President Trump Is a Modern-Day Winston Churchill

As President-elect Donald Trump takes office for a second White House term, his path bears striking resemblance to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the British bulldog who triumphed over existential threats in World War II. 

And like Churchill, Trump, the American lion, is uniquely equipped and battle-tested for his enormous tasks at hand.

Most obviously, both men were entrusted with their nation’s top elected role, failed to assume a second term, but came roaring back years later for a triumphal return to office. 

Both men dodged physical bullets and displayed strong conservative instincts, though not in lockstep to conservative, partisan litmus tests. They both in some ways zigged and zagged right, left, then right again. 

Churchill temporarily quit the Conservative Party for the Liberal Party before returning to the Conservative. Trump donated to Democrats prior to seeking the Republican nomination (including to his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton), named Democrats to his new cabinet, and brought his party toward traditionally Democrat positions on some issues like trade, tariffs, and war. 

Perhaps because of their independent streaks, they were both hated by establishment forces seeking to marginalize their rise to power. Yet both men prevailed, in part by bucking Western orthodoxies that refused to wisely assess the world’s greatest geopolitical risks. 

In Churchill’s case, his clairvoyance on the risks of Nazi Germany left him a voice in the wilderness until Europe smoldered after Adolf Hitler broke his pacts. Trump understood and expressed grave concerns about America’s dependence on China and exposure to illegal immigration through weak borders.

Both men came from wealthy families and both were raised by immigrant mothers. Churchill’s mother was a wealthy American, and Trump’s mother an impoverished Scottish immigrant who worked as a domestic servant for three years prior to marrying Fred Trump.

Both men suffered significant career setbacks before taking the highest office—experiences steeling their nerves to withstand significant adversity in future affairs. As Churchill said: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Trump reported he declared bankruptcy four times, casualties of the booms and bust of a high-flying real estate career. Churchill faced national disgrace while serving as head of the Royal Navy and overseeing the disastrous WWI Dardanelles campaign of 1915. This carnage-filled amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula cost the Allies more than 220,000 casualties out of a force of nearly 500,000.

Both men displayed legendary showmanship skills, with a knack for driving a news cycle and whipping up public intrigue. Both used politically incorrect, unvarnished language. Churchill was legendary for his acerbic, witty banter—reminiscent of Trump’s social media posts. A comparison of Churchill’s insults with Trump’s tweets would yield striking similarities.

Both men were staunchly pro-Jewish interests, yet both forged peaceful solutions in the Middle East that also considered Arab nations.

In some ways, both men grew more conservative with age as “modern” culture shifted left. As William F. Buckley could have said of them, both men stood still, standing “athwart history, yelling ‘Stop’ at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” 

The Churchill Project at Hillsdale College published an essay from lyrical columnist Charles Krauthammer, who dubbed Churchill the “Person of the 20th Century.” 

In that essay, the late Krauthammer said of Churchill, “It took a 19th century man—traditional in habit, rational in thought, conservative in temper—to save the 20th century from itself.”  

He continued: “The story of the 20th century is a story of revolution wrought by thoroughly modern men: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and, above all, Lenin, who invented totalitarianism out of Marx’s cryptic and inchoate communism (and thus earns his place as runner-up to Churchill for Person of the Century). And it is the story of the modern intellectual, from Ezra Pound to Jean-Pierre Sartre, seduced by these modern men of politics and, grotesquely, serving them.”

Trump is a 20th century man saving the 21st century from itself. When Trump says he wants to “make America great again,” he harkens back to a 20th century when Americans were not riven with racial discord, our national debt was more sustainable, and women and girls’ physical safety and privacy were not threatened by woke ideologies. Trump correctly excoriates the capture of elite media, Hollywood, and academia by leftist brainwashing.

Both men unabashedly embraced Western values that laid the foundation for unprecedented peace and prosperity. Both were flawed human beings—as we all are—but ultimately heroes. As such, we owe Churchill and Trump debts of gratitude.   

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