Trump Speaks Truth to Power

Years before he ran for office, Donald Trump cultivated a style of speaking that was brash, blunt, and (in his opinion) totally honest. “I tell it like it is,” Trump said repeatedly on the campaign trail in 2016, breathing new life into a slogan used by politicians dating back to Richard Nixon, and hinting at a powerful rhetorical mode first described by the ancient Greeks.

In The Constitution of Athens, Aristotle tells a story of the tyrannical ruler Pisistratus, who went into the countryside to observe the farms upon which he imposed taxes. Seeing a farmer working a dry piece of ground, Pisistratus approached the man to ask what the land produced for him. Not recognizing Pisistratus, the man replied: “Aches and pains! And that’s what Pisistratus ought to have his tenth of!” As king, Pisistratus had the prerogative to kill the farmer on the spot, but he was so impressed with the man’s frank speech – his parrhesia – that he exempted the farm from taxation.

Since the beginning of Trump’s political career, nothing has bothered the establishment more than the way he speaks, and what he says. Whether the criticism is valid is irrelevant because Trump’s parrhesiastic style of speaking helped put him in the Oval Office.

In a series of lectures titled Fearless Speech, leftist French philosopher Michel Foucault derives five criteria that must be met to classify speech as parrhesiastic:

• The statement must be completely frank – the speaker cannot hold anything back and must “say everything.”
• It must be the truth as the speaker understands it.
• It must be unadorned: It cannot obscure the meaning with rhetorical flourishes, implicit claims, or abstractions.
• It must be critical: It voices criticism of the audience and tells them things they don’t want to hear.
• Finally, in order to qualify as parrhesia, the speech must entail some risk for the speaker

Leftists have long celebrated those bold enough to “speak truth to power,” and this phrase is an apt encapsulation of the concept of parrhesia. But as the American Left consolidated its control of the country’s most powerful institutions, they have become increasingly intolerant of speaking truth to power – at least when the power is theirs.

Unlike Pisistratus, who rewarded the farmer’s bold honesty with a tax exemption, American elites are intolerant of any criticism of their rule. They silence it when they can, and punish it when they can’t. Their refusal to accept and respond to criticism is a powerful demonstration of their unfitness to rule: They see themselves as above criticism, and they see parrhesia as a threat to their power. Thus, the self-appointed defenders of “our democracy” show themselves to be the enemies of democratic deliberation. Attacking and intimidating critical voices eventually can cause people to stop criticizing – and that is the antithesis of democracy and democratic deliberation.

Over the last 15 years, the institutional Left has aggressively censored and destroyed their critics. As a result, many people – at least those with something to lose – have gone silent. For a long time, the establishment took the absence of criticism as a tacit endorsement of their governance. Then came Trump, who only spoke louder as the censures, attacks, and penalties grew.

When the Left claimed that Trump was an elitist billionaire out of touch with regular people, those close to him defended him as a man of the people. His children recalled how their father talked to the workers at construction sites. “One of the reasons he has thrived as an entrepreneur is because he listens to everyone,” Ivanka Trump said in her 2016 speech at the Republican convention. “Billionaire executives don’t usually ask the people doing the work for their opinion of the work. My father is an exception.” Many corporate and government executives use power to insulate themselves from both their customers and the workers who create their products. Trump is different, Ivanka said, because he wants to see for himself whether things are working the way he’s been told. In other words, Trump wants to know the truth, as did Pisistratus in Aristotle’s story.

There’s a practical reason behind this: A leader needs good information to make sound decisions.

In 2017, when his three- and four-star generals advised that the best way to end the war in Afghanistan was by sending more troops, Trump dismissed his generals and called for a meeting with lower-ranked combat veterans who had experienced the war firsthand. “I don’t want any generals in here. I don’t want any officers,” Trump said. “I’ve heard plenty of ideas from a lot of people but I want to hear it from people on the ground.” They told him we were losing the war; they said it was unlikely we would prevail. The parrhesia of the enlisted troops impressed Trump, so he scheduled another meeting. Later, huddling with senior military officers in the Situation Room, Trump channeled his own parrhesia, saying that the troops knew “a lot more than you generals.”

For 10 years, Trump has built his political career upon frank, unadorned criticism of the institutional power base in this country and abroad. And although he occupies the most important position in the world, it would be a mistake to say that his parrhesia risks nothing. The entrenched power structure weaponized intelligence agencies against him, impeached him twice, unleashed personal attacks, exacted onerous legal penalties, barred placement of his name on state ballots, and, ultimately, tried to kill him. It’s not because he’s a boor; he’s always been one. It’s not because he’s rich; many wealthier people elude such persecution. It’s not because of his fame; those who seek to destroy Trump love celebrity. It’s because of his speech – what he says and how he says it. Trump doesn’t hold back. His critique of the system is plain, succinct, and brutal.

And that is what the establishment can’t stand.

Adam Ellwanger is a professor at University of Houston – Downtown, where he teaches rhetoric and writing. Follow him at @1HereticalTruth on X.

John J. Waters is a lawyer. He served as a deputy assistant secretary of Homeland Security from 2020-21. Follow him at @JohnJWaters1 on X.