Donald Trump: A presidency of metaphors

Trump is the most metaphorical of Presidents. Trump owns what he should not have owned, has done deals that should not have been done, the master builder who has built too much, writes Dr Kim Sawyer.

THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY is a presidency of metaphors.

The word metaphor originally meant transference of the ownership of words; referring to one thing when meaning something else. Trump has transferred meaning more than most, for the false to be true and the true to be false. The real metaphor lies not in his words, but in his actions.

Trump has transferred ownership by the people, of the people, and for the people to himself. The White House to be his house, the reflecting pool his pool, the Department of Justice (DOJ) his law firm, the Supreme Court his court, the Kennedy Center his performing arts centre, and the nation’s wealth to be his own wealth. Transfer of ownership is the metaphor of Trump.

Trump has elevated the art of the deal. Most do not understand that the deal is a metaphor of him; they are too focused on his deals to bother asking who is on the other side of the transaction.

The metaphor is an old one, the most famous version being Dr Faustus. Faust was real, but the metaphor of dealing with the devil is so woven into legend that few know. Faust is the story of the compact with the devil.

One of the first versions was the story of Theophilus. Theophilus lived in the sixth century. He was a bishop's vice-dominus. He was well respected. When the bishop died, he was expected to be named bishop, but he declined from modesty. Theophilus paid the price.

The new bishop deprived him of his former position in the church. To restore his position, Theophilus made a deal with the devil, and he signed away his soul.

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After seven years of chaotic existence, Theophilus repented, but the redemption was not easy. Nonetheless, Theophilus fared better than Faust.

The metaphor of the deal with the devil has survived many iterations, perhaps because it is the deal that we all must choose to negotiate or not to negotiate. Abraham Lincoln knew. On a winter’s evening in 1860 at the Cooper Union in New York, Lincoln began a speech that pre-ordained his presidency.

Lincoln’s Right Makes Might speech on that February night was summed up by his first words:

“Let us have faith that right makes might.”

A metaphor Trump chose to ignore.

In The Master Builder, Henrik Ibsen wrote of the builder who built one tower too many; the builder who, upon reaching the top of his highest tower, lost his footing and then crashed to his death. The fortune the builder amassed and the misfortune he imposed on others was annulled by his fall. Trump should have read Ibsen.

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William Shakespeare specialised in metaphors. Wild goose chase, seen better days, and good riddance were some of his notable metaphors. He may have observed someone like Trump; it seems so. Shakespeare wrote As You Like It four hundred years before Trump but seemed to know.

The monologue in Act II of As You Like It reads like a testament to Trump:

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women are merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts.

His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation.

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The monologue ends with the words that may be the most prescient. That ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Trump is the most metaphorical of Presidents. Trump owns what he should not have owned, has done deals that should not have been done, the master builder who has built too much.

Wild goose chase, seen better days, and good riddance — the metaphors of Trump.