U.S. President Donald Trump looks on, as he signs executive orders and proclamations in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 9, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
An article written by political commentator Ed Kilgore that appeared in Intelligencer magazine on Thursday argues that the Trump administration has been using the "madman theory" to run the affairs of the government.
"The blend of chaos, malice, and terror associated with pursuit of the madman theory in foreign policy has been abundantly present in the unprecedented assault on the federal government by Elon Musk’s DOGE and Russell Vought’s Office of Management and Budget," Kilgore, who is a longtime policy analyst at the Democratic Leadership Council, wrote in the article.
The term "madman theory" was reportedly coined by former President Richard Nixon. Nixon's aide H.R. Haldeman said his boss wanted the North Vietnamese to think he was willing to go to any lengths, including the potential use of nuclear weapons, to end the Vietnam War.
ALSO READ: 'Is this market manipulation?' Rumors swirling over potential Trump admin insider trading
The madman theory suggests that a leader who acts as though they could take extreme actions is more likely to convince other international players to make compromises they might not otherwise consider.
Kilgore wrote in his Thursday article that President Donald Trump and Musk "strongly believe the deep state is a nest of evil civilization-devouring elitists who must be crushed remorselessly."
"In his own companies, Musk has invariably exemplified the move-fast-and-break-things ethic of Silicon Valley, wherein running up video-game numbers of jobs lost and lives ruined is inherently virtuous," he added.
In 2015, Trump told an interviewer, quoting another businessman, “There’s a certain unpredictability about Trump that’s great.” In his first major speech of the 2015 campaign, he criticized United States foreign policy during the Obama administration. “We must as a nation be more unpredictable," Trump said at the time.
ALSO READ: Sucking up the oxygen: How Donald Trump has gatecrashed the upcoming election — in Australia
According to Kilgore, "the possibility that the most powerful military in the history of the world may be in the hands of a homicidal maniac gave said maniac enormous leverage in situations involving international conflict."
"And the ever-constant threat of incredibly lethal violence fit in perfectly with Trump’s own personality and his Jacksonian approach to national defense, in which Uncle Sam would mostly mind his own business but was prepared to wreak holy hell on anyone who looked funny at him," he added.
But Kilgore says that in his second term, Trump is using this theory not only in foreign policy but also in dealing with domestic issues.
"In Trump 2.0, it is increasingly apparent that the same psychology of erratic and often terrifying brinkmanship has been extended into nearly every policy arena, domestic as well as international, which isn’t surprising insofar as Trump’s universe of perceived 'enemies' now tilts heavily toward people living in this country," he wrote.
ALSO READ: How the anti-Trump backlash is growing