The Historian Who Thinks Donald Trump Is a Movie Hero

Conservatives who are still trying to rationalize their support for Donald Trump have a shiny new metaphor to use: Trump is John Wayne. 

Or maybe he’s Alan Ladd. The details don’t matter. He’s a cowboy, and on a steel horse he rides. At least, that’s probably the most persuasive insight presented in Victor Davis Hanson’s new book, The Case for Trump.

In making his case, Hanson, a senior fellow in military history at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, invokes classics of the American film canon such as The Searchers, High Noon, and The Magnificent Seven, to explain Trump’s raison d'être. 

In case you haven’t seen Shane or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, these films generally adhere to a similar formula: Outlaw gangs or angry natives prey on inept lawmen, damsels in distress (rape is often implied), and soft and “civilized” easterners who are too wedded to their religious faith or legal books (think Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) to pick up a gun.