Trump Is Today’s Caligula

Trump increasingly evokes the memory of Caligula, the third emperor of Rome. 

Though Caligula appeared reasonably rational when his reign began in AD 37, he seemed to descend into madness rapidly. He had sex with his three sisters, among many others. He built opulent villas and hosted lavish parties, thereby bankrupting Rome. He reversed all the actions of his predecessor, Tiberius, while continuing to blame him for anything that went wrong. He declared war on the English Channel. 

➸This article by Harvard prof Jeffrey Frankel on the Project Syndicate website is entitled “America’s Mad Emperor.

Caligula also grafted busts of his own head onto statues of gods, and demanded that people worship him as one. During a gladiatorial spectacle, he had a whole section of the audience thrown into the arena to be attacked by the lions. He humiliated senators by making them kiss his feet or run ahead of his chariot for miles. He tried to make his horse a consul. 

The parallels with Trump are legion. The US president has a long history of sexual misconduct and has repeatedly expressed interest in having sex with his daughter, Ivanka. As ordinary Americans struggle to make ends meet, he hosts extravagant parties at his Mar-a-Lago resort. He has added gold embellishments to the Oval Office and razed the White House’s historic East Wing to build a massive ballroom. And he blames his predecessor, Joe Biden, for America’s every woe. 

Trump has built monuments to himself, affixed his name to memorials to others, and compared himself to God. He has sent armed forces to terrorize American cities. He makes Cabinet officials, CEOs, and foreign leaders pay obeisance to him, and attacks anyone deemed “disloyal.” He has debased Congress. 

Trump has also insulted, alienated, and bullied America’s closest allies. In a letter to Norway’s prime minister, he explicitly linked his threats to invade and annex Greenland (which he repeatedly confused with Iceland in a January 21 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos) to the decision not to award him a Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, he rambles incoherently about windmills, sharks, and the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter. 

Observers have been largely reluctant to pass judgment on Trump’s mental health, partly because calling him “crazy” or “demented” can seem like a casual insult tossed at a public figure with whom one disagrees. Be that as it may, I now join those, including former supporters, who can no longer avoid the obvious conclusion:

Trump is America’s Caligula.