Incompetence is Part of One-Man Rule
Ineptitude will not save democracy; it's reason to fight back.
A letter to Harvard with demands so extreme that Trump officials later said its delivery was "unauthorized." A man with no confirmed gang ties deported to a notorious Salvadoran megaprison, which the administration acknowledged as an "administrative error." Tariffs so haphazardly created that observers noted that several AI chatbots recommend the same calculation methods.
In enacting its agenda of bringing universities to heel, deporting immigrants, and remaking the U.S. economy in its image, the Trump Administration has been making many mistakes. At first glance, this would seem surprising. After his unexpected 2016 victory, Trump seemed at times to govern as an accidental president; however, he and his team have had four years to plot their second-term agenda. Yet, the execution of this agenda has been reckless, verging on incompetent.
To Americans who grew up reading about the horrors of the 20th century in history books, it may sound like a contradiction that authoritarians can rule with incompetence. The monsters of the 20th century, Hitler and Stalin, are often retrospectively thought of as cunning because they caused so much destruction. The thinking goes: only a person of extraordinary ability can cause extraordinary devastation. It is far more unsettling to believe that millions of people died because of what political theorist Hannah Arendt called "thoughtlessness," or the inability to consider the consequences of one's actions.
Hitler and Stalin caused a lot of destruction by making mistakes. Hitler said that the Nazis would only have to "kick in the door" and invade the Soviet Union and the country would collapse. Stalin also blundered by thinking an invasion by Hitler wasn't possible, and so the Red Army was ill-prepared to fight the Wehrmacht. In the end, tens of millions died.
For a contemporary example, in 2022, Putin launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and Russian officials believed that the democratically-elected government in Kyiv would fall in days. Shortly before the full-scale invasion, Trump called Putin a "genius" and "savvy" for threatening Ukraine. Yet, Ukraine is still defending itself against a much larger enemy, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict.
In three months in power, Trump hasn't caused human destruction on these world-historical levels. But he has alienated traditional U.S. allies by blaming Ukraine for being invaded by Russia and launching massive tariffs, created a quasi-police state where undocumented immigrants and foreign students live in fear, and launched unprecedented lawfare against universities, law firms, and media outlets.
The administration has been mostly unwilling to admit mistakes, and almost entirely unwilling to correct them. After Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni acknowledged he didn't know why Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been deported, he was fired. Subsequently, Trump called Garcia a "foreign terrorist" with an "unbelievably bad" record, despite the fact that he has never been charged with a crime. Two White House officials told the New York Times that the Harvard letter was sent by mistake. However, in an instance of political doublespeak, the White House stood by the letter and said that the university should have called to make sure that the signed missive on official letterhead was authentic. After stock markets cratered, the administration paused the so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries for 90 days, but by ratcheting up tariffs against China, the overall tariff level remains the highest in over a century.
The unwillingness to admit fault is consistent with a Trumpian strategy of dominance, showing that the administration can get away with anything it tries. However, cracks have emerged. Early in the morning on April 19, the Supreme Court blocked deportations of a group of Venezuelans under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act. As in the case of Garcia, the law allows migrants to be deported without due process. Harvard's decision to fight back against the Trump Administration's far-reaching demands has emboldened other universities and caused a surge in donations.
In the end, the poorly-crafted attacks on institutions make clear that the only choice is to fight back; attempts to mollify the administration pursued by Columbia University and law firms like Paul Weiss provide no guarantee against continued interference. Trump's unconventional governing style has prompted many observers to think there must be some method to the madness. Yet, as has been the case with other one-man rulers, there is often just madness.
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