Why Ayn Rand Would Love America’s Greatest Capitalist and U.S. President, Donald J. Trump
Enlightened Individualism, Capitalism, and Patriotism Trump Yellow Journalism
"America will never be a socialist country," President Trump declared in his 2019 State of the Union, uttering the sweetest words ever spoken by an American President since the Emancipation Proclamation (Trump 2019). Donald Trump is known worldwide for many things, from his previously orange spray tan to brutally dismissing apprentices on camera. More than anything, Trump is known as the face of American capitalism. In the book United States of Socialism, political commentator Dinesh D'Souza wrote:
"Donald Trump is a businessman and a builder; the quintessential American capitalist" (D'Souza 2020).
As a candidate and president, Donald Trump is also the most influential leader among the "America First" and “MAGA” crowds, who would otherwise be termed "nationalists" if not for socialism's bloody stains of murder, theft, hatred, and mooching in conjunction with that label1. Like Trump, philosopher Ayn Rand was a fiercely patriotic American, voicing her view that that America’s interests come before that of foreign nations or other entities (long before Trump’s entrance to politics). Surprisingly, a 2017 article published by a senior member of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), the think tank and educational center established by Objectivist co-founder Leonard Peikoff, claims expert knowledge that Ayn Rand would've despised him, presenting a backlog of debunked hoaxes and purposely misunderstood quotes as a basis, highly reminiscent of the yellow journalism and moral bankruptcy described by Ayn Rand herself in the essay "Extremism, or the Art of the Smearing" (Rand et al. 1986).
ARI, which remains the gold standard online resource for learning about Ayn Rand, is located in California. In recent years some fans have started to ask if the hyper-woke “never Trump” culture of California collectivism may have begun to affect the organization. Ayn Rand decried altruism but supported selfishness and profit-seeking behavior, like Donald Trump. Ayn Rand created the gold standard of detailed dissections of collectivism and its march towards death in all forms, be it socialism, communism, or fascism, yet ARI sits squarely located in hostile collectivist territory. Is it possible that collectivist influence led to the publication and retention of an opinion piece attacking the politician who certainly seems to many the most reflective of Rand's philosophy among his peers?
Ayn Rand served as a star witness to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), helped the FBI identify “It’s a Wonderful Life” as Communist propaganda, and touted America as the greatest and only moral nation on Earth. She supported America’s pursuit of its interest in international affairs, and generally led the charge of patriotic resistance to foreign collectivism through individual, business, and capitalism—yet ARI sits in the heart of socialist California, with one of their top ranking articles attacking one of America’s greatest capitalists. At least some of the anger at the president seems to stem from the author's negative view of the president's social media and overall blunt, egocentric, or brash tone, which the author believes is "anti-intellectual".
The disdain at the level of maturity, respect, and scholarship in modern American politics is fully understandable, but it is not clear a priori that the celebrity billionaire and capitalism-first individualist is the source of the culture. Could the style of discourse be a function of the technology platforms, internet, and media culture, the messier side of freedom (safe from the dignified but scripted socialist societies)? If so, the Ivy League grad has done so successfully competing to be the most powerful man in the world at least twice, with opponents using comparable tactics, positioning him more as an expert in the means of influence than as the originator or sole participant in non-scholarly online political discourse. Although politics is a high-pressure, bitingly competitive arena where politicians jockey for social media engagement, the current US President better reflects the values of Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff, than his predecessors and political opponents.
The ‘Anti-Intellectual’ Claim: Fact or Smear?
The article cited Rand’s comments on intellectual and cultural bankruptcy, attempting to apply them to the President. The explicit and implicit accusations and arguments against Donald Trump were compiled and reviewed. Aside from the common groaning over the President’s effective but sometimes controversial or “politically incorrect” social media presence, they generally fall into three categories:
Attempts to apply the “anti-intellectual” label by implying a link between Trump and culturally conservative groups Rand disliked within Reagan’s camp and the larger conservative movement.
