Are you proud to be an American yet? Donald the Dominator has single-handedly revived American imperialism with the “Donroe Doctrine.” Forget his silly “taking” the Gulf of Mexico and renaming it the Gulf of America ––that was so small time, like child’s play with a sharpie. This is more like it! We’re taking it right to Venezuela, Greenland, Cuba, and Colombia (oh and don’t forget Canada, soon to be “our” 51st state). These are all nations, in his mind, to occupy or control, to serve America First and America “like you’ve never seen before.”
To some, Trump’s hyper-masculinity posing is a welcome relief from all those gun-hating, limp-wristed, regulation-loving, freedom-hating milquetoast liberals who “sip chardonnay, drive Volvos, and watch their pronouns.” “Daddy’s home,” tweeted Representative Lauren Boebert when Trump was re-elected ––as though that meant that order and discipline would soon be restored. Of course, it’s obvious that Dumpster Trumpster may be a political genius at manipulating voters, but he is notably undisciplined and chaotic. Oh well, the MAGA base might say, “niceties” like order, discipline, and the “rule of law” are just for sissy girly-men who can’t seem to “fix it.” We’re finally cleaning up “the carnage!”
That is, many “Trumpistas” are still delighted by Trump, not only with the oh so manly manliness of his approach to foreign policy, but also with domestic aggressiveness –– deploying federal troops to “blue” cities, issuing edicts that ignore Congress and the Constitution, destroying the East Wing and trashing much of the federal bureaucracy he likes to call the “deep state.”
Finally, they “think,” America” has a “true leader” who just cuts through the crap and “gets it done.” As the banner I still have from 2020 says, “Trump 2020: No More Bullshit.” (It cost only $4.99 including shipping; who could resist that red, white and blue souvenir of these strange times?)
And what explains the MAGA admiration for Mr. Trump’s massive ego being the big bully and delighting in foreign leaders “kissing his ass” to get better tariff deals? (Imagine having to kiss your boss’ ass in repentance for something he thought you did wrong; the perfect emasculating humiliation, right? Which is exactly why Trump loved saying that foreign leaders were calling him to “kiss his ass” when he announced, without Congressional input, his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Recent large-sample psychological work reports that people who rate Trump highly tend to score higher on malevolent traits such as Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathic tendencies, and lower on empathy and compassion, patterns that align with greater comfort with aggression and dominance in politics.
Other research finds Trump supporters scoring higher than other voters on scales measuring authoritarianism and social-dominance orientation, suggesting a preference for a strong leader who will “crush” perceived enemies and keep their own in‑group up on top. In that sense, “Daddy Trump” has become a kind of “father figure” to many in the MAGA movement.
But behind all this bravado and bullying lies some deep insecurities, not only within Mr. Trump’s psyche –– he may never be emotionally satisfied, even if the U.S. becomes the United States of Trump –– but also among his ardent supporters. At a pre-inauguration event, musician Kid Rock added the words “daddy’s home” to the song he was performing. Around the same time, die-hard MAGA Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said on a Fox News panel “Daddy’s back,” Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado tweeted “Daddy’s home,” and conservative influencer Charlie Kirk posted, “Dad is home.”
But not all “daddies” act in commendable ways with their children. Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and Donald Trump’s niece, describes household where Donald grew up as “abusive and neglectful,” emphasizing Fred Trump’s verbal cruelty, rejection, and emotional neglect of his children, especially Donald’s older brother, Freddy.
Maybe we don’t want that kind of Daddy to be “back” (do you hear me, Lauren B? have you been punished enough yet?).
For Trump supporters, research in psychology and political science links higher levels of physical punishment or harsh discipline in childhood with higher adult authoritarianism and support for punitive policies such as the death penalty and military force.
This is why people in the U.S. will see the murder of Ms. Goode as either her just reward or an act of cold-blooded murder. Trump himself has affirmed, though not in so many words, that she “had it coming to her.” (Justice! Daddy’s back!)
But MAGA American Firsters should be alarmed at his obvious need for dominance and inflicting punishment on “others.” His ego is not our “amigo.” Bold action in capturing Maduro, of course, but, now what? It’s clear enough he doesn’t have a coherent plan for governing Venezuela, and that the complexities of doing so are beyond a very over-stretched Marco Rubio, who now wears three hats in Trump 2.0.
My daughter used to love watching Steven Spielberg’s Pinky and the Brain. (“They’re laboratory mice; their genes they have been spliced.”) In most episodes, the hopelessly stupid mouse (Pinky, who likes to chant “brain-stem, brain-stem”) asks the Brain what they will be doing that night. “Same thing we do every night Pinky; we’re going to try to take over the world.”
Then what? Like the dog that catches the car, there’s no plan, only the performance. There is no credible plan to “run” Venezuela; his plans for oil are bordering on the delusional.
It’s apparently enough to strike terror into the hearts of Colombians, Venezuelans, the Danes, the leaders of the E.U., and even our old friends in Canada. (And don’t forget L.A., Minneapolis, and Portland.) It now seems that Trump (and Steven Miller, and Kristi Noem, with their ICE brigade) are the real “domestic terrorists.” (And how ironic that Trump threatens to bomb Iran for killing peaceful protestors, when ICE, Miller, Noem and Trump just want people to hide in their homes, trembling with fear instead of protesting.)
But that’s okay, because “Daddy’s back,” and he’s harsh and demanding and gets results! We’re great again, right? (Believe that and there’s a bridge I can sell you.) Great results? Fox News and the MAGA-mind are likely well ahead of their skis on this one; let’s wait until we see what kind of mess the Venezuela adventure has put us in. (Spoiler alert: it won’t be pretty.)
While we cannot say it’s perfectly legal to “run” Venezuela and threaten to take over Greenland, it seems very wrong to make legal-sounding arguments to upend decades of international law rules and throw around the weight of U.S. military might to build up an ego badly bruised by a daddy’s humiliation and rejection. Daddy’s back; Trump’s humiliation at the hands of his own daddy has become America’s.