When Trump speaks, we must take him literally
Donald Trump’s threat to essentially sic Russia on “delinquent” NATO members has produced a familiar reaction from the dark side: Take him seriously, not literally.
Oh, really? You mean the way some of us did back in the day? Never again.
Seven years ago, I wrote an infamous column based on my certainty that he would win the 2016 election, beating Hillary Clinton. Our institutions would ensure our survival no matter who won, I argued. I mistakenly averred, in one example, that Donald Trump was bluffing when he promised to halt immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Ha. As we learned, he wasn’t. Now, he’s promising to expand his first-term bans to people trying to escape the war in Gaza. In October, he told an Iowa crowd that he’d also initiate “ideological screenings” of all immigrants.
Absurd? Of course. It’s not only that such screenings would ignore basic civil liberties but also, by the way, people lie. Trump surely knows this. What we should know – from experience – is that Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks have a way of becoming policy, at least for a time. Thus, it is only rational to take his literalness seriously.
When the former president said during a recent campaign stop at South Carolina’s Coastal Carolina University that he wouldn’t stop Russia from going after countries who weren’t paying their fair share as members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, I believed him 100 percent. Still more dangerously stupid, he said he would “encourage” Russia to attack our NATO allies who haven’t met their financial obligations.
Dear Sweden: Are you sure you want to join this club?
Would Trump really encourage Putin to invade another country, even as Republican support for Ukraine is wavering? Would he withdraw the United States from NATO, as he previously has suggested? To be safe, we ought to assume he might, especially if he were sufficiently agitated by some perceived slight or his apparent need to impress Putin.
Nothing in the man’s history suggests he would become thoughtful and reflective in a second term. When has he ever weighed his words before blurting them to rile a crowd or draw applause? What drives his impulse to threaten the nation’s sense of stability rather than calm the electorate?
At a minimum, no one running for president should talk like this. The world is watching and listening. Remember that Putin has long dreamed of a weakened NATO, which for nearly 75 years has more or less successfully deterred aggression by Russia and the Soviet Union. Putin is happy to take Trump’s threats against the coalition literally. American voters need to do the same.
Here is the literal truth: Donald Trump shouldn’t be allowed to retake the White House, pull our country out of NATO and use the Justice Department to punish his critics, as he seems to think he can.
Voters have to listen as closely as Putin does because Trump is saying the scary part out loud. He doesn’t think his ideas are wrong or outlandish.
If you cherish the idea of an authoritarian president who has no regard for the rule of law or democracy, then of course Trump is your reward. But know this: Trump doesn’t really like his supporters, either. Loyalty will be no shield when his gaze eventually turns your way. There is a ray of hope for the rest of us. Trump, the would-be martyr, also said in Iowa: “I am willing to go to jail if that’s what it takes for our country to become a democracy again.”
Bravo, Mr. Trump. You may get your chance.