By: Jacob Evans
“In my exile… I have heard your voice. I have come back in spite of all obstacles”
“It’s called we do a bit of trolling”
As he emerges, enormous crowds of supporters hail the man who had once been the most mocked and derided in the nation. Red, white, and blue bunting drapes the great columns of the executive mansion. The man’s entourage includes generals, admirals, statesmen, and clergymen alike. Some are there out of a begrudging obligation, others out of a deep and enduring loyalty to the one they see as their leader. They are of varying ages, various backgrounds and social standing, but all united in purpose. This scene undoubtedly invokes images of the 47th President of the United States, but also of a far older, even more remarkable leader in history.
If one had been in the inner circles of President Donald Trump during the final days of his administration in January of 2020, it would have been laughable to suggest that he would one day again occupy the Oval Office. Favored to win reelection by safe margins only a year prior, his seemingly unstoppable first presidential term was derailed by an unforeseen global pandemic that spring and a messy, politicized outburst of racial tensions that summer. His opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, was the figurehead of the movement to restore the post-war neoliberalism which had sought to re-establish itself as the leading movement in American politics following Trump’s upset victory in the 2016 presidential election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Trump’s approval ratings in numerous public opinion polls listed him as the most unpopular departing president in modern American
history since former President Jimmy Carter. Many members of his own Republican Party were eager to see him disappear from the national scene and live out the remainder of his life in proverbial exile at Mar-a-Lago, existing as a mere fluke and political oddity in the grand scheme of American political and cultural history. This was not to be, however.
When looking for a historical anecdote of a leader who had been in such dire and seemingly final circumstances, one would not find any instances of any person who had managed to climb back from the brink of political destruction, with one exception. Napoleon Bonaparte.
Emperor of the French. King of Italy. King of Holland. King of Naples and Sicily. Napoleon had risen from being a total political outsider to the conqueror of Europe in less than twenty years. His hostile takeover of revolutionary France with its intricate and decaying political systems can be seen as an equivalent to the feat that Trump accomplished during his Republican primary debut in 2016. Trump totally destroyed the dominant neoconservative wing of the party, replacing it with a new and innovative eclectic collection of paleoconservatives and populists. These fresh faces are united in a desire to restore their nation to true and demonstrable greatness, but with varying ideas of how to achieve that end. Similarly, Napoleon’s rule saw the application of practical solutions to national problems, rather than decisions being made within a strictly philosophical political school of thought/framework. Bonapartism was defined by “neither right nor left” and the Emperor justified his actions in the name of the national interest. Trump, throughout the entirety of his decade-long involvement in politics, has held that his own actions (though viewed by many to be highly partisan) are in the legitimate best interest of the nation as a whole, and of its citizens. In his own words, his actions are ones of “common sense.”
In his time, Napoleon achieved a total overhaul of the judicial system through the introduction of his Napoleonic Code, standardizing the treatment of all before the law. Furthermore, he rehabilitated the power of the Church in France and sought to bring about a renewed sense of patriotism through the development of grand public works and artistic projects. Now, Trump’s second MAGA agenda promises
remarkably similar feats in our time.
Setting aside the particularities of their ideological movements and political leadership, both Trump and Napoleon share a stunningly dramatic and starkly similar fall from grace and restoration back to power. Defeated by the Sixth Coalition of ancient European powers, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea, where he dramatically escaped from captivity and returned to France. Upon his return, he subsequently overthrew the elderly and unpopular Bourbon monarch with the support of France’s working class and proclaimed the creation of a new and glorious Second French Empire. Likewise, Trump was denounced as a threat to the United States and spent much of his post-presidency disgraced in his Mar-a-Lago home. This, of course, occurred before he was threatened with imprisonment for four indictments in various courts across the country. Despite the obstacles, he continued to campaign for the presidency, narrowly survived not merely one but two assassination attempts, and was re-elected to the presidency. In regaining the highest position in each of their nations, both Napoleon and Trump achieved political comebacks that were strikingly similar. Though the Emperor ended his life in a second exile on St. Helena, it remains to be seen what the fortunes of time and history will tell of the second presidency of Trump, who for his part has promised an American golden age the likes of which have not been seen in the lifetimes of most of its citizens. One can only optimistically hope for this to be the case.