America was born in revolt against a mad king who forced a tax on tea. The exit of King George III and the formation of the US of A is a chapter of history that aged well. Or that’s what we thought till the world found itself in a familiar place again. The 47th US President has, effectively, imposed a tariff on Americans today.
The yo-yo of words and events is dizzying. On Wednesday, Donald J Trump declared victory in Operation Epic Fury. On Friday, he said the war would take two more weeks, as Iran shot down an F15-E and an A10 fighter jet. Not every American marched to “No kings” chants at the recent protests, but most are caught between the split-screen of Trump’s Truth posts and truths. A world turned asunder is wondering and global leaders are asking if the madman act is a reality!
History offers some clues. Roman Emperor Caligula, aka Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, led an invasion of Britain in 40 CE. He took his army to the English Channel, went into the sea in his trireme, turned back and asked his soldiers to collect seashells in their helmets and tunics as spoils of the ocean. In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia, aiming for a swift victory. The Russians decimated his Grande Armée, triggering the end of Napoleon’s empire.
Cut to the present era of grand illusions. Trump maintains that his tariffs are a $600-billion success story. Fact check: the US Supreme Court ruled against it and a trade court ordered refunds. The US-Israel attacks were aimed at ‘obliterating’ Iranian nuclear and missile sites that were claimed to have been ‘obliterated’ in June 2025, too. This week, Trump declared Iran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz or the US would ‘obliterate’ its power plants. Is the war about restoring order as it was before the war itself, which started with the US’s strikes on February 28? The fog of war clouds reason. The US, with its track record in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, should know this better than others.
Trump expressed surprise that Iran attacked other Gulf nations and choked Hormuz. His surprise is incredulous as both his Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe testified before Congress that Trump had been warned about the fallout. Joe Kent, a MAGA loyalist and chief of counterterrorism, quit urging the president to reverse course as Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the US. Kent said the war was the result of “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
The question is whether the ruler hears or listens. German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II sacked Otto von Bismarck in 1890 as he desired global expansion and Bismarck didn’t agree. He let the treaty with Russia lapse, allowing France, Russia and Britain to come together in World War I. The reasons for Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 ranged between delusion and economic desperation. A practitioner of segmented lies, Hitler gave his generals a set of reasons and the German people something else.
Leaders with unprecedented victories or fortuitous rise to power often suffer from hubris—a list that includes Margaret Thatcher, George W Bush and Tony Blair in the modern era. In essence, they come to believe their own myths. That produces a domination delusion, which breeds arrogance, contempt for criticism and a sense of impunity. A crisis in such a circumstance triggers ‘bystander behaviour’. In 1968, psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané found a simple rule: the more people witness something going wrong, the less likely that anyone would intervene. The fiction survives as long as it serves convenience.
There is a thin line separating narcissism from out-of-body delusions. Trump loves awards—even those given to others. He likes to be praised regularly, like King Lear, by his cabinet. He insists on his signature on American currency and his name on iconic places. His scatter-shots of distraction include rants about sharpie pens, about Bruce Springsteen looking like a dried prune, about his YouTube clips from 1980 to 2024, and a cryptic post that said ‘Kangaroo court’ with three exclamation marks but no explanation. He let Pete Hegseth sack the army chief in the midst of a war. On Saturday, as US forces were said to be searching for the missing crew of the downed jet, he posted, ‘Keep the oil, anyone?’
The past is not necessarily a prologue, but it does illuminate personalities going off-kilter. Caligula declared himself a living god; his court played along till his Praetorian guards killed him. Benito Mussolini, who dreamt of another shiny Roman empire, was hung upside down in Milan. Charles VI of France had episodes where he thought he was made of glass and would shatter if touched; his court worked with the delusion to preserve the pretence of a functioning regime. George III spoke to oak trees. Woodrow Wilson believed he was god’s envoy for peace in the world. Richard Nixon would wander off at night and speak to portraits hung on While House walls.
A year back, Trump told an interviewer, “I run the country and the world.” Today, his Nato allies are not willing to clean up his mess, the US courts are not playing ball, the trade deal with China is iffy, Congress is unlikely to clear his dream of a $1.5-trillion defence budget, and his party thinks it will be shellacked in the midterm elections later this year. A year later, the question is: who is willing to run along with Trump?
Read all columns by Shankkar Aiyar
Shankkar Aiyar
Author of The Gated Republic, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India’s 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India
shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com