From Amoral Politics to Immoral Politics: The Influence of the Trump Administration

Azmi Bishara

Prominent Arab intellectual, political philosopher, and researcher with numerous books and academic publications on political thought, social theory and philosophy. As a scholar, his magnum opus is his two-part work Religion and Secularism in Historical Context. Part I, Religion and Religiosity was published in 2013, followed in 2015 by the two-volume Part II, Secularity and Secularization: The Intellectual Trajectory and Secularity and Theories of Secularization. His latest Arabic books are The Question of the State: Philosophy, Theory, and Context (2023) with a second volume titled The Arab State: Beginnings and Evolution (2024); and Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice (2024), originally released in English in 2022 by Hurst Publishers in London, published concurrently with The Flood: The War on Palestine in Gaza (2024). Bishara’s publications in Arabic, some of which have become key references within their respective field, also include Civil Society: A Critical Study (1996); From the Jewishness of the State to Sharon (2004); On The Arab Question: An Introduction to an Arab Democratic Manifesto (2007); To Be an Arab in Our Times (2009); On Revolution and Susceptibility to Revolution (2012); The Army and Political Power in the Arab Context: Theoretical Problems (2017); The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh): A General Framework and Critical Contribution to Understanding the Phenomenon (2018); What is Populism? (2019); and Democratic Transition and its Problems: Theoretical Lessons from Arab Experiences (2020).

His English publications include Sectarianism without Sects (Oxford University Press / Hurst, 2021); On Salafism: Concepts and Contexts (Stanford University Press, 2022); ISIS: The March to Dystopia (I.B. Tauris, 2025); Arduous Paths: On the Theory and Practice of Democratic Transition (Oxford University Press / Hurst, 2026) and his trilogy on the Arab revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria, published by I.B. Tauris, Understanding Revolutions: Opening Acts in Tunisia (2021); Egypt: Revolution, Failed Transition and Counter-Revolution (2022); and Syria 2011-2013: Revolution and Tyranny before the Mayhem (2023), in which he provides a rich theoretical analysis in addition to a comprehensive and lucid assessment of the revolutions in three Arab countries.

Bishara serves as the General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) and the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies founded by the ACRPS.

This article examines the impact of sustained exposure to the rhetoric and practices of US President Donald Trump’s administration on public moral values and ethical norms, in the United States and elsewhere, distinguishing between amoral politics and the justification of immoral political discourse and conduct. Adopting a critical analytical approach, it explores how the relentless disregard for the truth, power politics (might is right), exploitation of power for personal and partisan gain, contempt for the law, and embrace of racism can normalize political behaviour that once warranted accountability. It discusses the limits of political satire as a response or a purely utilitarian critique of such practices absent an independent moral critique. The study concludes that over time the discourse and practices of the current administration may dull the public’s moral sensibility and erode the standards that govern the exercise of power and accountability.