The Trump Regime and Similarities to ‘The Godfather’
Both ‘The Godfather’ trilogy and the current Trump regime reveal systems of power, corruption, loyalty, and cruelty—but they operate in very different arenas: one is organized crime dressed in honor and tradition, the other a real-world political regime driven by populism, self-interest, and institutional erosion. It’s a powerful and thought-provoking comparison.
Here’s a contrast of them based on their respective corruption, patrimonialism, and cruelty:
Overview
- ‘The Godfather Trilogy’: A cinematic exploration of loyalty, legacy, and the corrosive nature of power.
- The Trump Regime: A real-world political movement marked by nationalism, populist rhetoric, and institutional disruption.
Corruption: A system. Not an accident
The Godfather:
- Corruption is systematic and ritualized, strategic, and veiled in tradition. It operates within a well-understood, if unofficial, code—the Mafia’s rules, traditions, and hierarchy.
- The Corleone family buys political protection, influences judges, and manipulates the police—but with discipline and codes. The corruption is quiet, precise, and controlled.
- Vito and Michael Corleone operate under a clear (if twisted) moral logic: protecting the family, ensuring order, maintaining respect.
- Michael Corleone, especially in Part II, becomes a tragic figure—not just because he does bad things, but because he loses his soul while trying to preserve power.
Trump Regime:
- Corruption is chaotic, personal, and performative. It’s often brazen, done in public, and justified as “draining the swamp” while engaging in nepotism, self-enrichment, and institutional dismantling.
- Trump blurs the lines between personal gain and public office: using the presidency to promote his businesses, shield allies, and target enemies. Trumpism turns corruption into spectacle and is literally making millions for himself, his family, and cronies illegally.
- There is no guiding code beyond loyalty to Trump himself—corruption is not hidden; it’s often public and defiant. Institutional norms are being ignored, dismantled, and crushed, not subtly bypassed.
Contrast: The Godfather shows organized corruption; the Trump era reflects disorganized, shameless corruption, cloaked in populist rage rather than tradition.
Patrimonialism (Rule by Family/Friends; when public power is treated as private property, distributed through loyalty to a leader or family.)
The Godfather:
- The family is everything. Power, wealth, and loyalty are passed down within a tight-knit patriarchal structure.
- Vito grooms Michael to take over, embedding authority in bloodlines and legacy.
- Even as Michael tries to legitimize the family business, he’s always pulling people in based on personal loyalty, not institutional reform.
- The organization is rigidly hierarchical—outsiders are expendable unless they swear allegiance to the family.
- Nepotism is expected, even honored—it’s the code of the mafia world.
Trump Regime:
- Trump places family members in key government roles (Ivanka, Jared Kushner) with little regard for experience or law and the blurring of public and private roles is central to how Trump runs his presidencies.
- Loyalty to the individual (Trump) outweighs institutional loyalty or democratic norms; it is a litmus test for survival in his administration.
- Cabinet members and staff are frequently fired or attacked if they did not show personal allegiance.
- Like the Corleones, Trump has created a “family first” state, where disloyalty means exile, and truth is measured by loyalty.
Contrast: Both exhibit patrimonial rule, but The Godfather treats it as a sacred code of honor. Trump’s version is transactional, built more on ego and image than legacy.
Cruelty
The Godfather:
- Violence is calculated, ritualistic, and often quiet. “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.”
- The Godfather films explore the emotional cost of cruelty. Michael loses everything—his wife, brother, soul—because of his cold decisions.
- Deaths are delivered as messages—but even brutality follows an internal logic.
- Michael’s descent into cruelty is tragic—he becomes more ruthless trying to protect what he loves.
- Even at their most brutal, the Corleones maintain a kind of tragic dignity.
Trump Regime:
- Cruelty is not just a means—it becomes the message.
- Cruelty is public, performative, and often celebrated.
- Trump’s policies (family separation at the border, mocking disabled people, dehumanizing language, encouraging violence at rallies) and humiliating opponents show cruelty as part of Trump’s brand often serving to humiliate, punish, or dominate.
- Critics say cruelty is not just a byproduct—it’s a tool for rallying Trump’s base and reinforcing control and a signal to followers that he is strong, unrepentant, and “not politically correct.”
- Unlike Michael, who agonizes over his cruelty, Trump seems to relish in it, using it to dominate the news cycle and energize his base.
Contrast: In The Godfather, cruelty is a reluctant weapon of control. In the Trump era, cruelty is often a public performance of dominance—a way to bond followers and punish dissent.
Style of Power: Tragedy vs. Spectacle
The Godfather:
- A slow-burning, operatic tragedy of power, control, and loss.
- Its tone is somber, moralistic—even when it glorifies violence, it shows its cost.
- It’s about what happens when men believe they can control everything—and discover that they can’t.
Trump Regime:
- Power is wielded like reality TV: performative, loud, emotionally volatile.
- There is no tragedy because there is no reflection—it is spectacle, not story.
- The “Godfather” presents the illusion of control unraveling. Trumpism presents chaos packaged as control.
Final Reflections
- The Godfather is a tragedy wrapped in elegance—a warning about what happens when power is inherited, not earned, and when morality bends to protect “the family.”
- The Godfather offers a sobering look at the price of power and the human cost of moral compromise.
- The Trump regime is a spectacle—an experiment in what happens when truth, tradition, and law are sacrificed at the altar of personal loyalty and manufactured grievance.
- The Trump regime reveals what happens when power is stripped of reflection, consequences, and humility—and replaced with raw performance, loyalty tests, and grievance-driven rule.
- Both stories remind us: when power goes unchecked, and loyalty becomes more important than justice, corruption and cruelty are not far behind.
- Both are patrimonial, both corrupt, and both wield cruelty—but one is a Greek tragedy; the other, a circus that burns the stage.
More on “patrimonialism” from conservative author and journalist, David Brooks:
- Brooks has recently characterized Donald Trump’s leadership style as “patrimonialism,” a term from political sociology describing a system where power is treated as the personal property of the leader and distributed based on loyalty rather than merit. In his February 2025 article in The Atlantic, Brooks explains that Trump is installing what scholars call patrimonialism, where public office becomes a tool for personal enrichment and loyalty enforcement, undermining democratic institutions.
- Brooks highlights that in a patrimonial system, the leader’s personal interests dominate state affairs, leading to widespread corruption and nepotism. He warns that this approach erodes the rule of law and replaces institutional norms with personal loyalty, posing a significant threat to democratic governance.
- Understanding patrimonialism is essential to recognizing and countering the systemic changes occurring under Trump’s influence following the playbook of his ‘Project 2025’ Plan. Brooks suggests that acknowledging this framework is crucial for developing effective strategies to uphold democratic principles and institutions.
- According to Brooks, patrimonialism is a “sort of a premodern form of government, if you go back before democracy, before the Treaty of Westphalia and all that kind of stuff. It was — it was run by families. And the family enriched itself. And they took after anybody who threatened the family. It’s a little like mafioso.”
This final quote is why the comparison of ‘The Godfather’ (i.e., mafia) to the Trump regime is so appropriate and revealing. You may even want to reflect on which one you prefer and why.
Note: much of the content for this blog was adapted from various online resources.
