Donald Trump is a singular figure in United States political history — an elitist at war with the country’s elite, a beneficiary of the American commercial system who is resentful of the institutions that created the nation’s economic power, a president who is reshaping American history despite his vast ignorance of it.
And yet, in a way, Trump is not a singular figure at all, but in fact two presidents in one, possessed of irreconcilable ideas and impulses that have become the leitmotif of the age. Here is a look at the two Trumps and the contradictions between them:
— He wants a deal with Ukraine/He wants to deal Ukraine away.
These two antithetical Trumps were on vivid display during last month’s Oval Office spectacle with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vice President JD Vance. The session was called to seal a deal on Ukraine’s vital mineral resources. By the climax of the meeting, it was clear the president was willing to make a peace without Ukraine’s involvement or approbation.
In recent days, Trump has indicated he may lift the pause on intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Where that leaves the relations between the United States and Ukraine is impossible to know, as is the role of Russia in the emerging situation.
— The administration is convulsed in, and is spawning, chaos/ The chaos is not accidental, it’s planned. No one can dispute that the mass firings, agency shutterings, swift and dramatic alterations in policy and moves begging for court tests have done anything but sow chaos in a country that, as the lone superpower, might ordinarily crave stability. But much of this chaos is in the Trump governing script, set out in remarkable detail by Project 2025 of the Heritage Foundation and the America First Policy Institute. If the Trump manifestos were student papers, they’d be guilty of plagiarism.
— Trump is an unusually charming public figure/Trump is a dangerous demagogue and the most divisive figure since Richard Nixon, perhaps Franklin Roosevelt, maybe Andrew Johnson.
It is difficult to recall a mainstream political figure who commands the unswerving devotion that Trump has from his base — a devotion that grew to a majority in the November election. FDR comes close; you’ll note his presence in both the devotion/divisive derbies, a phenomenon that does not include Nixon or Johnson. But the greatest analog may be Huey Long, the Louisiana governor and senator, and figures outside politics such as Gerald L.K. Smith and Charles Lindbergh of the original America First movement.
At the same time, Trump has spawned an opposition united in its deep disdain of him, frustrated at the moment by its apparent powerlessness but displaying faint signs of organizing a resistance. This group compares him with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the red-baiting Wisconsin Republican who created fear and destroyed reputations and lives in the 1950s. There are very few Americans with an ambivalent view of the president.
— Trump knows exactly what he is doing/He doesn’t know what he is doing.
Yes, the Trump team is following the libretto from the two think tanks. But in many ways, it is moving without knowledge of, or respect for, the consequences. That explains the aggressive shuttering of offices and firing of officials — and then the quiet reopening and rehiring of them. These include government employees managing the response to bird flu, assuring the safety of the country’s nuclear arsenal, and researchers working on food and medical-device safety.
— Trump is defying the business interests he cares about dearly/He is listening to business leaders and lobbyists.
A little of both. Very few business leaders agree that broad tariffs, a blunt tool, work to the advantage of the domestic economy and believe, instead, that they threaten a recession. Either purposely or inadvertently, Trump breathed air into that notion with his comments that there may be a short-term price for the changes he is bringing to the economy.
At the same time, as entrepreneur and tycoon, Trump respects above all people who have made enormous sums of money or who control powerful American corporations. He also is not immune to the entreaties of important interest groups in states and regions that provide the base of his support.
An excellent example: potash, which is employed as fertilizer to stabilize agricultural crops and restore soil fertility. Heeding the pleas of farmers and rural lawmakers, Trump reduced the tariffs to 10% on potash not covered by the 2019 U.S./Canada/Mexico trade agreement he signed. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins described the Trump decision as “a critical step in helping farmers manage and secure key input costs at the height of planting season while reinforcing long-term agricultural trade relations.”
— Trump is disrupting the world order on purpose/His actions only give the impression that he seeks a wholesale overhaul of the world order.
This is the most complex element of Trump’s split identity. The president’s disrespect for the foundation stones of the post-World War II era is well known, with special enmity for the United Nations (and associated organizations such as the World Health Organization, United Nations Human Rights Council and UNESCO, the educational and cultural organization). He’s skeptical of NATO, but his intentions about the alliance the United States created in 1949 aren’t clear.
One indication of whether he is seeking a wholesale reevaluation of the American security profile toward Russia and away from traditional allies may come in the third week of July. Under a 1959 law signed by a Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, every president has been required to declare that period as “Captive Nations Week,” a clear jibe at the Soviet Union and its survivor state, Russia. Trump complied all four years of his first term.
Trump’s running battle with Canada’s Justin Trudeau now is at an end, and the emergence of an accomplished central banker, Mark Carney, as the leader of the Liberal Party and its standard-bearer in the recent election, may change the character of the American relationship with its northern neighbor.
Trump had no respect for Trudeau, whom he regarded as a callow boy trading on his father’s fame and name. Carney is a different figure altogether, difficult to dismiss — and perhaps the lever on which a new Trump outlook and set of policy options could emerge. It has happened before.
David M. Shribman is the former executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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