In 1792, Alexander Hamilton Warned Us About Trump’s Ominous Advent to Power
Varna, Bulgaria, January 24th, 2020
Salaroche


In watching the live coverage of the Impeachment Trial over the Internet this past couple of days, some of us have come to deepen our appreciation of some of the wise and determining reasonings involved in the framing of the US Constitution.

There is certainly very little room for doubting the wisdom of the United States’ Founding Fathers. After all, the nation-building project they envisioned, as embossed in the Constitution they drafted, has kept the nation largely on the intended democratic path for a little over 230 years, which doesn’t at all mean the road down to our present times has been in any way smooth.

The one thing that is perfectly undeniable in the sociopolitical framework they designed is their very clear and unabashed understanding of human nature. They knew, with the utmost certainty, that human beings are corruptible, sometimes down to their deepest moral core, and they knew without a doubt that one of the most perilous pitfalls for human morals is having power over the rest of the people. “Power corrupts” goes the saying, “but absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 57 – 1804) was no longer alive when Sir John Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902) remarked the quotation mentioned above, but he was already quite aware of the veracity of that remark. Actually, Hamilton took for granted the possibility that a deeply corrupted individual could someday gain the presidency of the United States.

On August 18th, 1792, in a letter sent to George Washington, in a clear display of prescience, Alexander Hamilton basically foresaw the advent of Donald Trump to the White House, thereby warning us all about such an ominous event.

In the letter, entitled "Objections and Answers Respecting the Administration", Hamilton stated the following:

"When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the ability of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanor—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may 'ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.'"

Unless you are a Fox News junkie, meaning one of those “Trump-no-matter-what” idol-worshippers, you probably noticed plenty of similarities between Hamilton’s description of the undesirable populist and Donald Trump’s real-life character. In case you didn’t detect such similarities, however, please allow me to outline them for you.

In the first line of his letter, Hamilton says "When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune…”, which basically describes Trump’s already unprincipled life before he took office. Please remember Trump was accused by a few women of sexual misconduct before the election. He even admitted to grabbing women “by the pussy” in the Access Hollywood tapes.

Previously, in 1973, the Department of Justice had already sued Trump and his father Fred for housing discrimination in 39 different locations, to which the Trumps reached a settlement promising not to do it again. Trump has also been linked to the New York concrete Mafia in the 1980s, as well as with John Gotti, of the famed Gambino crime family.

Then there is the story of the Trump University scam, which didn’t even have an educational license authorized by the State of New York. In 2010, Trump had to settle a related suit against the school and had to pay the amount of US$25 million.

Better known to the public are the four times Trump has filed for bankruptcy, in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. Just picture how many other people and companies went unpaid by the Trump organization after those bankruptcy filings.
The first-line warning in Hamilton’s letter, therefore, fits Trump’s character perfectly well.

The second line, “…bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the ability of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanor…”, also fits Trump very well. “Bold in his temper” equals Trump’s shameless behavior in doubling down on almost every single lie he tells the American people, “…possessed of considerable talents…” refers to his able demagoguery in fooling a good portion of the American electorate.

The line “…having the ability of military habits…” does not apply to Trump literally, as he dodged the military draft at least a couple of times, but it does apply to his ability to keep his idol-worshipping henchmen in Congress in line via tweeter threats and “…Despotic in his ordinary demeanor…” refers to Trump’s complete unwillingness to listen to any advice or suggestion that may go against his narcissistic instincts.

The line “…known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty…” may refer to Trump’s overt tampering with the national elections and his clear willingness to bypass the will of the people at the ballot box. Trump hasn’t done that in private, as Hamilton outlined, but openly in front of the TV cameras.

The next line cannot be clearer in describing Trump’s behavior since he took office in January 2017, “…when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion…”. Can this line be any more eerie in its prophetic description of Trump’s behavior?

Who, but anyone suffering from the most abject case of Trump idolatry, can deny that, from the beginning of his presidency, Trump has taken every opportunity to embarrass the FBI, the CIA, the Military, Congress, the Justice Department and the State Department, not to mention individual judges, diplomats and war heroes? At this point in time, it should go without saying that Trump has indeed taken every opportunity to demean the General Goverment of the United States, thereby placing it under suspicion in the eyes of the American people and those of the rest of the world.

Finally, the line “…(when such a man is seen) to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day…” cannot, again, be more clear in defining Trump’s shameless and subservient stance when in the company of despots of the Putin and Kim, Jun-un kind, and his deference to authoritarian characters of the Erdogan and Duterte sort.

To cap it all, Hamilton goes on to warn us that, when such behavior is evident in the person of a public figure, particularly in that of the president of the United states, “…It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may 'ride the storm and direct the whirlwind,’” which is exactly what Donald Trump has been sowing in the sociopolitical reality of the United States ever since he announced his candidacy in June 2015, confusion, so that he may “direct the whirlwind” from his tweeter perch.

As some of you may see, nothing in this short interpretation of Hamilton’s letter to Washington is farfetched. Obviously, I’m not the only one having reached to such conclusions. The practical meaning I have gathered in reading that letter had already been obtained by the Democratic House Managers presenting the case against Trump during the ongoing Impeachment Trial, otherwise they wouldn’t have alluded to that letter more than a couple of times thus far in the process.

I don’t have to be a Christian to understand the wisdom in many of the sayings written in the Bible, but there is a particular one attributed to Jesus that clearly applies to our Trumpist brethren in the present circumstances: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” 

Let the universal forces open their eyes, so that they may see, and open their ears, so that they may hear.

…in the meantime… the beat goes on…

Salaroche