Trump: Ozymandias revisited?

In 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, inspired by the shattered statue of the most powerful Egyptian Pharaoh, Ramses II, wrote the sonnet Ozymandias as a comment on human hubris and impermanence. It provides a fitting epithet for the imperialistic forays of the current United States’ president and would-be autocrat, Donald J. Trump.

What Ramses and Trump have in common is unrestrained hubris and unlimited delusion.

Ramses says: “My name is O, King of Kings. Look at my works you Mighty and despair.”

Trump’s hubris and bluster on limits to his power: “There is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” On Truth Social, Trump declared himself the “most powerful person that has EVER walked this planet.”

Like many of the totalitarian leaders Trump admires, Ramses II made peace through war, undeterred by the cost of human lives. Unlike Trump, most of his military campaigns were successful in achieving their stated aims of ensuring the supremacy of Egypt in the region.

Like Trump, he promoted a cult of personality, demanding unconditional loyalty shored up by the use of conquest and fear. Unlike Trump, he had no difficulty in commissioning scores of statues in his image and edifices in his name.

Trump considers himself in the league of the most powerful autocrats the world has ever seen — Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great — people who changed the world order. He has often expressed his admiration for the likes of Napoleon, Stalin and Hitler and courts the approval of Putin and Kim Jong Un, simultaneously dissing the United Nations, NATO and some of his Mideast allies. His control over Congress, the Supreme Court and his entourage of yes men and sycophants merely serve to enlarge his image of himself.

But recently cracks have started to appear in his façade. Recent court rulings, including those of the Supreme Court, have upended his unilateral actions, vengeful activities and extracurricular activities — such as overturning his early tariff regime, thwarting his election interference and paying for his past philandering.

He is running out of obscure legislation to support his claims for emergency powers.

Six months ago, he started a forever war with Iran and supported Israel in a never-ending war with Hamas and Hezbollah. He has been unsuccessful in his dreams of annexing Greenland, the Strait of Hormuz, Canada and Cuba. His invasion of Venezuela has virtually changed nothing for the people there. What he has succeeded in doing is alienating the very countries and leaders who would like to support the United States.

Shelley writes: “two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered image lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command. Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things.”

An apt description of Trump’s appearance. And a likely outcome of many of Trump’s fiascos — the reflecting pool, the White House ballroom, the Kennedy Center remake — to name a few. Instead of them turning into gold, he seems to have inherited the reverse Midas touch.

Approximately 3,200 years later, at least one of Ramses’ massive statues has been resurrected and restored, gracing the entrance to the relatively new Grand Egyptian Museum. The likelihood of Trump’s creations enjoying a similar status, even during his presidency, look ever dimmer. In fact, even now, it is hard to see them through the fog of the Epstein files, tariff debacles, cavorting with tyrants and never-ending lawsuits.

While we do have to admit that his reach is worldwide, the devastation Trump has visited on international relationships, public civility, the Republican party, the environment, religion and humanity in general has made America a global pariah. Losing support daily, his star is starting to fade as witnessed by his panicked outbursts, his frantic distractions, his accelerated personal attacks and frenetic social media eruptions. I believe his run is almost over as democracy, truth and justice demand a reckoning.

Democracy may have its flaws and weaknesses, but history has shown that, in the long run, it is extremely successful at righting wrongs and redressing lawlessness. Justice has a way of rooting out the evils and harms of hatred, revenge and violence. Truth, even when it seems so distant and unachievable, more often than not rises to the surface. And the history of the three combined are what provides hope for a post-Trump future for our troubled world.

John R. Wiens is dean emeritus at the faculty of education, University of Manitoba.