I frequently describe the president and his coalition as “postliberal,” yet that label misreads them. They aren’t postliberal. They are preliberal.
A genuinely postliberal political project would diverge in meaningful ways not only from liberalism but also from what came before it.
Donald Trump’s politics offer no novelty. Might makes right, loyalty above all, rampant self-enrichment, punishing one’s enemies: there’s nothing original or inventive about how the president wields public power that marks it as different from the manner in which governance operated prior to the Enlightenment.
He and his supporters do not deny it. MAGA has consistently framed itself as retrograde, ranging from the hazy nostalgia of “making America great again” to adherents with Roman statue avatars on social media urging the West to “RETVRN.” It is fundamentally atavistic.
The clearest signal of the president’s preliberal temperament lies in his obsession with royal insignia. He has gilded the Oval Office, affixed his name to structures and money, fixated on a lavish new ballroom and a victory arch, and is set to host in the near future what passes for gladiatorial spectacle within the bounds of the White House grounds. He visibly longs for a monarchy and has endeavored to approach it as closely as America’s fragile constitutional framework permits.
And monarchies, as you may have heard, are hereditary in nature.
Our unthroned leader has acted in that same hereditary-minded fashion, intertwining his family with his business empire, enlisting his offspring in his campaigns for the presidency, and even appointing some to advisory roles in the White House. At the moment of writing, his son-in-law is poised to attempt to broker peace with Iran on behalf of the United States.
From crowns to criminal enterprises, groups guided by preliberal norms prize kinship. Family members are (to some extent) less prone to betray kin than outsiders, a useful trait in ruthless, do-or-die environments. And since preliberalism centers on bending power toward personal gain, it makes sense that those who ascend would seek to make that power hereditary. If perpetual rule is out of reach, the next best alternative is to secure a lasting lineage of leadership through the gene pool.
Yesterday in The Bulwark, Jonathan Last drew the president’s monarchical ambitions to their most straightforward conclusion. Put aside J.D. Vance, he argued: isn’t Donald Trump Jr. the most probable Republican candidate for 2028?
