Trump and Ahab: Two Peas in a P(equ)od

I recently came across a 2019 article written by a professor of American literature likening Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab to then President Donald Trump. The article was published at the time Trump was campaigning for a second term as President of the United States, and while it would be an exaggeration to say I had any sort of a “Eureka” moment, viewing the two figures side by side explained some of the reservations I am, admittedly, having about once again granting Trump access to the Oval Office.

Serious biographers of those who at one time or another functioned as Commander-in Chief agree that the pursuit of the presidency demands a near-obsessive focus. With Trump, however, that obsession goes considerably deeper; indeed, he cares little about hurting, squandering or sacrificing those who oppose him now as well as in 2020. He is, in other words, unknowingly using Ahab’s singular quest to find and destroy the white whale as a model. And while the former president currently appears to be supportive of Israel and a staunch opponent of antisemitism, Ahab, too, did not waste much time as the pilot of the vessel before expressing to his crew his priorities and objectives . Trump’s true colors, I fear, will not remain hidden long beyond the day of inauguration.

To Trump, his loss in 2020 is a festering boil of pus. He is less concerned with protecting the civil liberties that define the very core of what the United States is all about than by wrecking vengeance on those who dare – and dared –  not vote for him. Similarly, Ahab’s quest completely ignored the commercial objectives of those who financed Pequod’s venture and was in no way concerned for the safety or well-being of those who served under him. On the contrary, with Trump-like charisma and rhetoric, once at sea he convinced the seamen and whale-hunters that his desire for vengeance was theirs as well. And woe to someone like Starbuck, his first mate who provides the conscience Ahab is missing, who dares stand in the way.

Although Ahab was introduced to American readers a decade before the country was split by the destructive Civil War, the seeds of discontent were already planted and the disharmony that Abraham Lincoln would inherit a few years later was already showing. Trump, too, is taking advantage of a fractured nation, and is in no way hesitant about displaying Ahab-like madness. He will, if and when necessary, call on far right, violent-prone militants to remove anyone who stands in his way , and has the audacity to suggest that American Jews who oppose him may very well be mentally ill. His promise to Christians that there will be no need to vote after this year’s election suggests the behavior of a demagogue and offers a hint of what his intentions are. Ahab, similarly, found it difficult to accept any challenge to his obsessive quest. Neither, in other words, are emotionally fit for their respective positions.

Just as Ahab’s desire to destroy the whale that “dismasted” him doomed the Pequod, Trump very plainly indicates that he has little respect for the law and sees democracy as something to be mocked and ignored. His insistence that he was robbed of the 2020 election displays an unprecedented level of arrogance, and in very many ways mirrors Herman Melville’s epic tale. Objectively speaking, a case can be made that Moby Dick was acting in self-defense and that Ahab has only himself to blame for his lost leg. Trump, too, refused to accept that the voters lost confidence in his ability to lead the country and therefore denied him a second term.

What particularly troubles me, however, is that in the past eight years the Republican party has not managed to find someone more appropriately suited for the office. Similarly, the owners and investors of the Pequod clearly thought that a one-legged Ahab was superior to any other full-bodied whaler, and saw no issue putting him once again at the helm. The Republicans, quite clearly, are no different. That none of Trump’s competitors during the months of the primaries were able to generate any excitement or hope is an appropriately tragic theme that has yet to be satisfactorily explained. Even Ahab’s affable second mate Stubb, I suspect, would be at a loss for words.

And how very Trumpian is Ahab’s promise of a gold  doubloon to the seaman who first spots the white whale. And who, in fact, earned that reward? Ahab himself, which is not very surprising. He was, after all, familiar with the waters in which his prey would likely be found, and recognized the signals and indications governed by nature. With Trump it is not much different. Far and few between are incidents and events in which he readily shares the spotlight or credits with others. In his self-centered way of thinking, he and he alone is deserving of the gold doubloon. Both Ahab and Trump have no difficulty making promises or offering rewards, knowing always that ways exist to have them go ignored or be broken.

Where, then, is the final port of this 2024 saga? Ishmael, the narrator of the novel and the sole survivor of the Pequod, is a loner and embodies, more than anything else, the ideal and acceptance of diversity.  This, perhaps, represents Melville’s conviction – or hope, maybe – that all is not all lost in the United States of 1851. Trump, we can all just about agree, seemed destined to land the white whale he was pursuing until President Biden, on June 27, blundered catastrophically in the debate between the two. He not long after abandoned his candidacy for a second term and was replaced by his vice president, Kamala Harris. Unexpectedly, Trump has suddenly been forced to battle severe headwinds and treacherous waves as VP Harris’s message of civil  liberties, kindness and family values is overtaking Trump’s promise of violence and hatred. The democrats represented by Ishmael may in the end persevere over the bigotry threatened by Trump and his Republicans.

Where, I wonder, would Israel’s security and safety lie in Melville’s sprawling tapestry? Unfortunately, I have no choice but to stand, with most of Israel, on the deck of the Pequod and hope that Trump’s promised support for a strong and secure Israel will not be compromised by political realities. His thirst for vengeance and disparaging attitude toward minorities are not, alas, reassuring.