Following his inauguration as the US’s 47th president after serving as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021, Trump is not wasting time to reclaim history; he is actually rewriting it — word for word. His return to power accelerates the turbocharged project of redefined hegemonic statecraft.
Trump is reframing and repositioning the global role of the US — not as a waning empire but as an avant-garde force capable of disrupting norms, reshaping alliances and elevating the age-old American supremacy to unprecedented heights. From the straits of the Panama Canal to the autonomous territory of Greenland to the icy reaches of the Arctic, his ambitions transcend the borders of the US. In this era of disruption, the planets too may soon feel his imperial yet vengeful grip, especially after having vowed “to plant the stars and stripes on Mars”.
Trump is disrupting neoliberalism’s internal logic by using its own devices of hyper-imperialism, capitalist greed, domination and social exclusion. This is being done alongside performative acts of good governance and the rules-based global order. For some, it is odd that he calls neocons communists, for we all know the difference. Not for Trump. He is clickbaiting and fearmongering. The strategy works.
The world is witnessing not merely a political event but a symbolic culmination of the contemporary forces he represents as leader of the Republicans — a megatrend, a phenomenon, a metaphor, a meme and a zeitgeist.
Trump embodies the paradox of our times. Much like a box of Quality Street sweets, in him there is something for everyone. To his supporters he is a messiah bringing salvation and to his detractors, an unrepentant villain of note. Nevertheless, his unprecedented rise to power signals something more profound — the rewriting of the rules of leadership, governance and global dominance.
Trump as a megatrend: rewriting institutions in real time
Trump epitomises a megatrend that has evolved into a seismic shift that transcends politics and inevitably reshapes the structures of governance. His “Make America Great Again” doctrine, derided and dismissed by his detractors since its inception, has seen some countries emulating his unapologetic nationalism by prioritising national interests over multilateral co-operation.
On his first day in office, he signed numerous executive actions, memoranda and proclamations, most of which demonstrated his bold leadership that seeks to dismantle entrenched alliances and bureaucratic frameworks, to recalibrate the desired changes in pursuit of his cherished dream to “Make America Great Again”. This is hegemony reimagined, as part of a transactional system where rules are redrafted in real time. Buoyed by his relentless ruminations about a safe, stable and successful country, he thrives in an era where institutions must either evolve or collapse.
For some political scientists, Trump’s ascent confirms that global institutions created in the Cold War era are increasingly incapable of addressing the contradictions of globalisation. American political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s concept of “end of history” envisioned a triumphant liberal democratic order, which seems almost laughably naive in the Trumpian era. The president’s megatrend does not signify the end of history but its chaotic reinvention.
Trump as a phenomenon: charisma in motion
Trump transcends the boundaries of Euro-American imaginations of traditional leadership, assuming the mantle of a supreme leader who dominates through charisma and spectacle. His presidency is an unfolding narrative in which magnetism outweighs policy and emotion trumps reason. His appeal spans disparate groups, each projecting their hopes, frustrations and ambitions onto him.
One need only look at who scored premium seats at his inauguration. Trump was flanked by tech bros — Zuck, Bezos, Pichai and the indefatigable Elon. Some are calling it a sign of things to come, what his predecessor Joe Biden called an oligarchy of tech billionaires wielding dangerous levels of power and influence on the nation. The dogs of war of Biden’s military industrial complex watched in envy.
Trump’s ability to inspire devotion and disdain is unparallelled. His constant engagement with his base — whether through rallies, social media or unscripted speeches — consolidates his connection with the masses
To American workers, Trump is the promise of economic revival. To the religious right, he is the saviour of moral values. For nationalists, he is the uncompromising guardian of borders. For miners, drillers and frackers, he is a man who knows capitalism — who will once and for all silence the tree-huggers who regard him as accelerating humanity’s slide into Armageddon.
Trump’s ability to inspire devotion and disdain is unparallelled. His constant engagement with his base — whether through rallies, social media or unscripted speeches — consolidates his connection with the masses. To his critics, he is a chaotic figure who personifies the failures of democracy. For his supporters, he is the voice of the wretched of the earth, challenging elites who have lost touch with reality.
To infer from the Solvenian Marxist philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, Trump is the symptom of a discontented world order — a figure who exposes the hypocrisies and contradictions of liberal democracy. In this sense, he is not just a phenomenon; he is a prism through which global anxieties and aspirations are refracted.
Trump as a metaphor: a system in flux
Trump is more than the leader of the free world; he is a living metaphor for disruption. His leadership style, marked by impulsive diplomacy, brazen economic policies and unorthodox alliances, challenges every institution he encounters. He does not merely engage with the system, he embodies the collapse and reinvention of Western conceptions of good governance.
