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A Historian's Perspective: Washington or Napoleon? Trump Makes Choice w/3rd Term Declaration [1]

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Date: 2025-04-01

Anyone reading this essay is almost certainly familiar with Donald Trump’s admission to NBC News yesterday that he is, indeed, looking into the real possibility of a third term as president, that his followers are busy examining ways this could be done despite the clear Constitutional prohibition on election to a third term as president, and that he is not at all joking when he brings up the possibility of a third term. Any even passing knowledge of American political history shows this country’s deep antipathy toward the very idea of monarchy. The Declaration of Independence was a direct shot at the King of Great Britain. Even a whiff of monarchy on a politician in the Early Republic was enough to sully political careers. The Constitution itself prohibits titles of nobility and explicitly attempted to set the stage for a frequent rotation and peaceful transfer of power, and the first time a president stayed in office beyond the two-term precedent, an amendment was passed to prevent it from ever happening again. As Trump looks to add this norm (literal constitutional stricture) to those he regularly seeks to shatter, it is worth exploring how he compares to two other world leaders from the end of the 18th century, when the Age of Democracy dawned on Western civilization and politics and the very principles Trump seeks to overturn were first established: George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Toward the end of his life, as Napoleon languished in exile, he had possibly gained some perspective on where he went wrong, and how his failures may have led him to imprisonment on an island in the middle of the ocean. Attributing his failures, at least in part, to his own ambition, he is alleged to have lamented that “They wanted me to be another Washington.” Coming from Napoleon, it’s possible that no higher praise of Washington, a man virtually deified in the United States, has ever been uttered. Napoleon is, of course, remembered as the man who, after leading the French Army of the Republic to victory, staged a coup to overthrow the quasi-Republican form of government under the French Directory, declared himself First Consul, and then, ultimately crowned himself Emperor as he led his armies across Europe in an attempt to bring the entire continent into his empire. It’s worth drawing attention to Napoleon’s Coronation as Emperor in 1804. He famously requested the Pope at his coronation in Notre Dame Cathedral to lend legitimacy to his ascension as emperor and mirror Charlemagne’s coronation as Holy Roman Emperor a millennium earlier. However, after the Pope consecrated Napoleon, he, without waiting for the Pope, grabbed the crown and placed it on his own head, a statement to the world that there was no power greater than Napoleon himself.

Contrast this with George Washington, who, after leading The American Continental Army to victory over the British, TWICE relinquished power and retired to his home at Mount Vernon– First, in 1783 when he resigned his commission as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, and again in 1796 when he announced he would not seek or accept reelection to the Presidency for a third term. There are many reasons to denigrate Washington, from some of his personal moral failings to his status as a slaveholder, but in this respect, his actions are profoundly worthy of celebration and adulation. Washington very consciously modeled himself after the Roman figure from classical history Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus was celebrated as a retired roman general during the period of the Roman Republic who, when Rome was threatened with invasion and conquest, came out of retirement at the request of the Senate, accepted absolute power during the crisis in order to defeat Rome’s enemies, and then, when the crisis was over, voluntarily relinquished his absolute power back to the Senate, and retired to his farm once again to plow his fields as a citizen.

The Enlightenment-era principles that formed much of the basis of education for the middle class and the well-to-do during the 18th century, lionized the figures of the Roman Republic and lauded its values of duty to the public good, service to the state, active citizen participation in government, a virtuous citizenry, and the rule of law above all else. Washington’s education, and the popular zeitgeist in the colonies that he came of age within impressed these beliefs in him, and served as guiding principles in his life. At each major step of his national political career, Washington followed the model of Cincinnatus in waiting for “the public” to request he assume political office or position before he agreed to it, never publicly putting himself forward as a candidate. From his selection as a delegate to the Continental Congress, his appointment as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, selection as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and election to two terms as President of the United States, Washington made a habit of initially declining his appointment until a public chorus demanded his service. Whether for show or genuine principle, Washington sought to establish a precedent that one should not seek power, but accept it as requested by one’s fellow citizens in service to the public good.

In 1796, as time for the next national election for president neared, Washington again followed the model of Cincinnatus, the general retreating from the height of power to return to his farm a regular citizen. Had Washington wanted, he could have continued on with a third term as president. Indeed, most Americans wanted him to do it. The country was in crisis with war clouds looming across Europe, already beginning a quasi-naval war with France, and significant domestic turmoil, and Washington was seen by many as the only public figure powerful enough to command respect across the ideological spectrum. In fact, had Washington wanted the presidency for life, he quite possibly could have had it. But whether due to his personal identification with Cincinnatus, the sheer exhaustion of 20 years spent as the head of American political power, or likely both, Washington went out of his way to establish the precedent that no man is above his country, and that preservation of the system of republican government was the most important object of the American Experiment.

In his Farewell Address in 1796, Washington famously warned that adherence to and increased identification with political parties would naturally erode the sense of responsibility to the overall public good, and set the stage for a charismatic leader to pervert loyalty to the public good with loyalty to the party agenda and himself as despot: “The alternate dominion of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief, of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty,” (pages 16-17 in link above).

Since entering the national political scene in 2015, Trump has repeatedly placed himself above country. From his statement at the 2016 Republican National Convention that “I alone can fix it,” to his refusal to concede his loss in the 2020 election and acquiesce to a peaceful transfer of power despite dozens of court rulings and investigations showing no widespread electoral fraud or conspiracy whatsoever, Trump has sought to align his followers not with loyalty to the United States and its democratic institutions, but to him alone. His recent public pronouncement that “He who saves his country does not violate any law,” is disturbingly reminiscent of that poster child for absolute monarchy, Louis XIV’s declaration that “I am the state.” In these dark times, it is worth reminding ourselves of the example of George Washington and his admonition that true patriotism is loyalty to the system, to the process, and that the most important thing a leader can do is show that they are not above the law. A true leader does not crave power, but rather knows when to relinquish it. As our 47th President pats himself on the back with self-gratifying plaudits of “Long live the king!” we would do well to remember how far we have strayed from our First President, who turned down the opportunity to be king in order to establish a firm foundation for democracy.

-Peter Porcupine

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/1/2313722/-A-Historian-s-Perspective-Washington-or-Napoleon-Trump-Makes-Choice-w-3rd-Term-Declaration?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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