“Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,” - Donald Trump, asked about any limits on his war powers.
In one way, the last couple of weeks have been clarifying.
Ten years ago, I went back to Plato to try and understand Trump’s meteoric rise in our decadent polity. The essay remains unnervingly prescient in its portrayal of late-stage democracy’s yearning for tyranny, and more accurate about Trump’s second term than the first. But one key thing was always missing from seeing Trump as a tyrant in Plato’s schema. For Plato, tyrants always, always, always go to war. And yet, as I noted last year, in a piece that now seems a touch naive, Trump “lacks a core feature for every tyrant: he doesn’t seem interested in launching wars.”
Score another one for Plato, I guess. But his analysis doesn’t quite work. For Plato, the purpose of war for a tyrant is domestic control: “The first thing he will do, I imagine, is to be constantly stirring up some war or other, so that the people will need a leader.” But Trump doesn’t need a foreign enemy to rally support. He already has that enemy at home: leftists, illegal immigrants, trans people, Rosie O’Donnell, et al. His base hates the other half of America more than any foreign power.
Nonetheless, Plato’s psychological grasp of the tyrant still holds. The core drive is for disinhibited domination, and this is true of Trump. He is only comfortable if he controls everything and everyone in his domain. Equal co-existence without subordination is simply beyond his understanding — hence his sincere bafflement at the Constitution.
Ideas like the dignity of the individual, or the rule of law, are to him like shades of green to a color-blind person. All he ever sees are ways to con and control others. The reward for power is glory — there are no other values — which is why Trump is busily trying to erect monuments to his own eternal awesomeness across DC. It’s how someone who believes in nothing but himself faces mortality.
In other words, Trump is a pagan. Two millennia of Christian ideas about war and peace, virtue and wisdom, individual dignity and morality, have passed him by entirely — which is why liberalism of any kind is incomprehensible to him. If you want to find the nearest analogy to his mindset, you have to reach back to a world where Christianity was entirely absent. The Vikings come to mind — resisting morality and Christianity up until the eleventh century. The 2022 movie, The Northman, was brilliant in its utterly unapologetic portrayal of this Viking mindset, with no moralizing at all. If you want to see the id of MAGA in full throttle, check it out.
The Vikings in their prime years had just recovered from a sixth and seventh century population collapse (climate change), followed by a period of widespread anarchy and warlordism that rendered any kind of civil society impossible. The warlordism that became endemic at home soon became warlordism abroad. The goal was relatively simple: use violence and the threat of violence to invade, murder, and plunder. The goal was lucre, which gave them more power to seek more lucre, which led to more glory. There was nothing in their worldview that would ever give them moral pause, even as Christian Europe was incubating the idea of moral restraints on state violence.
The Vikings sacked Paris twice, for example. But they came, destroyed the place, and then went. They sacked large parts of Christian England for decades — entirely for the riches of the monasteries — and then went back home. Over time, as their raids continued, their victims tried to pay them to lay off — effectively protection money. Parisians kept coughing up when besieged repeatedly from the Seine, and in the end they offered the Vikings land in Normandy. (Yes, that’s where the word Normandy originates: the Northmen Land.) The idea was that giving Vikings some territory at the mouth of the Seine would deter other Vikings from coming up the river to mug Paris again. And it worked for a while.
The English, for their part, were forced to pay what became known as Danegeld — protection money again, first forked over by King Æthelred II. But the Viking threats never lifted, and demands for more and more money kept coming. Æthelred’s first payment was 10,000 pounds of silver in 991; by 1016, that became 85,000 pounds. Similarly, Trump raided Venezuela, murdering dozens and kidnapping the president, and rewarded himself by stealing 50 million barrels of blockaded oil, worth up to $3 billion. And that, of course, is simply the first payment. The goal is a Viking one: the threat of war by a superior force unless Venezuela hands over its oil resources to the US. That’s worthy of the Viking warlord, Olaf Tryggvason.
If you have no concept of anything but domination by violence, are completely amoral, and you have the biggest and scariest force around, the Viking logic is impeccable. You just bully for money. Anything else is for suckers. That’s why Trump long called America’s post-war leadership “stupid”. If we had huge military superiority, as we did for decades, why do anything but bludgeon the rest of the world to enrich and glorify yourself? The Marshall Plan remains as incomprehensible to Trump as it would have been to the Vikings. Mutually beneficial trade too. Why help anyone else when you can fuck them over?
Hence the tariffs. Trump raised them because, in his mind, he could leverage American economic and military power to raid other countries’ treasuries. (He’s wrong, of course, but he genuinely thinks foreign countries pay tariffs, and no one else.) Hence also the loathing of NATO: any alliance that rests on mutual security and respect is anathema to him. Either the US should demand full reimbursement as mercenaries, or get the hell out.
