Grieving the Trump Who Never Was

Grieving the Trump Who Never Was

What’s the worst part of a nightmare? The moment that wakes you. But that’s also the moment needed to end the bad dream and restore your mind to reality. You only get clarity after the nightmare ends.

Today, President Donald Trump has finally conceded the end of his presidency. And while I’m sure that he and those in his family and administration are grieving a nightmare scenario, the lion’s share of the disappointment and pain will fall beyond the White House. It’s an inevitable part of any political failure, but this loss will be especially difficult on the candidate’s supporters.

Trump wasn’t just a politician or a candidate — he was a dream. A dream cut short.

Many of Trump’s supporters adored him for what they hoped he would accomplish. They loved the idea of what they believed he would do for America. And the list of Trump’s alleged plans were as diverse and endless as the millions who supported him.

Since his descent on the golden escalator, Trump’s supporters have assigned countless attributes and goals to him. Some were rooted in Trump’s statements, but many were not. Throughout his political career, Trump’s apologists have worked tirelessly to build a redemptive mission for his Presidency. He was, after all, here to make America great again.

To the most ardent Trump devotees, Trump was a self-sacrificial messianic figure on a crusade to save the soul of our nation. And the ways in which he would accomplish this were allegedly endless. He was said to be semi-omniscient, playing five-dimensional chess against the evil overlords of our fallen world. He would be the one to break the bonds of globalist slavery. Trump would avenge the innocent by finally exposing and punishing those who exploit the powerless. He was going to disempower the cabal of the corrupt ruling class.

The end result of these Trumpian prophecies were supposed to be far reaching. The Clintons were going to pay for their crimes. The illegal immigrants were going home. Cities were going to become safe. Pedophiles were to be rounded up en masse. Literal boatloads of children were to be saved. Endless wars would cease. Big Tech was going to face its day of reckoning. Wages would be ample. The swamp would be drained. Secretly watermarked ballots would flush out the vote riggers, and elections would become undoubtedly secure. America would finally be redeemed from its oppression, and Trump would heal our land.

People will debate endlessly about the merits of some of these goals, but that’s not the point. This isn’t about a particular ideology. Switch some of the nouns and the same sort of aspirations were also applied to Obama. It’s not unique to Trump.

To understand the Trump phenomenon and presidency, one has to understand one simple truth: Trump was a projection.

The primary driver of this type of hope isn’t the candidate — it’s the people. Trump’s alleged crusades weren’t necessarily the result of his wishes, and many weren’t within the scope of his abilities. Rather, they were the projections of millions of Americans. These people want to believe in a better tomorrow. They want moral leadership. They want injustice to cease. They want prosperity to be widespread. They want a tangible messiah to redeem something they deeply love: America.

So they made a president in their own image.

Trump was simply a relatively blank canvas upon which they were able to project their own aspirations. He didn’t have a stated political ideology. His platform was essentially void of actual policies. Making America “great” is a completely subjective goal. Even his history of indiscretions was dismissible under the pretense of him having experienced some sort of moral rehabilitation and rebirth.

The allegations of Trump’s spiritual awakening are a good example of this type of projection. To date, Trump hasn’t given a direct testimony and hasn’t disclosed a consistent pattern of religious practice. Nevertheless, many are firmly convicted of Trump’s conversion, repentance, and belief. They believe such measures mean something to Trump because they mean something to them. Tellingly, members of Trump’s religious base — ranging from Roman Catholics to Baptists to Jews to Mormons and everything in between — are confident that Trump meets the criteria of their own religious doctrines, regardless of the fact that their own views are collectively incongruous.

This projection isn’t inherently bad. In fact, it actually reveals certain morals and values that most of us share — regardless of our politics. We all want justice. We all hunger for opportunity. We all want moral leadership that fights for what we perceive to be right. Those are things we ought to be uniting around. The fact that we project these things onto our preferred politicians reveals how similar we actually are. It is also a testament to our own morality, regardless of whether or not that morality is actually shared by the subject of our projection.

Because Trump’s presidency was a projection, the conclusion of it will be particularly personal and painful for many Americans. For Trump’s supporters, the attacks on Trump have been felt as attacks on their own selves. It’s not just the loss of a candidate; it’s the loss of an entire idea. The grief isn’t just for a man — it’s for a lost hope. It’s not just Trump’s loss. It’s their loss. Witnessing the attacks, legitimate and otherwise, against the manifestation of their hopes has been a nightmare for Trump’s supporters. That nightmare may now be ending, but the pain will endure. The worst pain of a nightmare is felt as it ends. And this is currently ending. Whether one loves or despises Trump, hopefully we can all extend mercy toward those walking the familiar path of loss.