3 Reasons Why Alexander Hamilton Would HATE Donald Trump

“Jefferson has beliefs, Burr has none.” 

Donald Trump regularly assailed President Barack Obama for playing golf, then spent the first weekends of his own presidency doing just that. He attacked Obama for using Air Force One to campaign, and did it over the weekend just a month into the job. He mocked Obama for heading out of Washington at taxpayer expense, but appears to have no qualms about doing so himself.

“Donald Trump has zero worry about contradicting himself, because he does it all day long,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian who has met with Trump. “He figures he can get away with it because he does it all the time. There is no worry about it. He says one thing and then does another, and his supporters don’t hold it against him.”

Subpar Writing

Trump has used the word. “Loser” 267 times in his social media

“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the “HOTTEST” ad out there. It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are “flying off the shelves.” Go get ‘em Sydney! On the other side of the ledger, Jaguar did a stupid, and seriously WOKE advertisement, THAT IS A TOTAL DISASTER! The CEO just resigned in disgrace, and the company is in absolute turmoil. Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad. Shouldn’t they have learned a lesson from Bud Lite, which went Woke and essentially destroyed, in a short campaign, the Company. The market cap destruction has been unprecedented, with BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SO FOOLISHLY LOST. Or just look at Woke singer Taylor Swift. Ever since I alerted the world as to what she was by saying on TRUTH that I can’t stand her (HATE!). She was booed out of the Super Bowl and became, NO LONGER HOT. The tide has seriously turned — Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” 

His treatment of Immigrants 

“It’s an attack on all noncitizens (and even, sometimes, citizens), who now live with the very real threat of being snatched from their homes by masked agents of the state and prosecuted by lawyers who refuse to give their names. It’s an attack on rights of free speech and due process – neither of which have ever extended quite as far for noncitizens as they have for citizens, but both of which have historically offered at least some universal protection before this administration sought to dismiss them entirely.”

~

The theatre is cold. Goosebumps pebble your knees and shoulders, your suit jacket draped half on and off, as you lean in towards the stage. There’s ropes, wooden structures, spotted lights. The orchestra starts humming and your legs start bouncing over red velvet, the lights dimming, your breath catching. The world goes still. You hear footsteps. Then a snap.

“How does a ten dollar, founding father…”

Hamilton, the genius musical by Lin Manuel Miranda, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. I’ve been listening to the musical “Non-stop” since middle school, tripping over Guns and Ships and wheezing to hold a note as long as Eliza does. I’ve been lucky enough to see the musical performed live, at Theatre Under The Stars, twice! Once in eighth grade and once junior year. Both experiences were incredible. I remember hearing the starting notes, mouthing the first lyrics under my breath, and realizing that I wanted to make someone feel the way that I did, sitting in that seat. Like they were about to watch a world turn upside down.

Not in the way it felt upside down after the election. 

But in the way of sitting down and being told a story, at the movies, before bed, blurring through music on a highway, hearing words that connect a new world back to yours, making you feel less alone. Hamilton covers love, grief, and forgiveness among many other universal topics, told through the narrative of a founding father’s life.

So in honor of Lin Manuel Miranda’s storytelling, and, I guess, Alexander Hamilton, here are a few reasons both musical Hamilton and real life Hamilton would be rolling in their graves at the sight of Donald Trump and his presidency.

His treatment of Immigrants

Alexander Hamilton came to the United States from an island in the Caribbean as a young orphan. Since Hamilton himself was an immigrant, it’s not surprising to think that he would be appalled at the way Trump has been handling immigration since stepping into office. As the American Immigration Council puts it, current immigrants in America are grappling with the possibility of “being snatched from their homes by masked agents of the state and prosecuted by lawyers who refuse to give their names,” their right to “due process” diminishing by the second. Trump’s attempt to divide America by targeting immigrants would have this founder of the New York post endlessly scribbling down counter-arguments. 

“Jefferson has beliefs, Burr has none.” 

As put in the musical, one reason Hamilton favoured Jefferson over Burr to be president, after despising him for his entire career, is because Burr had no apparent beliefs. He chose the evil he knew over the evil he didn’t. Like the musical depiction of Burr, Trump seems to hold no importance to keeping his stance on issues the same, or to maintaining any sort of moral standpoint. For example, when President Obama, while in Office, would take a vacation or go golfing, Trump would tweet things such as “Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.” and “Pres. Obama is about to embark on a 17 day vacation in his ‘native’ Hawaii, putting Secret Service away from families on Christmas. Aloha!” Trump, here, seems to have a certain reluctance against Presidents taking vacations or playing golf. He believes it’s wrong. Which is sort of funny to think about, once you find the “Trump Golf Tracker” online, where it shows that Trump has been golfing for about 24.4% of his days since becoming President again. That’s almost a fourth. This is just one example of Trump's many actively flip flopping beliefs, each one causing the ghost of Hamilton another headache, and the American people a migraine.

His subpar writing.

Hamilton wrote a lot. He was responsible for 51 out of 85 essays in the Federalist Papers, founded a newspaper to trash Thomas Jefferson, and scribbled hundreds if not thousands of correspondents of all time during his lifetime. Can you imagine a person like that on social media? Able to access the entire digital viewership with a click of a button? I’m not sure exactly what that would look like, but I'm almost certain that it wouldn’t be employing the word “loser” in his social media posts about 267 times, which, coincidentally, is exactly what Donald Trump has done with his social media platform. Along with calling people whose opinions differ from his own losers in all caps, Trump has taken to informing people his opinions on celebrities, such as Taylor Swift, with his famous “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!!!” post after the singer endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Later, Trump followed up this post to congratulate a celebrity on their success and put down “woke” celebrities, claiming that since expressing his dislike for Taylor Swift, she “became NO LONGER HOT.” This is the kind of writing you’d expect from some troll online with lots of insecurities about their appearance and a need for therapy. Except it's the president. As the musical so precisely puts it,

“My dog speaks more eloquently than thee.” 

It feels sort of hopeless, looking at all of the ignorant, hypocritical things the current present has said and is saying, has done and is doing. To be staring at a screen, blinking at another headline dripping in violence. Life, in itself, is difficult, with grades and jobs and responsibilities and relationships and uncertain futures, and this, this, on top of it. It is overwhelming. It is scary. It’s a lot. 

But you’re not alone. That’s something they can never take away. 

As for what comes next? Who knows. But I hope, truly, truly hope, that we’ll make it through the threat of today, and live to tell the story of tonight.

Sources

POLITICO

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-obama-golf-235217

“Roll Call” social media archives

https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/topic/social/?q=Haters+and+losers&platform=all&sort=date&sort_order=desc&page=1 

American Immigration Council: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/trump-attack-on-immigrants-democracy-mass-deportation/