He dramatically undermines Fukuyama’s notion that the liberal democratic order that became hegemonic after the collapse of the Soviet Union represents the pinnacle of human political evolution. His presidency is a stark reminder that history is not linear or resolved. His actions force us to confront the fragility of institutions and the volatility of a world where dominance is achieved through constant recalibration.
In this way, Trump represents a system in flux. He forces us to question whether liberal democracy, once heralded as the ultimate political system, can adapt to the challenges of the 21st century. Otherwise, how do we explain so much poverty and underdevelopment in the post-colony that has tried to adopt Western democracy, and to catch up in the global production and value chains? For Trump, governance is less about order and more about power and action — an allegory for a world where chaos drives innovation and survival.
Trump as a meme: the viral spectacle of leadership
In the digital age, Trump exists not just as a president but as a living, breathing cultural artefact. His mannerisms, catchphrases and controversies have made him a constant subject of memes, viral posts and cultural commentary. He thrives in the economy of virality, where politics becomes performance and leaders become symbols. The world is his public square and entrance is free.
For his supporters, Trump’s meme-ification amplifies his message, casting him as a heroic figure defying global elites. For his detractors, it highlights his perceived incompetence, turning his missteps into moments of ridicule. Memes transform Trump into both a figure of adoration and a caricature of the modern politics of personality.
Žižek’s reflections on the absurdity of modern politics find resonance in Trump’s viral presence. He is not just a politician; he is a performer on a global stage, where every action is magnified, analysed and commodified. Trump’s meme-ification underscores the blurring of politics and culture in an age where politicians are as much cultural symbols and mascots as they are policymakers.
We all know what happens once a meme reaches trumpian (epidemic level) proportions. Its value skyrockets to stratospheric heights. True to form, his meme cryptocurrency raked in megabucks at its launch on the eve of his inauguration. Only he can pull that off.
Trump as zeitgeist: the prism of an era
Trump embodies a zeitgeist defined by polarisation, indifference, AI, social exclusion, monopoly capital and a fundamental questioning of institutions. His leadership is not merely a magnifier of the times but a force that shapes them. His policies, often unfolding with the fluidity of stream of consciousness, challenge the idea of history as linear or resolved.
To those who embraced Fukuyama’s vision of liberal democracy, Trump is a nightmare: an outlier who has reignited the unresolved tensions of globalisation. For some, his rise confirms the idea that the ideological cracks of the global order have grown too large to ignore. He is not just a figure in history; he is both its stenographer and choreographer, challenging every Euro-American normative assumption about good governance. He is redrafting the hegemonic statecraft handbook.
Although it is questioned by scholars of strategic studies and political science, I insist on my idea of characterising imperial America’s type of statecraft as being hegemonic; whereas the Global South chooses a developmental statecraft, which is human-centred. At the core of Trump’s philosophy is the reinvention of American hegemony.
Trump’s approach reflects a new model of governance where dominance is achieved not through stability but through adaptability and innovation
Far from retreating from global hegemony, Trump is reshaping it in his own image. By weaponising tariffs, renegotiating treaties and challenging alliances like Nato, he is repositioning the US not just as a reinvented and rejuvenated global policeman but as a rampantly transactional superpower. His statecraft thrives on racial fears, social exclusion, deindustrialisation, poor delivery of public services and weak state capacity, using chaos as a tool to consolidate power.
Trump’s approach reflects a new model of governance where dominance is achieved not through stability but through adaptability and innovation. His presidency will force public and private institutions to evolve, resist or crumble under the pressure of constant recalibration.
This model, while unsettling, represents a new phase of hegemonic statecraft and rampant capitalism in which those who control mega-riches cancel each other in the gold rush to supremacy. Trump’s America will leverage unpredictability to maintain its position at the centre of global power dynamics.
He defies newsroom and textbook categorisation. He is beyond a strong leader; he is a phenomenon in progress, an unfolding metaphor for an age of interruption and a prism through which the contradictions of globalisation are laid bare. His reordering of American politics and the global order, according to some, demonstrates that we are indeed Living in the End Times, as Žižek once titled his magnum opus. In Trump’s world, history is now resolved. The neocons running the deep state and social engineering programmes that put the Caucasian on the stand for colonialism and racism are now defeated, he reasons.
Anarchy is the oxygen in this world, a tool to manufacture consent and dominance.
As Bob Marley once sang, “Time alone, oh, time will tell” whether Trump is the harbinger of a new hegemonic order or the final chapter in an old one. Until then, the script remains his to write, and the ever-watchful world waits to see how this chapter unfolds.
• Busani Ngcaweni is principal of the National School of Government.
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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