This has been one of Trump’s core beliefs his entire life. He was outraged in the late 1980s, for example, when the US deployed naval forces to protect Kuwait from Soviet influence during the Iran-Iraq War. “When I see Kuwait, a total rip off. Why aren’t we getting some of that money?” he lamented to Phil Donahue in 1987. NATO is, first and foremost, a “rip-off”. That’s all. And don’t forget this critique of the Iraq War:
If we had controlled the oil, we could have prevented the rise of ISIS in Iraq — both by cutting off a major source of funding, and through the presence of U.S. forces necessary to safeguard the oil and other vital infrastructure. I was saying this constantly and to whoever would listen: keep the oil, keep the oil, keep the oil, I said — don’t let someone else get it.
War for plunder. Simple, really. It’s what he’s always believed. And this is what he was saying about Venezuela in 2023:
How about we’re buying oil from Venezuela? When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over, we would have gotten all that oil, it would have been right next door. But now we’re buying oil from Venezuela, so we’re making a dictator very rich. Can you believe this?
In this Viking rubric, there’s no mystery why Trump attacked Venezuela and kidnapped the president and his wife. He did it for the thrill of domination — man does he relish parading his enemies in a perp walk — but mainly for the lucre. He has told us this explicitly — shamelessness is one of his pagan virtues — long before and immediately after the fact. The idea that he is interested in Venezuelan democracy is ludicrous. He’s a mob boss — that’s all. And a protection racket has now descended over the entire Western Hemisphere, called the Donroe Doctrine. This is what America now is: a global Tony Soprano.
And Greenland? Again, the reasoning is quite simple. Trump has the military power to take over the world’s largest island tomorrow and ransack it for its vast mineral resources — just as he envisions (however deludedly) that “running” Venezuela means US oil companies selling Venezuelan oil to enrich the US treasury, if we’re lucky, or to himself, if we’re not: “that money will be controlled by me.”
So why on earth not force Greenland into submission? What is anyone gonna do about it anyway, as Stephen Miller said out loud, channeling Napoleon. You also get the thrill of expanding American sovereignty by adding 836,000 square miles — more than a quarter of the continental US landmass. That new chunk of Greater America looks even more impressive on the Mercator maps that Miller jerks off to every night.
And there is nothing in this worldview that can or would restrain Trump. This isn’t about deterring Russia and China in the Arctic. We can do that easily already, because the Danes are one of the greatest allies and friends the US has ever had — from their resistance to Nazism to their support after 9/11. We could turn Greenland into a NATO fortress if we wanted to — with NATO’s support. But this is about glory and plunder, which means blackmail or conquest of an ally, which means the end of NATO. And what was striking about this week’s NYT interview is that Trump is obviously aware that he could end NATO in one fell swoop: “it may be a choice.” Read this and gird yourselves:
Ownership [of Greenland] is very important. Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success … Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.
That was a rare slip: he needs to own it for psychological reasons. And as an elected monarch with an irrelevant Congress, and a Court super-compliant on foreign policy, it’s entirely his call. We’re merely spectators, whose role is to cheer as the tyrant marches under his new triumphal Arc de Trump on the Potomac. We’re subjects now, not citizens. Get in line and wave.
Trump is not a neocon, whatever Elliott Abrams might pathetically hope. He’s not a realist, for all John Mearsheimer’s wishes. He’s not an imperialist, occupying foreign countries for their resources while bringing them into modernity and civilization. He’s just a pagan leveraging vast American power to plunder, blackmail, extort, bully, and attack anyone weaker. No reason need be given, except the logic of dominance. If the entire system that has largely kept the peace since 1945 is unraveled as a result, why would he care? If war arrives, we’ve still got the biggest military. And he’ll be entering Valhalla soon enough anyway.
The only question remaining is a simple one. Who’s next? And how much is he gonna steal next time?
(Note to readers: This is an excerpt of The Weekly Dish. If you’re already a paid subscriber, click here to read the full version. This week’s issue also includes: my take on the ICE killing in Minneapolis; a talk with Claire Berlinski on Trump’s global wreckage; listener dissent and other discussion of four recent pods; 10 notable quotes from the insane week in news; 19 pieces we recommend on Substack on a variety of topics; a Mental Health Break of human evolution; a calming window from snowy PA; and, of course, the results of the View From Your Window contest — with a new challenge. Subscribe for the full Dish experience!)
