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How Orwell’s masterpiece can predict Trumps next steps
I decided, with a grim sort of duty, to re-read Orwell. Pulled my old, dog-eared copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four from the shelf, expecting, perhaps, a historical curiosity. A powerful warning, yes, but one whose specific horrors belonged to the mid-20th century, to Stalin and the nascent Cold War fears that birthed it.
Instead, I found myself gripped by a chilling, nauseating sense of déjà vu. Page after page wasn't just resonant; it felt like a dispatch from the present. Not the whole terrifying architecture of Airstrip One, not yet. But the tools, the language, the psychological distortions – they leaped off the page, smeared across the news reports from Donald Trump’s second presidency, barely four months old. It’s uncanny, and frankly, terrifying.
Orwell wasn't just writing about totalitarianism; he was dissecting the mechanisms by which truth is dismantled and power becomes absolute. And seeing those mechanisms deployed, often clumsily but with brute force, by the Trump administration isn't just an academic exercise in comparison. It’s a Rosetta Stone for understanding their objectives and, chillingly, for seeing the path ahead.
Look at the assault on language, the very bedrock of thought. Orwell gave us Newspeak, the language designed to shrink the boundaries of the mind, making heresy – thoughtcrime – literally unthinkable. Now, witness "Trumpspeak". We learned early in this second term of lists of words being effectively banned from official federal discourse: "diversity," "equality," "climate change," "gender," even "ethnicity". Just like Syme, the doomed Newspeak dictionary compiler, boasted, the aim is to narrow the range of consciousness. If you can’t name it, you can’t fight it. If the government refuses to acknowledge "climate science", how can it address the planetary crisis unfolding around us? It’s ignorance mandated from the top, echoing Oceania's terrifying slogan: "Ignorance is Strength".
Then there’s the Ministry of Truth, Minitrue, dedicated to the ceaseless rewriting of history and reality itself. Does that sound familiar? Consider the petty, yet deeply symbolic, act of renaming the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" in federal documents, or the talk of reversing Denali's name change. It’s about imposing your reality, your narrative, onto the world, regardless of facts or history. When the Associated Press is barred from an event for refusing to use the new, mandated name, it’s Minitrue demanding conformity. When the administration dismisses the very real crisis of book banning in schools as a "hoax", or releases grotesque AI propaganda depicting Gaza as a Trump-branded luxury resort, it’s pure, unadulterated reality control, straight from Orwell’s playbook. Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.
And the doublethink! Oh, the doublethink required daily. To champion an executive order supposedly "Ending Federal Censorship" while using it as a tool to silence critics or amplify disinformation. To speak of restoring "merit" while simultaneously plotting, via the chillingly detailed Project 2025 blueprint, to purge tens of thousands of experienced civil servants and replace them with loyal hacks. To stop the killing in Gaza whilst sending deadly missiles. To Make America Great Again at the same time as generating a recession. It’s the ability Orwell described: to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously, accepting both. It’s how lies become truth in the mouths of power.
This isn't random chaos. Comparing these actions to Nineteen Eighty-Four clarifies the objective: it's the consolidation of power, pure and simple, just as O'Brien explained power was the Party's ultimate end. The embrace of the "unitary executive theory", the demand for absolute personal loyalty above competence or law, the plans to potentially politicise the Justice Department, the dismissal of watchdogs – it all points towards dismantling checks and balances, creating a system where the leader's will is paramount, accountable to no one. Big Brother, in essence, demands nothing less.
So, what comes next? If Nineteen Eighty-Four is our grim guidebook, the trajectory is clear and deeply worrying.
First, expect the assault on truth to intensify. More brazen lies, more rewriting of history, perhaps even the creation of more sophisticated "deepfake" realities. Institutions that deal in facts – universities, scientific bodies, independent media – will face escalating attacks, funding cuts, and regulatory threats. The "memory hole" will work overtime, erasing inconvenient truths and inconvenient people.
Second, the space for dissent will continue to shrink. The Project 2025 playbook suggests using the Insurrection Act against protesters. Expect loyalty tests to become more pervasive, not just in government but potentially filtering into other areas of life. The definition of "enemy" or "traitor" will likely expand, encompassing anyone who doesn't demonstrate sufficient fealty. The chilling effect we already see will deepen into a permanent frost.
Third, from the outset, DOGE has been accessing countless personal records. Orwell warns of the invasion of the private sphere. The Party couldn't tolerate private loyalties or emotions. Big Brother’s telescreens in every home are today's laptops and mobile phones; expect increasing pressure towards public conformity that bleeds into private life, perhaps through social media, workplace monitoring, or the encouragement of informing on Facebook ‘friends’ or Linkedin ‘followers’, as seen in Oceania.
Finally, look for the manufacturing of perpetual crisis. Oceania needed constant war or the threat of Emmanuel Goldstein to maintain control. Expect the administration to increasingly rely on identifying or inventing enemies, China, immigrants, lefties, to foster fear, justify crackdowns, and demand unity behind the leader.
Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four as a warning, a desperate plea against a future he saw as terrifyingly possible. He showed how easily language can be twisted, truth discarded, and freedom extinguished. Re-reading it now, alongside the news from Washington, feels less like revisiting fiction and more like staring into a dark mirror. The parallels aren't just startling; they are a call to vigilance. The Party’s aim was power for its own sake. Understanding that, through Orwell’s lens, helps us see the path being laid. We ignore his warning at our absolute peril.
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