President Orwell
President Donald Trump invites endless comparisons to historical figures—and now, perhaps, to literary ones as well. His recent actions and rhetoric evoke the doublespeak, censorship, and manipulation of truth familiar from George Orwell’s 1984. Literary analogies may seem less inflammatory than references to tyrants like Hitler, Stalin, or Mao—but in Trump’s case, both are increasingly apt.
Before his political conversion, JD Vance famously called Trump “America’s Hitler,” a comparison many rejected as hyperbolic. Certainly, Trump has not rounded up Jews for extermination. But he has engaged in the relentless dehumanization of those he dislikes, labeling them “animals,” “vermin,” or “thugs”; scapegoating minorities for societal ills; delegitimizing institutions such as the press and judiciary; repeating “Big Lies”; refusing to condemn Republican antisemites; and trafficking in antisemitic tropes himself. The immigration detention center in Florida, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” stands as the closest Trump has come to establishing a concentration camp on US soil.
Trump’s authoritarian tendencies extend beyond rhetoric. He mirrors Stalin in his purges of the disloyal, targeting political enemies and dissenters. Unlike Stalin, he has not executed them, but he has threatened Democrats who said US troops should not obey illegal orders with charges “punishable by death,” echoing Stalin’s historical use of fear to consolidate power. Like Stalin, Trump has cultivated a cult of personality, casting himself as the indispensable arbiter of national destiny.
Trump also mirrors tyrants from history in his obsession with monuments to himself. Of course, he was building them long before he became president (Trump Tower, Trump University, Trump Vodka). Now he has sought to immortalize his name in public architecture and military history with the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, the Trump Ballroom at the White House, and “Trump-class” battleships. Trump wants to build a triumphal memorial arch resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris across from the Lincoln Memorial. When asked who the arch was for, Trump said, “Me.” Hence, it is being referred to as the “Arc de Trump.” He has also ordered the construction of a “National Garden of Heroes” to celebrate American achievement in honor of the 250th anniversary of US independence. Surprisingly, he is not currently listed among those slated for inclusion, but Alex Trebek is.
His approach evokes Caesar-like populism: undermining checks and balances, portraying himself as above the law, and presenting his persona as the ultimate symbol of national greatness.
Orwellian tendencies are equally evident in Trump’s rewriting of history. Federal agencies, the Smithsonian, and national parks were instructed to purge language or references he deemed un-American or offensive, leading to the removal from the Pentagon website of information about Navajo Code Talkers, Japanese-American soldiers in World War II, Holocaust-related materials, and even references to the plane that dropped the atomic bomb, the Enola Gay, because “gay” was among the words deemed treif. Thankfully, some materials were later restored. National parks also reportedly removed displays on slavery, Indigenous peoples, and women, along with materials critical of America. His efforts to influence university curricula, antitrust enforcement, and media reporting echo Orwell’s 1984. Renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War may be a return to the past, but it also sounds like “war is peace” Newspeak, as do his attacks on education that recast ignorance as strength.
Most stunning, the man who calls himself the “peace president,” who only ends wars but never starts them, bombed Venezuela, seized its leader, and declared the United States would run the country. In less than a year, he has ordered strikes in seven countries (Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen), asserting US dominance abroad while claiming moral authority at home.
He has made no secret of his desire for a Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe a new prize can be created for him. The head of the international soccer federation did it. Perhaps the Nobel committee can be convinced that the best way to honor the inventor of TNT is with a Nobel Prize for War, and Trump can be the first laureate.
Trump’s presidency combines Orwellian manipulation, authoritarian posturing, and a personal obsession with monument-building. Whether through language, law, or lethal force, he has created a world where truth, history, and institutional norms bend to his will –a reality worthy of literary, as well as historical, comparison.
