This article explores the logic beginning to guide Trump’s base away from him, a story of Old Trump and New Trump. It also recounts a personal experience of using face-saving logic to explain why I admired a smooth talking hack.
My Own Face-Saving Story
Around 2018, I became enamored with Jordan Peterson. He was a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who catapulted to fame after doing an infamous interview and voicing his stance on preferred gender pronouns. I found his lectures fascinating, and I listened to him for many many hours on Carl Jung, psychotherapy, archetypes, the history of psychoanalysis, good and evil, etc. I loved the way he spoke, the confidence of his analysis. It’s fair to say that encountering Jordan Peterson is one of the main reasons I decided to study psychotherapy and that I’m a counselor now.
When people ask me how I decided on this career path, I don’t like mentioning Jordan Peterson. Since his days as a professor, he’s become a right wing hack. He did a stint at The Daily Wire with Ben Shapiro, and there traded in conspiracy theories, propped up Donald Trump, and tried to lend academic credibility to some really weird, ridiculous projects.
Around 2019, while I was intently listening to his recorded lectures, Peterson got extremely sick. While taking Benzodiazepine medication for decades, he had developed dependance. When he tried to come off the meds, things got really bad. Peterson was sick for a long period of time and sought medical help in multiple countries. Eventually, he returned to public life. A lot of his audience, myself included, noticed a change in his tone. He seemed angrier, more aggressive, less charitable. He began deeper involvement in political arguments and right wing punditry. He became someone I no longer admired.
It’s easy for me to tell myself a comforting story about Jordan Peterson. It goes like this: He was a serious person, a thoughtful lecturer with interesting ideas, and I was able to learn a lot from his expertise in psychology and mythology. Then, he became very sick, and he changed. This turning point signaled his turn to nuttiness and bad ideas. He became an angry content creator propping up right wing politicians and Daily Wire types. That story gets me off the hook. I was only with him while he was Good Jordan. The reality is not so clean-cut. There’s an article from The Guardian in early 2018 claiming his arguments were “riddled with ‘pseudo-facts’ and conspiracy theories.” There were plenty of others then and even before giving these sort of critiques which I would only come to recognize much later. I encountered some of those critiques in 2018-2019, but I was too enamored with Peterson to see any truth in them. I like the story of Good Jordan changing into Bad Jordan due to illness – it keeps me clear of feeling ashamed of being taken in.
Iran, F-Words, Threats of Genocide
The last two months of American government have been particularly insane. President Trump and the nation of Israel attacked Iran of February 28. Trump has communicated a wobbling, confusing, nonsensical position about what is going on the whole way, often contradicting the Department of Defense. In a “fog of words,” Hegseth said, “This is only just the beginning.” the same day Trump told reporters the war was “very complete, pretty much.” Sometimes Trump says Iran’s nuclear capacity is totally destroyed, and other times that Iran is on the brink of blowing up the whole world. Sometimes he says there are negotiations which are going well, and sometimes he’s screaming “Open the fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards or you’ll be living in Hell” and promising to carry out genocide.
Even for Trump, who is generally an unhinged and ridiculous man, openly genocidal statements are rare form. What has most interested me is the response which has begun from the right. On March 15, of this year I wrote,
“In the case of Donald Trump, his base has stood with him through scandal after scandal due to his stranglehold on the Republican party. As we approach the midterm elections in 2026, this hold will soon start to break…
As Trump’s second term moves towards its end, his sway on what is normative will degrade. It will be the job of those around him and those who voted for him to explain, to themselves and to the future, how they weren’t really on board with this all along.”
As of April 10, we can see this shift happening in real time. Trump’s approval ratings are at an all time low. Prominent voices from the far right are denouncing Trump, many calling for him to be removed from office. That list includes Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Alex Jones, Megyn Kelly, Nick Fuentes, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Many of these far right talking heads did very meaningful work in getting Trump elected, and they have been influential in helping his base stomach and explain the Trump doctrine until now. It’s not obvious to me why this is the breaking point for them. There were plenty of other unlawful, evil, maniacal stops along the way, and they kept riding. Here it it seems, is where they’ve decided to get off the Trump train. I think many Trump supporters will follow suit.
