestic and workplace interactions through domestic abuse, bullying, cyberbullying, disinformation promulgation, and numerous other deceptive and threatening practices. When these dark qualities anneal with various levels of ambition, resulting blends may yield destructive, ruthless ambition in individuals.”
The higher these “dark” ambitious individuals rise in their organization and family hierarchies, the more destructive their actions can be. In positions of influence, these individuals can inflict significant harms on those they impact, not only individuals but entire organizations, families, or even nations. At the apex are figures designated “beyond the realm of treatment,” individuals rarely if ever seen in ordinary clinical settings… In this group are the Hitlers, Stalins, and Mao Zedongs of the world, whose ruthless ambitions, set in dark personalities and paranoias, result in millions of deaths. Many autocratic leaders with similar traits are evident throughout today’s world, and most citizens can probably cite current or recent heads of state meeting these criteria.
I can! — Donald Trump.
Doctors Yager and Kay capture succinctly, in my view, that which manically drives Trump. The average lifespan of a White male in America today is 73.7 years. Trump turns 78 in June. Disregard the apocryphal health assessments put out by his pliant doctors. Note his stiff gait, his riding in a golf cart at summit meetings when the other leaders were walking, his slurred and often incoherent speech. Dementia runs in his family, not helped by a lifelong garbage diet and lack of exercise. And the stress he is under has to be excruciating.
As his contemporaries dwell on their grandchildren and revel in their golden years enjoying life, Donald Trump spits oaths to hound his enemies. Perhaps his mind is so addled that he also never reflects on his legacy. Despite the MAGA claptrap, Trump and his hostaged GOP have no platform, no coherent compendium of policy positions on key issues. It’s all grunts, verbal attacks, sneers and brain farts.
Now to the literary.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological costs of political ambition on those who crave power. Macbeth himself is often depicted as an aging monarch. Trump can be seen as a latter-day Macbeth, just as self-destructive, but dumber.
Imagine Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson as the THREE WITCHES, chanting to Trump:
By the pricking of our thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
We’ll charm the air to give a sound,
While you perform your antic round,
That this great king may kindly say,
Our duties did his welcome pay.
TRUMP:
I am in blood. Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more.
WITCHES:
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Final scene - Trump defeated and dejected:
Now does he feel his title,
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe,
upon a dwarfish thief.
And as for Trump’s legacy, Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” comes to mind. Crumbling ruins of a near forgotten ancient ruler stand bleakly in the middle of a vast desert wasteland:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Trump would have best spent his last years doting on his grandchildren.