The magnanimous man is charismatic. Whatever you think of the man, Trump’s speech on Tuesday night was a political triumph. He made himself look dominating, energetic and in control, while the Democrats looked pathetic and weak. His followers loved it. Populations that feel betrayed and disrespected naturally go for leaders who radiate status, power and vitality.
Of course one problem for Trump is that he is not the admirable version of the magnanimous man; he is a made-for-TV simulacrum of one. A truly magnanimous man — whether Pericles, Alexander the Great, de Gaulle, George Washington, George Patton or Winston Churchill — has earned his self-estimation. He has made himself wise, courageous, prudent and virtuous through hard study and a life of service. Trump, by contrast, has merely swooped up his hair.
Unlike the truly magnanimous, Trump is a leader who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He believes that there are tens of thousands of 160-year-olds getting Social Security benefits, but that’s fictional. He says South Korea is protectionist toward the United States, but we signed free trade deals in 2007 and 2012. He said that he would lift tariffs on Canada when opioid death rates fell, but they were already falling sharply. A truly magnanimous leader would be embarrassed to be so ignorant, not proud of it.
Magnanimity tends to be prideful, and pride, especially in a puffed-up man, tends to be fragile. This kind of magnanimous man seeks godlike self-sufficiency. But he also needs to be admired, and that admiration can come only from the masses, whom he privately holds in contempt. His addiction to approval is voracious and he refuses criticism, even when it is meant to be helpful, from his own supporters. Such a man lives with the secret fear that he might in fact be ordinary or insignificant.
The magnanimous man is a poor fit for democracy. Democracy is built on the idea of human equality, precisely the notion that magnanimity rejects. Democracy is built on the compromise between ideas and factions, which the great man also rejects.
