Hobbes’ Leviathan and How it Pertains to Our Current Administration
Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan is an in-depth look at what an ideal society would look like. It covers how society should be arranged, how legitimate governments arise and should act on the populace and presents what is essentially a social contract between the sovereign of the state and its people. Hobbes argues that, in order to live a safe life with even a fraction of freedom, the nature of authority demands that an absolute sovereign must rule in exchange for the populace giving up their natural liberty, either by force or by agreement (Hobbes, 641). Only when the sovereign loses their authority, and is unable to protect the commonwealth, either due to allowing their own personal interests to overwhelm the needs of the nation, or to invasion, the citizens of the state are no longer required to respect and accept the desires of the sovereign. Donald Trump and the current administration have been seen to be looking out for their own interests, ignoring the interests of the populace, and therefore cannot be considered the sovereign of the state.
First and foremost, Donald Trump is a businessman. With about 500 companies scattered across 25 countries, the president values his financial assets because they have been his source of income for over 30 years (Harwell). While Trump has said that he will not let his business interests cloud his judgement about what is best for the American people, worrying that American policies may shift to favor him, and those like him, is not out of the question. One particularly worrisome issue is the fact that Trump has a trust agreement that allows his sons to oversee his company; this trust allows for the distribution of “net income or principal to Donald J. Trump at his request,” meaning that he can profit off of his time in office (Harwell). While the trust creates some sort of barrier between Trump and exponential financial gain, there are very few checks that he must go through. Trump knows his businesses intimately, his trustees are his sons, who can benefit off of the financial success of his businesses, and he has the power to cancel the trust at any time (Harwell). In this way, he profits off his time in office, because any increase in sales due to his presidency will appear in the trust fund in the form of an increase in money. There is absolutely no limit to his power as far as this trust fund is concerned, precisely because the trustees are his sons and he has the ability to fire them at will. As such, Trump will naturally want to ensure that his businesses are doing well, because he still has access to that income despite it being in a supposedly blind trust.
Perhaps one of the most blatant examples of Trump’s mixing business with self-interest can be seen in his views surrounding offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom. He is the owner of Trump International Golf Links Scotland, and Trump stated that he discussed his dislike of wind farms because they would obstruct views from his golf course (Sampathkumar). While this opposition does not directly influence the American people, it puts the Scottish people at a disadvantage, particularly at a time when corporations and governments should be doing all that they can to combat global warming and the greenhouse effect. Opposing wind farms solely because they will obstruct the views of a golf course, which may possibly lead to a drop-in profit due to inhibiting the aesthetics of the property, is a clear case of a president trying to impact foreign policy for his own self-interest.
Much of Leviathan focuses on how life without strong and powerful rulers is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (Hobbes, 622). Indeed, the state of man before civilization is defined by individuals depending on only their physical and intellectual abilities to keep themselves safe — nobody could trust anyone, and violence was a constant threat to one’s safety. The construction of civil society is, according to Hobbes, is “the introduction of that restraint upon themselves, in which we see them live in the Commonwealths, is the foresight of their own preservation, and of a more contented life thereby; that is to say, of getting themselves out from that miserable condition of war which is necessarily consequent, as hath been shown, to the natural passions of men when there is no visible power to keep them in awe, and tie them by fear of punishment to the performance of their covenants” (Hobbes 642). Donald Trump and his administration have not been able to protect his people from violence, as there have been 62 mass shootings since the beginning of his presidency (Shamsian). The United States is unique in that it is the only Western nation that suffers from mass shootings regularly, and while the public demands stricter gun laws, President Trump and his associates refuse to budge on his general stance towards gun control (Shamsian). If students in schools, or LGBT people partying at night clubs cannot feel safe in the same way that pedestrians cannot feel safe from shooters, then the Trump administration has failed as sovereign, because they are unable to do what is required of them to keep the populace safe.
One might argue that Trump is a Hobbesian ruler, because he does not seek to encourage the “weakening of his subjects,” and instead wants to “Make America Great Again” and bring both “strength and glory” to himself and American citizens (Hobbes, 644). In this way, one might be able to restore his self-interest by aligning it with the interest of the United States as wanting the economy to prosper is something that both a business owner and a president would want. However, Trump’s financial policies do more to harm the nation than they do to benefit American citizens. While the economy may currently be booming, and helping Trump’s own corporate interests, the long-term effects of the presidency are dire. Political culture and institutions are “the single most important determinants for long-term growth,” and because the Trump administration is largely indifferent (or arguably, against) science, and racial tensions are increasing in the country, the damage the Trump administration has inflicted on the country may harm the economy severely (Rogoff). By removing the country from the Paris climate agreement, destroying the Environmental Protection Agency, and trying to cut budgets for both the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, the country is only going to become more financially polarized as norm erosion occurs, and the economy will suffer in the coming decade (Rogoff).
Making America Great Again, for Donald Trump, seems to revolve around advancing his own personal agendas. With nearly 35% of Americans being minorities. (Humes) And by appointing white people to the majority of senior positions in the White House, the sovereign does not accurately represent the people; and because white people cannot fully understand the struggles of people of color, an overwhelmingly white White House cannot truly understand the struggles of black people, queer people, and other minorities (Diamond). There are no African Americans appointed to senior staff positions, and there are only a few Arab Americans, Latin Americans, and Asian Americans on staff as well. If the majority of the White House is composed of Caucasian men, then it is obvious that President Trump appoints people who are like him to positions of power, perhaps because he hopes that this will mean they will have the same interests at heart as he does. And for the people of color President Trump does appoint, they all are controlled by corporate interests and are more concerned about protecting corporations, rather than fighting for the citizens’ rights. Such as Ajit Pai, who made sure Net Neutrality was taken down so ISP’s would have more control over the internet and can control what you can access. (Brodkin) The United States is a very diverse country, and if the sovereign is to have the interests of all in mind, the sovereign must be as diverse, or at least knowledgeable of the issues facing diverse citizen segments, as the United States is.
The Hobbesian sovereign has “the right of making war and peace with other nations, and commonwealths; that is to say, of judging for the public good” (Hobbes, 645). While the necessity of a ruler with absolute power is a question that is up for debate, the Trump administration is not a Leviathan and it lost its soul once the administration put its own interests ahead of the interests of the people. A sovereign is meant to protect the people from violence, and not seek to further its own financial interests at the expense of the people. Trump has shown that he values his own companies more than he values stopping climate change and developing clean energy, and that the White House does not have to reflect the composition of his country. While he claims to be trying to Make America Great Again, his actions seem to indicate that he is making it better for himself and for those who are like himself in the short-term.
