Chapter 7
Study Guide by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA
Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida
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Chapter 7: Apologists
This chapter begins by acknowledging that Trump was the unwanted candidate. Conservative commentators were Trump's formidable critics. New Jersey governor Chris Christie said, "We do not need reality TV in the Oval Office right now." "President of the United States is not a place for an entertainer." Senator Ted Cruz called trump a "narcissist" and "utterly amoral." Jim Jordan a leading conservative in the US House said he wished Republicans in Congress had acted to "avoid creating this environment" that allowed a candidate like Trump to rise. Texas governor Rick Perry labeled Trump "a cancer on conservatism" and a threat to the nation's future. He said Trump was peddling a "carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spirited, and nonsense" running on "division and resentment." Lindsey Graham told American voters that he would not vote for the man he called a "jackass" and a "kook." After the Access Hollywood scandal John Thune a top-ranking Republican in the Senate said "Donald Trump should withdraw and Mike Pence should be our nominee effective immediately." Mick Mulvaney (now Trump's chief of staff) said that Trump was "[one] of the most flawed human beings ever to run for president in the history of the country."
Presidents need people who are willing to challenge their bad decisions and to present them with the unvarnished truth. The Steady State tried to do this, but most of them are gone. Trump's present staff members want to appear supportive of his agenda, even when it is out of step with reality. They have become an assemblage of servants. The president's response to Hurricane Dorian provides an example. Trump incorrectly stated that Alabama was in the storm's path when it wasn't, but refused to admit he was wrong. Instead he marked up a poster board with a Sharpie to make it look like the storm was projected to hit Alabama. Many aides helped him perpetuate the lie by issuing statements disputing reality. The White House spin cycle was confusing to everyone and demoralizing to the weather agencies. The Republican leaders mentioned in the paragraph above were correct in describing the man and predicting the outcome of the Trump presidency. Their words are still valid, but their minds have changed.
Gun Fight
Although most of Trump's previous assistants and misfits did not make it into the oval office, most of the members of the Steady State have been replaced by a third category of advisors: the Apologists. Mick Mulvaney (a previous critic as noted above) replaced John Kelly, and brought a new approach to managing the West Wing: "Let Trump be Trump." With fewer aides to persuade him otherwise and a chief of staff willing to accept Trumps impulsive behavior, the president decided to shut down the government to demand money for his border wall. The result was a predictable disaster. Government employees were missing paychecks and pressure increased for the president to give up. When the media reported that US airports would soon be affected by the shutdown, the president caved and reopened the government receiving no money for the wall and a political black eye. Another example of the "Let Trump be Trump" approach is the president's idea to bring the Taliban leaders to Camp David to agree to a deal on the eve of the September 11 anniversary. These are the people responsible for murdering nearly three thousand Americans and injuring hundreds of US solders.
The culture of the White House has returned to a dark place with fewer people willing to reject the president's irrational ideas. Overzealous climbers undercut their colleagues to advance their careers, and the cannibalistic culture deters good people from applying for positions in the White House. When new people are hired, Trump prefers to go with his gut rather than vet candidates to determine if they are an appropriate fit for the job. The result is that many tweet-picked nominees are unqualified for their positions. Typically, the only qualification is to be a staunch defender of the president on television. Texas congressman John Ratcliffe, Trump's nominee for director of National Intelligence provides an example. Ratcliffe had no real intelligence background and withdrew when the Republican Senate didn't share Trump's enthusiasm. Unfortunately, this was only a temporary setback to the rise of the Apologists.
Why the Worst Get on Top
Although Donald Trump cannot legitimately be called a dictator, he does have authoritarian tendencies. Friedrich Hayek (The Road to Serfdom, 1944) listed three main reasons why an authoritarian personality is likely to be surrounded "by the worst elements of society."
Autocrats need people with questionable morals who tend to be undereducated and driven by primitive instincts.
Autocrats expand the size of the subservient group by gaining the support of the docile and gullible who are devoid of strong convictions and are willing to accept a ready-made system of values.
Autocrats bond the group together by appealing to their basic human weaknesses using 'we' versus 'they' to gain the allegiance of huge masses of people based on their perceived hatred of the enemy.
An autocrat's assistants must be willing to accept spurious justifications for despicable deeds and be willing to carry them out. Not everyone who serves in the Trump administration has these characteristics, but many are unquestioning followers who perform verbal gymnastics to defend the president's immoral statements and misconduct. Many of these people were against Trump in the past, but have been converted into his human shields. The author provides three reasons for their conversion; power, allegiance, and fear.
