Abstract

Donald Trump’s central campaign slogan—“Make America Great Again”—asks us to reflect on the meaning of national greatness. To revive and refine our understanding of national greatness in the American context, we turn to its clearest articulation, found in The Federalist. Its authors understood themselves to be founding a great nation, whose greatness would depend especially on commercial power as the means to establishing and preserving national sovereignty and self-rule. Striving for national greatness, however, is less a choice than a necessity, given the consequences of national weakness and disunity. Many of Trump’s campaign promises track closely with the logic of and reasons for attaining national greatness as laid out in The Federalist. This chapter seeks to elaborate Trump’s slogan in light The Federalist’s reflections.