There are two Donald Trumps, but which one is the real one?

Sensible conservative or dangerous narcissist? The best answer is given by those who have worked with him.

There are two Donald Trumps. We liberals see an ignorant, sadistic, immoral, intolerant and authoritarian narcissist, as revealed by his
own words. But there is another Trump, who is invisible to liberals: a sensible conservative Trump. This is the Trump described by people who are sensible conservatives. They think we liberals with Trump Derangement Syndrome should put aside what Trump says and focus on what he does. Some sensible conservatives are readers of the Financial Times who have made this argument to me in thoughtful emails. I will state his case, as I understand it.

Sensible conservatives often open their speech with the warning that they don’t like Trump. They wish he would talk and post less. They explain that he says crazy things to appeal beyond the sensible conservative base to the broader camp of Maga types. He is only dedicated to marketing, a businessman told me.

Sensible conservatives describe a smart Trump whose vulgar words disguise effective policies. Take, for example, his pressure on European states to fund his own defense. We liberals obsess over his outrageous threat to “encourage” Russia to “do whatever it wants” to recalcitrant Europeans. But sensible conservatives explain that he is the first American president to achieve the long-standing American goal of getting Europeans to increase defense spending. (Liberals would argue that Vladimir Putin did considerably more to achieve this, by invading Ukraine.) Sensible conservatives add that Trump was tough enough on Putin to be the only recent American president not to experience a Russian invasion. In his opinion, misquoting Theodore Roosevelt, Trump speaks loudly and carries a big stick.

Sensible conservatives argue that as president, Trump acted like a sane conservative. He cut taxes for “wealth creators.” He cracked down on immigration. Trump, they say, oversaw low inflation, while Joe Biden worsened the global price surge in 2021-22 with his post-pandemic fiscal stimulus. Now Biden, echoing Trump, is calling for new tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum.

Sure, sensible conservatives will shrug, the Trump family got rich from the presidency.

So did the Clintons and the Obamas, even if liberals argue they only did it after leaving office. Sensible conservatives criticize Trump’s bad behavior in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. But they understand his concerns about possible vote tampering. After all, the postal voting he opposes is banned in most European democracies. In short, sensible conservatives make more sensible arguments for Trump than Trump himself. They also point out, correctly, that liberal elites look down on Trump voters.

So which is the real Trump: the dangerous narcissist or the level-headed conservative? I would argue that the answer comes from the only group of American conservatives who are least interested in Trump: those who worked for him. Many of them now support the liberal vision.

Only four of Trump’s dozens of former Cabinet members publicly supported his re-election, NBC News reported last summer. Several former collaborators are also out there warning against him. A recent Associated Press article captured some warning voices: Trump is a “threat to democracy,” said former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. “He is not fit to be president,” said former national security adviser John Bolton. Trump “admires murderous autocrats and dictators,” said former chief of staff John Kelly. Trump’s re-election “could mean the end of American democracy as we know it,” said former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin.

These people are conservative. His own self-interest would surely lie in praising the potential next president and taking pride in having worked for him. Instead, they are courting ostracism from their tribe. Cassidy Hutchinson, a Trump White House staffer turned whistleblower, says: “It’s not easy… there are a lot of consequences you have to face when you break up with Trumpworld.”

Other conservatives who know Trump keep their disdain private. Mitt Romney describes a room full of Republican senators who greeted Trump with a standing ovation, listened to him respectfully, and then “broke out laughing” the moment he left. There is also an entire genre of nonfiction in which anonymous officials tell terrifying stories about his presidency. Meanwhile, it’s hard to find any Democrat who worked for Biden saying he’s unfit to be president.

The knee-jerk response is that Trump’s conservative critics are “Republicans in name only.” But that suggests there’s no room for sensible conservatives in his Republican Party. Some sensible people may have invented a Trump in their own image.

Written by: Simon Kuper

© Financial Times