Many of Trump's Apologists stay close to power to advance their careers. For example, Texas Governor Rick Perry dropped his previous argument that Trump was "a cancer on conservatism" to gain a position in the president's cabinet. Some want financial power believing that their Trump-world connections offer lucrative benefits in the political afterlife. Others who leave the administration are bought off with high salaries at the Trump campaign or at a super PAC. Many elected Republicans simply abandoned their criticisms of Trump to gain power and influence, e.g., to get Trump's help with their pet projects, to fly with him on Air Force One, be photographed with him at major events, or get approved by Trump in a tweet. For many appointees, the blind devotion required to keep their jobs is their motivation. Trump requires loyalty even for positions that are supposed to be semi-independent from the political influence of the White House. The FBI and Federal Reserve provide examples of what happens when the leaders of these organization are not subservient to the president. FBI director Jim Comey was fired, and Trump suggested that Federal Reserve Chairmen Jerome Powell was a "bigger enemy" of the United States than China's dictator.
Group loyalty is a stronger motivator of opinion than ideology according to a study at Brigham Young University. Many in the GOP support Trump because he is their leader, regardless of what he does or what he believes. Many are simply motivated by fear of criticism, reprisals, or job loss. Trump embraces fear as a management tool and will go after defectors and their families for revenge. Michael Cohen and Anthony Scaramucci provide examples in this category. For all of these reasons the weak-natured in the Trump administration and the GOP have become more submissive to our want-to-be dictator.
Smiling and Nodding
Trump Apologist can easily be identified because they smile and nod at the wrong time. There are two types including Sycophants and Silent Abettors. Both types share a willingness to excuse the inexcusable. Sycophants are true believers who laugh when he mocks people less powerful, call him brilliant when he creates a derogatory slur for an opponent, defend his lies by making up new ones, and accept his ethics as their ethics. Sycophants often do all this on television. Silent Abettors on the other hand know what is happening is wrong. They watch him flip-flop and make shoddy decisions and say nothing. They are motivated by power and fear. The most depressing thing about the Trump presidency is that so many people in the Republican Party fall into this category. They remain silent when their voices are needed to point out the difference between poor policy and good government.
The rise of the Trump Apologists should matter to voters. They validate him when they should be challenging him to think more clearly about the consequences of his actions. What caustic and prejudiced policy decisions will they help the president make if he is reelected? Those who ignore this question are effectively joining the march of thoughtless followers, smiling and nodding along the way.
The Crickets of Capital Hill
During the day the capital is a hectic place, lively with the sounds of national discussion. At night it is quiet filled with little more than the sounds of the crickets. Congress is where the actions of the presidency should be fiercely examined and debated. Legislators have the obligation to monitor the executive branch, and to do so fairly and respectfully. Unfortunately, the Republican side of the aisle is quiet, like nighttime on Capital Hill. But Congress has been taken over by the Sycophants and Silent Abettors. All of the GOP officials mentioned at the beginning of this summary have evolved from critics to Apologists. Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, David Perdue and most of the other Republicans have forgotten that their oath is to the US Constitution, not to a man, nor to a political base. Their submissive attitudes are a danger to Congress as an independent branch, and a danger to our democracy. A few Republicans have criticized Trump including Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, and representative Justin Amash, but they have waited too long to speak out, and haven't spoken forcefully enough.
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Go to the next Chapter. Chapter 8: We the Electorate. (Summary).
Related summaries:
Crossan, M., W. Furlong and R. D. Austin. 2022. Make leader character your competitive edge. MIT Sloan Management Review (Fall): 1-12. This article includes a leader character framework. (Summary).
Hornsey, M. J. and K. S. Fielding. 2017. Attitude roots and Jiu Jitsu persuasion: Understanding and overcoming the motivated rejection of science. American Psychologist 72(5): 459-473. (Summary).
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Policies of a Second Trump Presidency.
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Summary of Trump's Seven Part Plan to Overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.
Rosenfeld, G. D. (Editor) and J. Ward (Editor). 2023. Fascism in America: Past and Present. Cambridge University Press. (Summary).
Thurow, L. 1996. The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World. William Morrow and Company. See Chapter 13: Democracy Versus the Market. (Summary).
Unger, C. 2018. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. Dutton. (Note).