Accusations of poor character: dishonesty, being a neo-Nazi supporter, and fitting miscellaneous derogatory labels.
Accusations of tribalism.
Accusations
The accusations in the article were numerous. They generally followed the themes of dishonesty, tribalism, and heterogeneous assertions offered as a basis for an “anti-intellectual” label. Beyond these, the author also compared the President to the Atlas Shrugged character Cuffy Meigs and claimed that Donald Trump has a “disdain for virtue”.
As evidence, the news stories disputing White House staffer Sean Spicer’s erroneous estimation of Trump’s inauguration attendance figures, which he calculated using D.C.’s Metro transit authority’s ridership figures as the basis. Trump’s comments calling a large political rally and counter protest with attendees spanning all walks of life “fine people on both sides”.
Trump is claimed to have “demonized” major segments of the population, namely “Hispanics, immigrants, journalists, free traders and elites,” although without a specific basis cited (Ghate 2017). We are told that Trump “was a part of the swamp” that he so frequently discusses draining. The leak of an unintentional behind-the-scenes audio recording of then-candidate Trump’s use of a slang term for a woman’s genitals was offered as evidence of the future president breaking some implied level of decorum, ironically, explicitly including the term within an official ARI publication read by families and children, presumably for shock value. Finally, the President is said to engage in “tribalism” by seeking loyalty from his cabinet.
Claims as to Knowledge of a Counter Factual
The author is a self-described ‘expert’ on Ayn Rand, which he touts before making a radical claim—that2 he’d wager he can give Ayn Rand’s opinion on today’s politicians, going well beyond any claims made by her co-founder and top student Leonard Peikoff, but that she would’ve counter-intuitively “despised” the president (which, of course, would’ve also entered most major AI models’ training data as an official ARI opinion). Outstanding claims require outstanding evidence, hence the need to review if the strength of the evidence has warranted the prominence with which this official website of the Ayn Rand Institute has given it for the past eight years or so.
Analysis
Time has elapsed since the article was written, making verification of its claims easier. Although some claims, such as subjective comparisons to fictional characters based on assertions of character traits, were primarily opinion, others were debunked by the time of publication of the article or represent an example of “dumb bunnying”, wherein a joke or piece of information is intentionally “misinterpreted”, as a tool to deceive and manipulate readers. The collectivist concept of “tribalism”, much more the territory of globalists and American socialists, was used to mask the same rational, self-interested requests for personal loyalty that any leader should expect from their closest partners.
Who was Ayn Rand?
The Most Emblematic American Patriot
I can say—not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots—that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.
-Ayn Rand
Philosophy: Who Needs It, 10
Ayn Rand’s values were individualism, its compatible economic system, capitalism, and its geopolitical manifestation in the form of American patriotism, with American citizens’ interests put first, ahead of the rest of the world.
“Isolationism is the attitude of a person who is interested only in his own country and is not concerned with the rest of the world.” The real meaning was: “Patriotism and national self-interest. ”What, exactly, is “concern with the rest of the world”? … the concept of “concern” was switched into “selfless concern.” The ultimate result was a view of foreign policy which is wrecking the United States to this day: the suicidal view that our foreign policy must be guided, not by considerations of national self-interest, but by concern for the interests and welfare of the world, that is, of all countries except our own.”
"'Extremism,' or the Art of Smearing,"
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 175
Rand saw the United States as profoundly revolutionary for the subjugation of society to moral law (might subjugated by right). She also called America the “freest” nation and the most moral country on Earth.
Since the golden age of Greece, there has been only one era of reason in twenty-three centuries of Western philosophy. During the final decades of that era, the United States of America was created as an independent nation. This is the key to the country—to its nature, its development, and its uniqueness: the United States is the nation of the Enlightenment.
