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Why Ayn Rand Would Love the Epic Capitalist U.S. President, Donald J. Trump
Enlightened Individualism, Capitalism, and Patriotism Trump Yellow Journalism
Jason Rand
Aug 15, 2025
"America will never be a socialist country," President Trump declared in his 2019 State of the Union, uttering the sweetest words ever spoken by an American President since the Emancipation Proclamation (Donald J. Trump 2019). Donald Trump is known worldwide for many things, from his previously orange spray tan to brutally dismissing apprentices on camera. More than anything, Trump is known as the face of American capitalism. In the book United States of Socialism, political commentator Dinesh D'Souza wrote:
"Donald Trump is a businessman and a builder; the quintessential American capitalist" (D'Souza 2020).
As a candidate and president, Donald Trump is also the most influential leader among the "America First" and “MAGA” crowds. Like Trump, philosopher Ayn Rand was a fiercely patriotic American, voicing her view that that America’s interests come before that of foreign nations or other entities (long before Trump’s entrance to politics).
Pop art style Lady Liberty with the article title.
“Liberty’s Broken Chain” is a human-in-the-loop AI-based image from the forthcoming book “Post-socialist Capitalism” by Jason Rand. All rights reserved.
Surprisingly, a 2017 article published by a senior member of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), the think tank and educational center established by Objectivist co-founder Leonard Peikoff, claims expert knowledge that Ayn Rand would've “despised” him. ARI remains the gold standard online resource for learning about Ayn Rand, and is located in California12.
Ayn Rand served as a star witness to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), helped the FBI identify “It’s a Wonderful Life” as Communist propaganda, and touted America as the greatest and only moral nation on Earth3. At least some of the anger at the president seems to stem from the author's negative view of the president's social media and overall blunt, egocentric, or brash tone, which the author believes is "anti-intellectual".
The disdain at the level of maturity, respect, and scholarship in modern American politics is fully understandable, but it is not clear a priori that the celebrity billionaire and capitalism-first individualist is the source of the culture4. Although politics is a high-pressure, bitingly competitive arena where politicians jockey for social media engagement, the current US President better reflects the values of Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff, than his predecessors and political opponents.
The ‘Anti-Intellectual’ Claim: Fact or Smear?
The article cited Rand’s comments on intellectual and cultural bankruptcy, attempting to apply them to the President. The explicit and implicit accusations and arguments against Donald Trump were compiled and reviewed. Aside from the common groaning over the President’s effective but sometimes controversial or “politically incorrect” social media presence, they generally fall into three categories:
Attempts to apply the “anti-intellectual” label by implying a link between Trump and culturally conservative groups Rand disliked within Reagan’s camp and the larger conservative movement.
Accusations of poor character: dishonesty, being a neo-Nazi supporter, and fitting miscellaneous derogatory labels.
Accusations of tribalism.
Accusations
The accusations in the article were numerous. They generally followed the themes of dishonesty, tribalism, and heterogeneous assertions offered as a basis for an “anti-intellectual” label. Beyond these, the author also compared the President to the Atlas Shrugged character Cuffy Meigs and claimed that Donald Trump has a “disdain for virtue”5.
As evidence, the news stories disputing White House staffer Sean Spicer’s erroneous estimation of Trump’s inauguration attendance figures, which he calculated using D.C.’s Metro transit authority’s ridership figures as the basis. Trump’s comments calling a large political rally and counter protest with attendees spanning all walks of life “fine people on both sides”.
Trump is claimed to have “demonized” major segments of the population, namely “Hispanics, immigrants, journalists, free traders and elites,” although without a specific basis cited (Ghate 2017). We are told that Trump “was a part of the swamp” that he so frequently discusses draining. The leak of an unintentional behind-the-scenes audio recording of then-candidate Trump’s use of a slang term for a woman’s genitals was offered as evidence of the future president breaking some implied level of decorum6. Finally, the President is said to engage in “tribalism” by seeking loyalty from his most trusted associates like his cabinet7.