Tom Minear: Keyboard warrior or king, time to take Trump literally

It has long been said Donald Trump should be taken seriously, not literally. Now he is backed by a team that doubles down rather than backs down, Tom Minear argues it is time rethink that.

When Donald Trump first ran for president, a reporter suggested he should be taken seriously, not literally.

The idea caught on, even with Mr Trump’s advisers, who argued the media’s failure to anticipate his victory stemmed from taking him so literally.

In The Art of the Deal, the book that made him a household name, Mr Trump admitted being as outlandish as possible was part of his negotiating strategy. His supporters grasped that, as they reconciled what he said with what he was willing to do.

Almost a decade later, it is tempting to comprehend the President the same way, to pay less attention to his jabs and jokes than his actions. On one level, this is sensible, as he delivers on his commitments with unprecedented velocity and ferocity.

US President Donald Trump addresses the National Governors Association Evening Dinner and Reception at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 22. Picture Roberto Schmidt/AFP

Mr Trump is securing America’s borders, deporting foreign criminals, slashing waste and enforcing tariffs. His tactics should not go unquestioned – dismantling America’s foreign aid and consumer protection agencies will have negative consequences, as will trade wars with allies – but he has earned some leeway because this is what he was elected to do.

The fact is, however, that the words of the world’s most powerful man carry weight. And unlike Mr Trump’s first term, when his aides reined in his most radical statements, this is a fully unleashed President with a team determined to double down, not back down.

There is no way to explain away Mr Trump’s attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a dictator who was to blame for Russia’s invasion of his country, not when his administration had already made major concessions to Vladimir Putin to end the war.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump. Picture: John Thys and Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

Mr Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz did not even try last week. Asked if he stood by his past statements blaming Mr Putin for the war, he rowed in behind his boss.

This President should be taken literally. He is not always playing four-dimensional chess, as his boosters blindly boast.

He is sometimes simply a keyboard warrior firing off his grievance-fuelled thoughts. And his words matter, especially when they motivate his actions.

Not all of Mr Trump’s pronouncements will come to pass. It is hard to imagine, for instance, that he will actually take over Gaza. But it is not clear who will talk him out of such ideas, let alone steer him towards more realistic alternatives.

“Long live the king,” he said last week. Seriously or literally, that is how he sees himself.

Originally published as Tom Minear: Keyboard warrior or king, time to take Trump literally