Tell Me What Trumpism Stands For

The philosopher Diogenes searching for a wise, or honest, man.

My original essay on this topic in March 2025 began with the personal confession below in italics:

My older son Andrew is my Devil’s Advocate. He challenges me to keep an open mind. After he read my last post, People On TV Can’t Hear Me Scream, he was concerned about my state of mind regarding the current political situation. He and I had a long conversation about why I had been “triggered” to lose my temper as well as my inabiliy to find anything good about Trump’s second term. Andrew is by no means a MAGA advocate but he’s an independent thinker suspicious of anything that smacks of absolutist thought.

Near the end of the conversation, I told Andrew that “if things got too bad,” I would consider, for the first time in my life, leaving the United States. Andrew was alarmed. He said, “Don’t leave us, we’re building a family for you.”

That was poignant and loving. I assured him that I was far from the point of seriously considering leaving.

Andrew probed me more about why I was fearful. I could point to many specific actions taken by Trump 2.0 but I found myself at a loss to fit those actions into a narrative, other than just Trump’s grab for more power.

After that conversation, I realized that if I was unable to articulate the intellectual underpinnings of Trumpism to myself, I couldn’t adequately express why I was scared. And to dismiss the importance of intellectual influences places our comprehension at great peril. ¹

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Here begin my current thoughts:

N.S. Lyons and his Strong Gods

Back in March 2025, the most cogent argument for Trumpism I could find was made by Substack writer N.S. Lyons. Lyons had made a good effort to fit Trump into a larger intellectual framework. This was at and before the beginning of Trump’s second term. ²

Lyons saw Trumpism as a return of the Strong Gods, by which he meant the values of family, nation, moral truths, and religion, values that have a deep and primary appeal to many if not most. ³

The Strong Gods are in contrast to globalism, which, quoting Lyons, is “animated by peaceable weak gods of tolerance, doubt, dialogue, equality, and consumer comfort.”

The Strong Gods are unmistakably masculine.

Lyons’ warnings

One of the strengths of Lyons’s argument was that he did a “pre-mortem” of how the Trumpian project might fail. The root of Lyons’ worries was money, or, as Jesus expressed it":

“You cannot serve [both] God and mammon [greed for riches].” ⁴

Lyons warned in December 2024:

“The most difficult challenge is likely…resisting Donald Trump’s inexplicable but persistent urge to suck up to the East Coast financial elite (a core part of the regime opposing him) and waste political capital showering them with tax cuts and other goodies at the expense of the working class.” ⁵

In my March 2025 essay, I wrote these two paragraphs in response:

I agree with Lyons that it is money that could trip up Trumpism. The god of money is Mammon, and it’s very hard to dismiss that fallen angel from what drives our modern society.

In fact, I find it extraordinarily difficult to untangle the pursuit of money from the Trumpian project. Trump’s lifelong schtick has rested on his prowess as a businessman. The identity of his right-hand man Musk is as the richest man in the world. Trump’s most fervent supporters are some of the wealthiest men in the world, including the East Coast financial elite who according to Lyons Trump “sucks up to.”

Trumpism has in fact become all about money and corruption––enriching the Trump family and his allies at the expense of all other Americans. Financial markets have acted as perhaps the only effective check on policy.

The latest corrupt act, Trump’s self-negotiated '“settlement” with the IRS, is breathtaking in its audacity, its cynicism, and its contempt for this country.⁶

As for the working class, Trumpism has repeatedly kicked them in the teeth. While the bi-coastal financial elites have benefited the most from Trumpism. Exactly as Lyons warned.

Where I am

I was at a lunch in my hometown of NYC the other week with a political candidate. Before she left, she asked our small group what was giving us hope.

I said that on my way to the lunch I’d walked through Central Park where everyone looks happy on a sunny spring day. Emerging from the park onto the street, I went past a seemingly endless line of families and friends waiting for doors to open for a college graduation ceremony. Eager, dressed in their best, carrying bouquets to toss to their loved ones on a day of celebration.

Away from the “news,” it’s not hard to find countless moments of individual joy and love. Hope endures, hope prevails. I’m not going anywhere.

Below is my essay from March 2025.

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."

1. JM Keynes; The General Theory Of Employment, Interest, and Money

2. Lyons was writing under a pseudonym. In June 2025 he wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times and revealed that he was Nathan Levine. In that same month Levine joined the State Department in the Office of Policy Planning.

3. The Return of The Strong Gods

4. Matthew 6:24-25.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Mammon, oil on canvas by George Frederick Watts, 1884–85; in the collection of the Tate, London.

5. The Counter-Revolution Begins

6. Department of Justice Settlement Forever Bars IRS Trump Audits

The deal also creates a $1.8 billion fund to pay people Trump believes has been aggrieved by the government. How much of the deal will survive legal and other challenges remains to be seen. But in self-dealing, Trump has so far been unchecked.