[POST] MAGA's Napoleon and Robespierre
Historical analogies are fun, especially when they're taken too far
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The French Revolution (1789–1799) is studied endlessly, because it not only shaped modern France but likewise influenced subsequent revolutions the world over. Like so many revolutions, it started with widespread discontent regarding an indifferent monarch, incredible inequality (“Let them eat cake!”), and a nasty fiscal crisis.
I know what you’re thinking: Do we not have all three elements in the US right now? King Joe as our out-of-touch Louis XVI, Bezos with his $50m wedding in Venice, and a skyrocketing national debt primed to trigger yet another housing crisis … check, check, check.
Economic hardship due to war debts, seriously unfair taxation (with the common folk getting screwed) … the list of gripes against the ancien régime (old Boomer order) is long.
January 6th as the Storming of the Bastille (symbol of royal tyranny), those spontaneous calls for Vice President Mike Pence to be dispatched forthwith …
Once in power, the radical revolutionaries, led by Maximilien Robespierre, institute a reign of terror in which thousands are executed. Fast-forward to DOGE, led by Elon Musk, and entire federal departments are sent to the guillotine (or “wood chipper,” per Musk).
Understanding that the timelines here don’t exactly match up …
But do we not get — when the dust settles — Trump as our Napoleon Bonaparte?
The obvious parallels in their leadership styles, ambitions, and the way they wield power. The cult of personality and the centralization of power, the intense personal allegiance among supporters, the audacity to crown themselves as emperor figures, dismantling any democratic institutions that stand in their way.
The unreal ego, the grandiose self-presentation, the self-declaration of genius status.
Napoleon fired off letters from the front, Trump has his tweets. Both considered themselves above any human laws.
Napoleon was exiled to Elba, Trump to Mar-a-Lago. Both came back fighting …
All the weird offspring and relatives that the nation ended up enduring for years and decades beyond … all those Bonapartes, all those Trumps, when will it end?
Oh the horror!
But, back to the Reign of Terror (aka, DOGE): Robespierre (Musk) and his Jacobins (MAGA) blow up the federal workforce, wiping them out in vast numbers. Thousands upon thousands are dispatched, until they start to run out of bodies to target.
At that point, the infighting begins and the radicals turn on one another (see Bannon on Musk).
And that’s when Robespierre, the man who sent so many to the guillotine, eventually was sent himself. Musk thought he got away with the theft of the century — all that federal big data, but, because he turned on the Revolution and it turned on him, he ends up … facing the threat of having his huge federal contracts cut by Trump himself!
The drama! The irony! The whole boy meets Tech Bro, boy gets Tech Bro, boy loses Tech Bro throughline … the movies and mini-series write themselves.
Mark my words: actors are going to win multiple Oscars down the road playing Musk and Trump. Count on it. The Winter Soldier’s Oscar nom was just the tip of that iceberg.
Pulling the lens out to the international: now all we need are a few seminal battles and we’ll get Ridley Scott to direct.
Let me give it a try (based on my reading of Andrew Roberts’ superb bio of Napoleon):
Trump’s 2016 shocker win as Napoleon’s Battle of the Pyramids in Egypt — a legendary jolt to world order (think of all those Trumpkins launched in nation after nation).
Trump’s USMCA deal (hard-fought comeback win) as Napoleon’s Battle of Marengo (over neighboring frenemies in northern Italy).
Trump’s costly trade or container ship war with China as Napoleon’s Trafalgar (naval loss to Britain), exposing the limits to the Great Man’s economic power.
Trump’s Iran nuclear strikes as Napoleon’s Austerlitz — an audacious win that damaged the great CRINK coalition!
Trump’s thwarting of Putin’s grab for Ukraine as his Borodino that hopefully doesn’t result in some Bridge Too Far fight with Moscow itself.
Trump’s global tariff war as Napoleon being forced to take on all of Europe in the Battle of Nations (Leipzig) …
Finally, dare I project? Taiwan as Trump’s Waterloo?
Thinking of MAGA as Trump’s Cultural Revolution … maybe that was too narrow a lens, because, the more I think about it, the French Revolution really is the better broader framing.
Oh hell, why choose? The more, the merrier.
But think about it:
Driven by popular discontent and anti-elite sentiment, both revolutionary movements reflected widespread unhappiness with the existing order, the decline of the nation’s economic power, and disorienting cultural changes.
Both sought to restructure society in profound ways.
Both were led by charismatic, megalomaniacal leaders.
Both fed off political polarization, deepening it further.
All we’re missing for now is the extreme political violence projected by Alex Garland’s film Civil War, and all that scenario seemed to require was an authoritarian president who refused to leave the White House …
Hmmm.
What are the odds?
Or (and this is highly speculative) bombing Iran unsettles MAGA just enough that we see the emergence of—metaphor shift approaching—a Trumpian-beyond-Trump Savonarola, one who has not lost faith, one who is still against forever wars, no matter how attractive.