As a transformative moment for America is fast approaching, David G Bromley analyses how Donald Trump is portrayed as an outlaw and a hero.

Immediately after the first unsuccessful assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, he raised his fist above his head and shouted “Fight, fight, fight.” His supporters responded with a chorus of “USA, USA.” Wearing a patch over his injured ear at the Republican Convention, the former president said “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God” and “I’m not supposed to be here tonight.” The delegates responded with a chant of “Yes you are! Yes you are!”

Scattered through the audience were delegates wearing faux blood-covered ear patches and “I am voting for the Outlaw” tee shirts.  Subsequently, Trump announced the sale of a Trump-themed Bible. Under his name on the cover of the Bible was the date of his first assassination attempt with the inscription “The day God intervened.” These were dramatic moments orchestrated by a modern-day version of the legendary American outlaw hero.

Through American history, from Jesse James to Al Capone, outlaw heroes have emerged during periods of extreme dislocation when traditional ways of life were collapsing amid rapid social and cultural change. In such times, one manner of living is receding and another ascending. The two social worlds become increasingly incompatible, and those in both worlds feel that they are strangers in their own land. The hallmark characteristics of the outlaw hero are that they present themselves as heroic figures who stand in the breach to staunchly defend the dispossessed and who reappropriate ill-gotten wealth to the poor and vulnerable.

However, the legends about outlaw heroes diverge sharply from the realities of their lives. The historical record reveals that outlaw heroes tend to be violent career criminals who do little either to protect vulnerable populations or to share the wealth they accumulate. They are skilled performers who play two contradictory roles. While they present themselves as protectors of the vulnerable, they actually contribute to the chaos around them, because if there is to be an outlaw hero, chaos is needed. While they present as benefactors of the downtrodden, the wealth they accumulate fills their own coffers.

A new outlaw hero emerges

Donald Trump represents a contemporary form of the outlaw hero. He was born to considerable wealth and privilege and revels in his displays of that wealth. He gained celebrity status as the star of the reality television program The Apprentice. Yet, he has shown an uncanny ability to convince a sizeable minority of Americans that he is one of them and that the rapid, disruptive change they are experiencing is created by the machinations of a conspiratorial “deep state.” This staunch support is quite remarkable given his well-known personal indiscretions and continuous brushes with various law enforcement and regulatory agencies. For any other political figure, any of these episodes might have been fatal, but his supporters appear to be energised by them.

Trump has picked up on longstanding Republican themes. When Ronald Regan was running for president in 1980, faith, freedom, and democracy were frequent themes in his campaign. He supported allowing prayer in schools and he opposed gun control, abortion, and a constitutional amendment asserting equal rights for women. One of his campaign slogans was “Let’s Make America Great Again.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s current political blueprint, if re-elected, is Project 2025. This 900-page policy plan goes well beyond the Regan platform as it advocates for expanding religious organisations’ access to federal small business loans, allowing tax-exempt churches to engage in partisan political activity, and allowing federal funding for private religious schools. This agenda has made Trump the hero who empowers evangelicals and the outlaw who takes on the deep state.

Indeed, evangelicals often portray him as a divinely anointed leader who is playing a key role in restoring God’s kingdom on earth.

Competing visions and priorities

This new outlaw hero has emerged, as did his predecessors, during a period of acute dislocation, this time at a national level. It is clear that the current divisions are as deep and intense as any in our nation’s history, and the most volatile political disputes flow out of two unalterably opposed coalitions, MAGA and administrative state, with diametrically opposed visions for America.

In the MAGA coalition vision, which is represented in a loosely connected set of dissenting groups, America is built around sacralised nationalism, a patriarchal family structure, binary sex and gender identities, and conservative Christian religious precepts as the guiding principles for governing. The goal is to dismantle a number of established institutions and recreate an idealised national history built around traditionalism and nationalism. Those goals are clearly articulated in Project 25.

In the administrative state coalition vision, which is now represented in a broad swathe of the nation’s established institutions, America’s future involves merging national interests with participation in the emerging global community. This means operating with more permeable national boundaries, acknowledging a less celebrative version of American history, eliminating privileging of ethnicity, race, and religion in public life, accepting individual choice regarding sex and gender identities, and accepting science as the arbiter of fact in public decision-making. The goal is to reconstruct national organisation in a way that builds a broader global community around diversity and inclusiveness.

The two visions lead directly to current disputes over control of women’s healthcare choices, formal alliances with other nations, immigration policies, voting participation and procedure, public school curricula, and gun ownership. Compromise is elusive as these issues have moved from policy disagreements to cultural identity markers.

This polarisation has left both coalitions experiencing a sense of endangerment. The MAGA coalition is a shrinking minority. More Americans turned sixty-five last year than any year in our history. Every major Christian denomination has suffered continuing membership losses, which means that soon practicing Christians will be a minority. Ethnic and racial diversity trends predict that America will soon be minority white. Conservative rural areas have been losing populations, which shrinks the conservative electoral base. The white working class has continued to lose ground economically.

On the other side, the Administrative State coalition’s trepidations involve issues that can only be successfully addressed internationally. These include global economic stability, future pandemics, accelerating climate change, destabilising military adventurism, nuclear weapon proliferation, and massive population migrations. In the name of social justice, the federal government, major international corporations, scientific societies, and progressive religious denominations continue to chip away at the cultural markers that are central to the MAGA coalition’s vision.

Who will capture the flag?

A transformative moment for America is fast approaching. The upcoming election will almost certainly shape the national direction for years, if not decades. If the administrative state coalition prevails, the nation will continue blending the priorities of national and international communities. Whether their promise of a prosperous, efficient, equitable global community will emerge remains to be determined. If the MAGA coalition is successful, the nation will attempt to restore an idealised past, reasserting national over international priorities and moving toward preserving minority rule. Whether a government headed by an outlaw hero can recreate a twentieth century nation in the twenty-first century also remains uncertain.

Decades from now when historians are looking at this period, they will be telling the story of this transformative moment in American history. They will be writing with the benefit of hindsight; we have the benefit of making the history about which they will write.

Photo by Heather McQuaid

Note: This article gives the views of the author, not the position of LSE Religion and Global Society nor the London School of Economics and Political Science.  

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