ABSTRACT

This chapter claims that the so-called “Trump-threat” to democracy is in fact a pseudo-threat born of the order itself in an effort to re-establish its position by means of violent force and restrictions, all in the name of the law. Drawing on Benjamin’s “Critique of Violence” and Derrida’s deconstruction of it, I suggest that, paradoxically, contemporary democracies affirm their traditional ideal of nonviolence by reverting to the ethics of imperialism. It is for this unspoken reason that Trump’s presidency does pose a crucial problem that must be dealt with.