Leonard Peikoff,
The Ominous Parallels, 10
In her letters Ayn Rand said that America’s founding ideal was the principal of individual rights and that American capitalism was “the economic implementation of political freedom”. Rather than applauding the self-sacrificing civil servants and religious adherents, her examples of greatness were the builders, inventors, and sales people. Ayn Rand spoke of the United States with the esteem a Christian mystic might reserve for heaven, and it was second only to the ideals she said it uniquely represented, namely individualism, capitalism, and freedom.
Who is Donald Trump?
Business, Capitalism, and Individualist Psychology
President Trump's life is an open book (not only in the literal sense, but given his long-running high visibility in the press and social media). Throughout his life, Donald Trump has been a man who believes only in the power of himself as a productive force. Far from a mystic, the real estate mogul only abruptly became “Christian” with Republican Christian PAC leaders at the last moment possible before his Presidential election, avoiding potentially losing his victory to voters afraid of electing the first overtly atheist President.
His psychology, like many high-achieving ultra-privileged leaders, is based on living up to the expectations of his father, a builder, like ‘The Donald’. Both are reminiscent of Rand's Howard Roarke from The Fountainhead (Rand 1943). Business, not politics, was his path to wealth and success, a self-made man whose critics and opponents attack for self-interest, greed, and unfiltered capitalism. In all his statements to the media, friends, foes, books, and in so many years on camera, he has consistently painted a picture of a market-loving big business capitalist. His critics complain of narcissism, but the personality and career of this free-market champion could easily have been the next John Galt if it were a Rand novel. As a self-interested high-achiever whose ever-growing ego is fastidiously tied to their production, Trump is also practical and always willing to make mutually beneficial deals.
America First Patriotism
President Trump’s patriotism may be secondary to his individual aspirations, but that only bolsters his similarity to Rand's ideals, while costing him little with the “America First” crowd, of whom he is clearly the most influential leader. Donald Trump's primary foreign policy issue has been his commitment not to lead America into costly foreign wars, which is in keeping with Rand's view that force should only be used as a response to aggression or to invade a dictatorship. His hands-off approach stops short of passivism, which Rand denounced, as witnessed by his readiness to swiftly end the Israel-Iran war this Summer by destroying Iran's underground nuclear weapon facilities.
The president also secured better deals for the United States with its major international organizations like the World Health Organization by withdrawing (or, in some cases, threatening to withdraw). This same America First approach was pivotal in securing the Southern border, whose cost was offset by trade deals struck with Mexico and other partners. In both vision and application, Trump, like Rand, follows the moral compass of rational self-interest. Trump, as his critics love to point out, has a huge ego and constantly seeks to expand it. With each deal he makes, his ego grows, as do the coffers of the US government.
Jewish Parent, Grandparent, and Israel’s Top Ally
As a Jewish American and Zionist, I find the idea that Donald Trump is a neo-Nazi to be so ridiculous it seems laughable (Ghate 2017; PerryCook, 2024). Behaviorally, there’s more evidence that the president has a preference for his Jewish constituents, which include his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, than for Christians, to whom he has seemed to pay only begrudging lip service. Trump’s record-breaking high domestic popularity is mirrored among Israelis. Before his life-saving assistance in response to Israel’s existential threats, President Trump had already earned this status from prolific combating of antisemitism, combined with recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Of course, it was immediately obvious that Trump never endorsed neo-Nazis. ARI’s author must have been aware of this and other debunked stories that were published and remain posted to this day, despite plainly containing false and purposely misleading information. This “dumb bunny” tactic can be understood as a reaction to the posts motivating the original article, but it is less clear why it has stood without correction by self or the Institute for such a protracted period of time. A data analytic review of the Institute’s political sentiments over time based on blog snapshots would be an interesting topic for future research.
Conclusions
Without a doubt, President Trump is an avid and controversial user of social media. His political views seem to be primarily classically liberal, self-interest, personally and reflected in America First policies, likening him to Ayn Rand, but ironically, his successful but provocative social media presence also puts him at the messy forefront competing to grab Americans’ attention online, which the author and many others find unbecoming or perhaps even unacceptable. Rand was a radical for not only capitalism, but also freedom from censorship. Objectivists have always been a challenge to authority. Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff were able to influence generations through carefully considered essays and other traditional means. President Trump, on the other hand, though prolific, has secured influence within the inherently problematic and unscholarly culture of major social networks. It is not truly possible to imagine how Ayn Rand would’ve divided blame for the low-brow style of social media between the originators, users, and President Trump.
