President Trump And The Problem Of Evil

Monday, 1 December 2025, 1:49 pm
Opinion: Martin LeFevre - Meditations

People all over the world are asking, how did the American people become so infected with darkness that they gave rise, in this first and best modern experiment in democracy, to such an evil administration?

Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays, a day of gratefulness originating with gratitude toward Native Americans saving one of the first European settlements on this continent from starvation, the Pilgrims. Trump’s vicious rant on Thanksgiving about immigrants in this nation of immigrants is a stain and shame on all Americans.

The Liar-in-Chief dripped venom from his twisted mouth, spewing, “Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for prey as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone.”

For good measure he spat his bigotry on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who emigrated from Somalia, “She is always wrapped in her swaddling hijab.”

The hideously inwardly deformed Kristi Noem, Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, followed up. “We believe [the killer of the National Guardsman in DC] was radicalized since he’s been here in this country…through connections in his home community and state. And we’re going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, including his family members.”

(Translation? ‘The progressive state of Washington groomed this Afghan to kill, and the people around him are to blame, including his family members.’)

Of course he was “radicalized” (i.e. went completely crazy) in sick America. But it began in Afghanistan when he was recruited to work on a kill squad for the CIA.

The United States has started endless wars that have killed millions of people, but Americans are surprised that murder has boomeranged.

One soldier is killed and the American media is consumed by it for days. Yet school shootings of children have become so routine in this country that they’re barely reported anymore. Just yesterday in Stockton, California, four young people were killed at a children’s party. 

Finally, even old media is beginning to speak to the underlying reality of darkness in America that’s given rise to Trumpism, which I’ve been writing about since before Trump manifested. We’re beginning to read things like, “From veteran freedom fighters to young activists, there is a growing alignment around the unmistakable presence of evil in our public life...the evil is fully out, and anyone with spiritual integrity can see it.”

Clearly, “evil is not hiding. It is filmed, livestreamed and normalized. This is the new face of the American empire, an open embrace of domination and dehumanization.” Except that it’s not the new face but the true face of the American empire.

The problem of evil extends much deeper and wider than the USA however. In order to come to grips with it without resorting to useless belief systems, much less supernaturalism, it’s essential to gain insight into its psychological sources within us, as well as what its intentions and goals are.

One of the main drivers of darkness/evil is the externalization of inner problems and pathologies to others -- an all too human trait that Trump exemplifies with his cruel, relentless scapegoating of immigrants.

Make no mistake, the evil that pulls the puppet strings on the most powerful man in the world means to make the earth unlivable, the world economy totally corrupt, nations ungovernable, and individuals everywhere spiritually dead.

However it raises the question: Is immanent intelligence allowing man-made darkness to fully reveal itself at this, possibly the last crossroads for humankind to change course? And if so, can we meet the enormity of the challenge?

Before exploring those questions, we have to disabuse ourselves of delusions emanating from hope, wishful thinking and misguided spirituality. For example, the idea that “our movements need a framework that speaks to the inner life of resistance.”

What did Jesus mean, beyond the cliché of turning the other cheek, by “Do not resist an evil person?” Activists have a difficult time squaring that with “radical community self-defense and subversive direct action.”

The contradiction arises because of the difference between inner resistance and outer resistance. To speak of “the inner life of resistance” is utterly false because it ineluctably denies and avoids the darkness within us, which collectively gives rise to evil.

That’s why doing one’s own spadework has to always come before “organizing together.” It’s imperative to stand against evil, as long as one is truly aware of and learning from one’s own darkness. But to fight it is to increase its power and range.

“Collective turning” cannot occur without individual awakening. Giving primacy to the collective over individual transformation reinforces the darkness of the collective.

It’s also mistaken to maintain that we need to “rebuild the bonds of belonging.” Belonging to particular groups, identifying with the tribes of our nations and political movements lies at the root of the psychological separation that leads to evil.

So can we “reignite the moral and spiritual flame that sustains organizing, multi-faith mobilizations and our commitment to justice and mercy?” No, because you don’t try to reignite a candle that has burned away all its wax.

In any case, we cannot reignite the old moral and spiritual flame, if it ever truly existed, because it has completely gone out. We can only ignite the dark matter within us, first alone and then together.

Can “reclamation bring forth ancestral traditions that resists the distortion of faith that has long been tied to oppressive regimes?” No, because all over the world, belief systems and traditions, whatever limited value they had in the past, have been hollowed out, and are beyond reclamation.

Besides, there is no such thing as “sacred traditions.” Radical re-imagination comes after psycho-spiritual revolution, and true revolution flows from individual transformation.

Therefore it’s not only false, but deeply misleading to insist, “prophetic and universal stories are as alive now as they have ever been.” Old or new stories fall far short in this unprecedented age, when the cumulative darkness of man has been fully exposed.

No return is possible, not for the Make America Great Again mob, or for progressive activists espousing “a framework that speaks to the inner life of resistance.”

A new human being has to emerge, beginning within us.

Martin LeFevre

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Martin LeFevre - Meditations

Scoop Contributor

Martin LeFevre is a contemplative and philosopher.

His sui generis “Meditations” explore spiritual, philosophical and political questions relating to the polycrisis facing humanity.

lefevremartin77@gmail