Meet the Squealer in Chief
I turned on the television and witnessed true American carnage.
President Trump was giving his presidential nomination acceptance speech and having a performative political campaign rally on the South Lawn of the White House. Although I did not know about the potential violation of the Hatch Act at the time, it certainly felt like a misuse of government property for the President’s political gain. His audience in front of the White House started cheering “four more years, four more years!” There was something about his speech — how it propped up an enemy conglomerate and distorted facts to induce fear in its supporters — and the ensuing rhapsodic chant that brought me back to George Orwell’s 1945 novel Animal Farm. I immediately dusted off the withered pocket-size book that I had earnestly consumed as a child. I reviewed the passages I had highlighted in yellow and quickly reacquainted myself with a certain character who has taken center stage in this dystopian reality show in which we find ourselves.
I present Squealer — He is a “small fat pig” and a very compelling orator. He serves as second-in-command to Napoleon, the farms’ president (also a pig), and is the farm’s Minister of Propaganda. He is described as being very convincing and could turn “black into white (p.18).” Squealer communicates often to the animals on the latest farm developments since the humans were overthrown. However, it is clear from the beginning that Squealer is only working to persuade all the animals to act and make decisions that benefit the pigs who have elevated themselves to be in the upper echelon of farm society.
Squealer, an expert propagandist, uses simple language and asserts false and invented statistics to justify the actions of the pigs. He dexterously dispels doubts when the competency of the pig leaders are questioned and even sows conspiracy theories on his rivals. Poor Snowball — he was chased out of the farm by guard dogs after a dispute with the pig leadership (on building a windmill, no less). He was since then demonized and somehow blamed for anything that went wrong on the farm years after his absence.
Squealer is masterful at creating a sense of hopelessness that the farm animals would be in a worst place if it were not for the pig’s unique ability to outsmart the humans. The pigs were the only ones holding the fine line between prosperity and an abusive and wretched existence by the farmers. In his RNC speech, the President claimed that the ‘radical left’ was attacking American institutions, and then asserts:
Always remember they’re coming after me because I am fighting for you. That’s what’s happening.
This particular statement reminded me of the scene in the novel where the animals started realizing that the pigs were taking all the milk and apples for themselves. Squealer tactically and tactfully explained to the animals that the pigs needed the milk and apples in order to preserve their health and brain power. He says:
“Milk and apples (and this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brain-workers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades,” cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, “surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back? (p.39)”
Jones in the book is the drunk and negligent farmer who was driven out by the animals. Jones, representing the humans, was seen as the enemy who was threatening the livelihood of the farm animals. For Trump, the enemy is anyone who opposes him, and he will do what it takes to induce fear and confusion to uphold his reign. Perhaps Trump learned a few rhetorical tricks from Squealer because that strategy worked. The doomsday prospect that Squealer painted of Jones returning to the farm frightened the animals so much that they agreed to relinquish the share of their milk and apples for the interest of the collective good. So, while Trump whisked his tail speaking about the mayhem the Democrats would bring, he distracted his followers from addressing actual systemic injustices and instead held on to his power by painting himself as the people’s defender and savior.
Squealer was a persuasive little porker and manipulated the animals to believe that they are more prosperous than ever before. “Reading out the figures in a shrill, rapid voice, he proved to them in detail that they had more oats, more hay, more turnips than they had had in Jones’s day, that they worked shorter hours, that their drinking water was of better quality, that they lived longer, that a larger proportion of their young ones survived infancy, and that they had more straw in their stalls and suffered less from fleas (p.119).” Channeling his inner Squealer, Trump said “Within three short years, we built the strongest economy in the history of the world.” This statement also followed with the “fact” that his administration brought the best unemployment numbers for African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans ever recorded. The devil is in the details — these trends began in the previous administration, and overlooks the serious fact that racial unemployment discrepancies still remain.
After the animals overthrew the farmers, they wrote and adhered to the Seven Commandments of Animalism. However, the pigs eventually changed the laws to benefit themselves. For example, “No animal shall sleep in a bed” later became, “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” At the end of the story, even the last Commandment, “All animals are equal,” was changed, and all Seven Commandments was replaced with one single Commandment:
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
The pigs deliberately gnawed away at the Commandments to uplift their status and power while the animals continued to toil in the farm. However, there was little consternation among the animals on its erosion, especially when no severe consequence was ever enacted on the pigs for breaking the Commandments. Squealer was able to manipulate the animals through some pseudo logic that every change was justified, and the animals believed him. The animals on the farm were also not very good at remembering what the original Commandments were and Squealer knew how to exploit that lack of knowledge. By eroding American institutions that provide checks and balances to tyranny and chiseling away at the importance of attaining a civic education, Trump is able to do such things as carry out a presidential campaign at the White House with the cheer of adoring fans.
At the end of Trump’s speech, an animal from the farm might be convinced that Trump was the epitome of a caring leader who was doing everything for the best of his people. Squealer, I mean…President Trump, urged Americans:
As the audience chanted “four more years” to this, I heard the sheep mindlessly affirm on the White House Lawn: Four legs good, two legs bad.
In the novel, this slogan signified the sheep’s unquestioning acceptance that the quadrupedal pigs should remain in power to defeat the bipedal humans. However, eventually, the pigs act more and more like humans. They learn to walk on two legs and adopt human behavior like sitting upright in chairs and sleeping in beds. The pigs eventually change their slogan and Squealer leads the sheep to a new chant: “four legs good, two legs better.” The sheep indiscriminately embrace it and follow the incantation as the pigs consolidate their power.
After cheering for “four more years” on the first day of the RNC, President Trump said: “If you want to really drive them crazy, you say twelve more years.” Obediently, some people started chanting “twelve more years, twelve more years.” Perhaps the sheep did not realize that twelve more years would violate the two presidential term limit bestowed by the constitution.
The last scene of Animal Farm shows the men and pigs playing cards raucously in the farmhouse, cheating at the game while lavishing praise on one another. When the animals outside peer in to see the pigs and men, they can no longer distinguish between the two species.
And as I listened to the President’s final words, I could see the milk stain on his lips while the sheep applaud and trample on the bounty of apples beneath their feet.
Trump’s 2020 slogan is to Keep America Great Again or Make American Great Again, Again!
I have a suggestion — Let’s cut out all that verbiage and just call it: Be Best (à la First Lady Melania Trump).