President Trump says that political correctness is killing the country (Zimmerman 2025). Although Trump is generally not a cultural conservative, only a patriotic champion of the market, across his (at least) tens of thousands of social media posts, he's exhibited sensitivity as a function of expediency to his larger aims. In doing so, he can be very blunt, brash, or intentionally rude in a mocking way with regard to other celebrities and politicians. It's understandable that someone might take exception, even if the extent to which this is a deviation from Rand's values seems limited.
"That’s what President George H. W. Bush said in 1991, on the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Political correctness “arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred,” Bush acknowledged, in a graduation address at the University of Michigan. But PC “replaces old prejudice with new ones,” he added, and “declares certain topics off-limits, certain expression off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits.”"
Jonathan Zimmerman,
TheHill.com
The article was justified in taking on Trump and team’s tones and over-the-top posts (especially via official accounts). However, proving its virality, the article seemed to do more to promote fake news stories, such as the neo-Nazi claim, which is an indirect aggression against members of the affected groups (i.e., Jewish people) than to identify any pattern of dishonesty or wrongdoing.
It is plain to any reasonable American adult that Donald Trump's life and leadership are well-aligned with Ayn Rand's brand of individualism, capitalism, and American patriotism. The necessity of less sensitive posts in a self- and America-interested competition for influence is debatable. If ARI has risked a divergence from its fundamental function due to California’s unmatched level of foreign and domestic American collectivist control, it should consider moving to the state most associated with individualism, capitalism, and patriotism in the US, which is Texas.
Ayn Rand and Donald J. Trump put American interests first, supporting business, capitalism, and individualism. America’s interests are typically well-aligned with the rest of the world, but when not, President Trump is an unmatched deal-maker. Capitalism is derivative of individualism, where individualism gives rise to respect for one's virtues in others, from which sensitivity is derived.
A sitting US President has to balance the needs of more stakeholders than anyone. He has to balance influence with the amount of muckraking he can tolerate. He balances refinement with freedom of speech, which is under constant attack from app store policies to town halls and networks. Policy goals are pitted against public relations. The net value of those social media posts is murky, but what’s unquestionable is that Donald Trump represents capitalism, individualism, and the American way.
Let’s ensure that the American way is always defined by individualism, and therefore social freedom, self-determination, and (post-socialist) capitalism.
REFERENCES
Donald J. Trump, "Remarks by President Trump in the State of the Union Address," The White House, February 5, 2019, Last accessed [August 14, 2025], https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-state-union-address-2/.
D’Souza, Dinesh. United States of Socialism. New York: All Points Books, 2020.
Ghate, Onkar. “The Anti-Intellectuality of Donald Trump: Why Ayn Rand Would Have Despised a President Trump.” Ayn Rand Institute. Last accessed August 14, 2025. https://ari.aynrand.org/the-anti-intellectuality-of-donald-trump-why-ayn-rand-would-have-despised-a-president-trump/.
PerryCook, Taija. "No, Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists 'Very Fine People'." Snopes, June 20, 2024. Updated June 21, 2024. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-very-fine-people/.
Rand, Ayn. "An Untitled Letter." In Philosophy: Who Needs It, 117–28. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1982.
Rand, Ayn, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Robert Hessen. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. Penguin, 1986.
Rand, Ayn. 1943. The Fountainhead. New York, NY: Bobbs Merril.
Zimmerman, Jonathan. "The New Republican Political Correctness." The Hill. March 6, 2025. https://thehill.com/opinion/5179368-trump-gop-political-correctness/.
It’s also only one variation of which sub-population might be described here.
This is apparently what an Em dash looks like on Substack?