Trump’s “Golden Age” of MAGA Tribalism

President Trump's proclamation of a "golden age" for America seems to be emerging from his vision of ultranationalism and global dominance. He conjures a future where America will "flourish and be respected again all over the world" and become "the envy of every nation."

Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi Jinping have similar visions of grandeur by recovering and redeeming their glorious past through economic and military dominance.

How do we understand these megalomaniac leaders who diminish us through their divisive rhetoric and impulsive actions? In his book Inheritance: The Evolutionary Origins of the Modern World, prominent British anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse persuasively argues that three key evolutionary traits—conformism, religiosity, and tribalism—have molded human behavior throughout history, bringing about major transformations in human societies, from the development of agriculture to the ascent of empires.

Whitehouse argues that while these inherited evolutionary traits have propelled some of the greatest advancements in human history, they are now becoming catastrophic. In today's complex geopolitical landscape, these deeply ingrained propensities threaten social cohesion, political stability, global peace, and even our environment.

Considering the rise of Donald Trump and his recent imperialist vision, Whitehouse's framework provides a fascinating lens through which to analyze domestic and current geopolitical trends. Trump, who earlier ran on an "America First" bandwagon promising to avoid new wars and reduce America's role as the world's sheriff, has since his re-election embraced a shockingly imperialist agenda to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland, possibly by military force, and using economic coercion to pressure Canada into becoming, more or less, the 51st state of the USA. All this while Puerto Rico, a US territory, keeps dreaming of becoming a full state in the USA!

Trump's plan of expanding American territory and influence is expressive of the tribal instinct of enlarging one's group and its resources at others’ expense. His statement about Canada, "You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like and it would also be much better for national security," demonstrates this vainglorious tribal thinking on a grand scale. Seen through Whitehouse’s lens, it's an assertion to expand the "American tribe" and strengthen its position against perceived external threats, Russia, China, et.al.

Conformity, humanity’s other inherited trait, according to Whitehouse, helps explain how such radical ideas have gained acceptance among some sections of the US population. Trump's knack for shaping narratives, encouraging conformity, and demanding loyalty among his supporters as well as government officials has been a key factor in his political rise. His never-say-never military action in Panama and Greenland, along with statements like "The Panama Canal is essential to our nation," establishes clearly how he proposes his expansionist ideas as vital for national security and prosperity. This expansionist vision encourages cohesion among his MAGA base, who see these imperialist ambitions as conforming with their patriotic duty.

While not overtly religious, Trump's vision of American expansion and dominance is often articulated with a sense of moral certitude, resonating with religious narratives of chosen people. This semi-religious political tactic connects with, what Whitehouse calls, the human religious impulse, providing a moral framework that justifies actions that might otherwise be seen as unethical. His followers see his escape from the assassins’ bullets as “divine intervention.”

Portraying immigrants, particularly non-whites, as dangerous “others,” as "animals" who "infest" the country invokes primal fears that immigrants are a threat to American culture and security, thus encouraging his base to conform to these views. This conformity reinforced by the "Trump Effect" emboldens MAGA followers to express racist and xenophobic ideas.

By tapping into tribal fears, encouraging conformity to anti-immigrant views, and show-casing the issue in quasi-religious tropes of cultural preservation, Trump has effectively mobilized these evolutionary traits that Whitehouse argues were once vital for survival but now pose potential threats on the global stage, if they are unrestrained by safeguards.

The clannish instinct to expand and dominate, the conformist propensity to blindly follow a powerful leader, and the devout certainty in one's righteous cause all combine to create a potentially explosive situation. As Professor Greg Grandin of Yale wrote in the New York Times, “One lesson the past teaches, especially the imperialist past Mr. Trump is invoking, is that opening the kind of belligerent, multifront balance of power that is in operation today — with the United States pushing against China, pushing against Russia, with all countries, everywhere, angling for advantage — will lead to more confrontation, more brinkmanship, more war.”

But there’s something vital that Whitehouse overlooks. While conformity, religiosity, and tribalism are the quintessential inherited traits for the survival and prosperity of groups, nations, and empires, why do some people refuse to take shelter under this survival dome? Socrates chose to drink hemlock. Jesus carried the cross to his crucifixion. Rousseau lamented, A man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. Patrick Henry said, Give me or give me death. An unknown Chinese protestor faced the PLA tanks on Tiananmen Square.

Nearer home, a day after his inauguration, the Reverend Mariann Budde at the Washington National Cathedral asked Trump “to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now…gay, lesbian, and transgender children…. people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings…labor in poultry farms …work the night shifts in hospitals—they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”

Ben & Jerry, a progressive Vermont Company, whose motto is “Peace, Love & Eat Ice Cream,” has vowed to continue supporting DEI, abortion rights, and “never gonna stop trying to dismantle white supremacy, end the climate crisis or fight for our democracy,” despite the threat of MAGA boycott. Nobel Laureate economist and Times former columnist Paul Krugman asked his readers: “Oppose, Oppose, Oppose — and Do It Loudly. Opponents of MAGA: Don’t despair and don’t appease.”

Oxford anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse needs to explain why humans pursue freedom even when it threatens their survival. Perhaps freedom, like other inherited survival traits, has been a fundamental evolutionary force.

(Narain Batra, author, professor, columnist, and podcaster, is working on a new book, “How America Rocks between Rome and Athens.” He lives in Hartford.)