Old Trump, New Trump
Over the past couple of days, I spent some time listening to Alex Jones. If you are unfamiliar, this is the guy famous for his podcast, Info Wars, on which he has screamed, with seriousness and passion, such ideas as The government is turning the frogs gay with chemical bombs and The government is attacking people with tornados and weather weapons which it controls. He’s nutty, he’s very odd, he’s been banned from Twitter. But in episode “Alex Jones 2026-Apr-07 Tuesday” which I tuned in for yesterday, he crafted an argument which I think is going to become the mainstream for Trump supporters as they turn on Trump.
Alex Jones said to his listeners, “I’m with the old Trump. I’m not with the new Trump.” He posted on X, “And I’m just so sad that whatever’s happened to him has totally changed the man he once was, because he did so much good…I supported the old Trump who got so many good things done…I just feel sorry for him and pray that God touches his heart and soul, and free him from the demonic influences that he’s under.” This is a clever move. Here, Jones wants to draw a line between Good Trump, whom he voted and argued for, and the Bad Trump whom he can no longer support. He goes so far as to claim that Trump has a demon or an insect in his brain (seriously, I listened to almost the whole episode). In order for Jones to vindicate himself, it’s really important that Trump has changed. This way, he can organize an argument for stopping his long support. Trump has changed, he argues, and I am the one who is being rationale and consistent in no longer supporting him.
For those who have never been captivated by Trump or the MAGA movement, Jones’ logic feels ridiculous. The idea that Trump has had a drastic change in his belief, behavior, and values is ridiculous. This is the same Trump who brags about sexually assaulting women, argues that genetic inferiority is the reason immigrants are bad, posts videos of the Obamas as apes, turns ICE loose to terrorize brown people in blue states, lies about elections being stolen, starts a riot to attack the US Capitol, uses the presidency to make absurd amounts of money through crypto-schemes, takes bribes from foreign countries for favors, claims to like bad people if they make him feel good, goes to war without Congress, etc. The list sort of stretches out into eternity.
Standing outside MAGA and looking on, this logic of past Trump is not different than Trump’s recent logic in threatening genocide and screaming the f-word on social media to get his way. Trump’s insane actions regarding Iran fit right in; this is what I expect of Trump. This is a logical move – this is what maniacal fascists do, and Trump didn’t turn into one overnight. This is what we can expect from a serial-rapist, greedy mogul who came to power and popularity through vulgarity and the kindling of hatred.
From within MAGA, it has to be different. There needs to be a claim that Trump has changed. The logic has to be that he has crossed the line. I’ve been wondering what the line would be for years, and I became rather convinced there was no line at all. And in many ways, I don’t think there is actually a line. I think Trump is going to be abandoned by his base now because he is too old and too far into his presidency to be very useful anymore. So this is the line that will finally be picked. The argument will be I was with the Old Trump, but this a New Trump I can’t support. And in this way supporters will save face, at least internally. This won’t change the fact that Christians supported Trump through years of vile, lawless, and, frankly, evil actions which did extreme harm, killing and traumatizing a lot of people in God’s name. But it will provide an emotional exit ramp which they can use to separate themselves from “The New Trump” without having to admit supporting evil.
Kind Conversations
In the summer of 2020, I sat down at a counseling practice with the only therapist I knew of, and I told him I was considering going to graduate school and becoming a therapist. In that conversation, I brought up Jordan Peterson and how great I thought he was, how much I’d gleaned from his lectures. I could tell the man sitting with me didn’t share my enthusiasm. Still, he was very kind about it. He asked me what I liked about Peterson and didn’t try to discourage me.
Four years later, after I’d totally lost interest in Jordan Peterson, I was a graduate student needing a counseling internship. I went back to that same counseling practice and interned under the man I’d first asked about being a therapist in 2020. If he had he shut me down on Jordan Peterson, I probably wouldn’t have come back and worked for free as his intern four years later.
The story I like to tell myself about only liking the Good Jordan is one I know isn’t totally true. But to acknowledge that means to admit I got caught up in some ideas I’m ashamed of. It’s hard to be willing to see that. The story which has been and will be taking shape in the minds of Trump supporters is going to be similar. They are going to default to a narrative in which they didn’t go along with the bad parts of Trump, in which they did have a moral courage and consistency of values. For those of us who stand outside that world, it will be incoherent and illogical.
I want to try to make space for repentance and movement away from Trump. To pile on shame will not be helpful or healing. It will only cement the face-saving, illogical story that there is Good Trump and Bad Trump. Without that story breaking down to reveal a truer, more authentic account in which folks are able to own up to their own deception, change will not be possible. Take it from me, someone who’s been taken before.
Here’s to kind conversations and making space for authentic reflection. We all need it.
javen.bear. 