How Trump fits the "great man" theory of history -- sort of

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How Trump fits the “great man” theory of history — sort of
Is Donald Trump the kind of world-historical figure imagined by Hegel? In an upside-down way, yes

By Mike Lofgren
Contributing Writer
Published March 28, 2026 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon)

Isaw the Emperor — this world-soul (Weltseele) — riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over the world and masters it.
— G.W.F. Hegel

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
— H.L. Mencken

All credit goes to John B. Judis, formerly of In These Times and the New Republic, for his ecumenical spirit. A lifelong democratic socialist, Judis has authored a scrupulously fair biography of William F. Buckley Jr., and has lately pondered the world-historical significance of Donald John Trump through the philosophical lens of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

....(snip)....

Judis proceeds to outline all the ways in which Trump, like the titans of Hegel’s metaphysical reflections, brought down the existing order in such a way that there can be no going back to the status quo ante. He cites the collapse of the laissez-faire and free-trade consensus in economics and the dissolution of the post-World War II security architecture centered on NATO and other longstanding mutual defense treaties.

This is of course true; these arrangements had weakened over the last two decades and were ripe for supersession. But the distinctive thing about Trump – and Judis doesn’t quite make this explicit – is that any hypothetical president could have adopted an economic nationalist program (as Joe Biden did, at least in part), or could have weakened the U.S. link to NATO, even withdrawn from it altogether (which Trump has not done — so far). Yet another future president might have retraced a path toward more balanced economic or security policies once the disadvantages of trade wars or diplomatic and military isolation became obvious.

But Trump, in large part through his feral nastiness and adolescent vulgarity, has made that sort of reversal all but impossible. A hypothetical president might have distanced himself from NATO, but it’s inconceivable that he would covet an alliance partner’s territory to the point where that government made plans to blow up the airfields in the coveted territory in case of invasion, as Denmark has reportedly done. Even if that president were stupid enough to plunge into a Middle East war, it is unlikely the would have besought the prime minister in charge of the world’s fourth-largest navy for assistance in opening the Strait of Hormuz by insulting her with juvenile remarks about Pearl Harbor. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/03/28/how-trump-fits-the-great-man-theory-of-history-sort-of/