From a new paid subscriber:
I have been reading your work since the Green Revolution in 2009 — nearly half my life. I paid during one of your previous forays into reader-supported writing, but I’ve been free-riding on your substack for as long as it has existed. I don’t always share your opinions, but I really value your perspective, and feel that it’s far past time to support it financially again.
We’re grateful. Another longtime Dishhead:
You’re the first blogger I ever read, going back to 2006 when I first saw you on Bill Maher. I feel like I have learned so much from you about what it means to be a seeking and constantly evolving thinker and human being. I find your willingness to engage with the great questions and issues of our time, and your mission to constantly challenge yourself, and hold yourself to moral and intellectual account, to be a personal inspiration.
I followed you daily for the years of the Daily Dish, and continue to look forward to reading your column each Friday in the Weekly Dish. Whether I am in agreement with you or not, I always respect your perspective, your heart, and your intellect. I know what you do is not easy, and it’s an honor to support you in your work and your mission. When you write “Know hope,” please know that you light a fire for me in dark times each time you do.
Thank you, and have a beautiful 2026.
The feelings are deeply mutual.
A Totalitarian-Level Lie
The horrible incident in Minneapolis this week — in which an anti-ICE activist was shot in the face by an ICE agent, denied immediate medical assistance and died — prompted various spins.
Claire is an American novelist, essayist, and journalist living in Paris. She’s the editor-in-chief of The Cosmopolitan Globalist — subscribe! — and the author of many books, including There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters, and the novel Loose Lips. We discuss and debate Trump’s global wreckage. It’s been a brutal 2026 already.
Listen to the episode here. There you can find two clips of our convo — on the US returning to the Monroe Doctrine via Venezuela, and if Rubio is gunning for Cuba next. That link also takes you to a bunch commentary on our recent pods with Laura Field on Trump intellectuals, Arthur Brooks on happiness, Simon Rogoff on narcissism, and Shadi Hamid on Israel — plus a smattering of readers on a variety of topics, such as gay cinema. Check it out.
Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Charlie Sykes on the GOP ditching conservatism, Jason Willick on trade, Vivek Ramaswamy on the right’s future, and Michael Pollan on consciousness. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.
This is a feature in the paid version of the Dish spotlighting about 20 of our favorite pieces from other Substackers every week. This week’s selection covers subjects such as newly minted Mayor Mamdani, the great Louis CK, and the latest retributive moves from the Trump admin. Below are a couple examples, followed by new Substackers:
Tim Walz is toast, but why didn’t the Covid scandal sink him sooner?
A professor of medicine who specializes in HIV slams the AZT nonsense of RFK Jr.
Dylan Mathews returns to blogging — on Substack. Dishcast alums Arthur Brooks, Abigail Shrier, and Rod Dreher join the Free Press.
Here’s a list of the substacks we recommend in general — call it a blogroll. If you have any suggestions for “In the ‘Stacks,” especially ones from emerging writers, please let us know: dish@andrewsullivan.com.
The View From Your Window Contest
Where do you think it’s located? Email your guess to contest@andrewsullivan.com. Please put the location — city and/or state first, then country — in the subject line. Proximity counts if no one gets the exact spot. Bonus points for fun facts and stories. The deadline for entries is Wednesday at 11.59 pm (PST). The winner gets the choice of a VFYW book or two annual Dish subscriptions. If you are not a subscriber, please indicate that status in your entry and we will give you a free month sub if we select your entry for the contest results (example here if you’re new to the VFYW). Contest archive is here. Happy sleuthing!
The results for this week’s window are coming in a separate email to paid subscribers later today. Here’s an upcoming entry — a somber note from our super-sleuth in Sydney:
It has been a heartbreaking week. We live about a mile from Bondi Beach, and last Sunday’s massacre — 15 innocent lives, from a 10-year-old girl to an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor — has affected our local Jewish community in a mix of emotions: grief, anger, disgust, fear, and, despite it all, hope.
There are some slim silver linings. The heroism of many, especially a local (Muslim) man who tackled one of the shooters, demonstrated an instinct to run towards danger and look out for their fellow Aussies that harks back to an earlier Australian ethos. The violence was so shocking it has awoken the majority here to the dangers that have manifested for years and grown unchecked the past two years in particular. So the quiet smugness of Australians thinking this doesn’t happen here is over. The reaction has been immense and heartening, because Sunday was an attack not just on Jews but on the Australian way of life.
I attended a service this week at the site of the shooting:
Lessons will be learnt, perhaps none more important that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The irony was this happened on the first night of Chanukah — the Jewish festival that celebrates light, overcoming adversity, and triumphing over those who wish us ill. I’m a realistic optimist: this country is better than this evil, but it has taken evil to remind us what it takes to be good. Never again.
