The Screwtape Doctrine: How Trumplandia Devours Its Own
If C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape were to take up political consulting, he would feel right at home in Donald Trump's White House.
C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters (1942) is a satirical novel written as a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his inept nephew, Wormwood. Screwtape advises Wormwood on how to corrupt a human soul and secure his damnation. Through their correspondence, Lewis explores themes of temptation, pride, materialism, and spiritual warfare.
Hell is depicted as a bureaucratic hierarchy where demons manipulate humans but also loathe and consume each other. Screwtape’s advice is laced with irony, revealing how evil thrives on selfishness, deceit, and distraction. In contrast, God (mockingly called "the Enemy") represents love—something the devils cannot comprehend. In the end, the Patient is saved, and Wormwood is devoured, illustrating Lewis’s vision that evil ultimately consumes itself.
Hell as a Metaphor for Trumplandia
In Donald Trump’s inner court, true loyalty is a dangerous illusion. Just ask anyone who once held his favour—before they were devoured. Screwtape would understand. In his hellish bureaucracy, power is hoarded, manipulated, and ultimately consumed. The same holds true in Trump’s world, where allies are nothing more than future scapegoats, and every victory merely delays the inevitable betrayal.
Like the demons in Screwtape, Trump’s circle is bound by a shared rejection of external accountability but is riddled with paranoia and backstabbing. Figures such as Steve Bannon, Michael Cohen, and Rudy Giuliani have oscillated between ally and enemy, much like how Screwtape initially “mentors” Wormwood before preparing to feast on him.
The Cannibalistic Nature of Power
In Screwtape, failure is punished with consumption. In Chapter 30, Screwtape warns his nephew: “Bring us back food, or be food yourself.” Lewis presents a vision of hell where the strong devour the weak—just as Trump’s world discards operatives, aides, and allies when they outlive their usefulness. Cohen the fixer went to prison, Giuliani faces financial ruin, and even former Vice President Mike Pence found himself a target after years of obsequious sycophantic loyalty.
The devouring of the weak is not incidental but structural. Trump’s inner circle is built on mutual suspicion and ruthless self-preservation. In Screwtape, the feast occurs in hell; in Trump’s world, it unfolds on cable news and in courtrooms. Those who serve him inevitably become expendable. Screwtape signs off his final letter as “Your increasingly and ravenously affectionate uncle”—a sentiment Trump’s former loyalists would recognize.
Pence learned this the hard way. The day before January 6, Trump berated him: “Do you want to be a patriot or a pussy?” The next day, he sicced a mob on him to chants of “Hang Mike Pence.”
And the consumption isn’t limited to advisers—his supporters are just as expendable. As Michael Wolff recounts in Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency, Trump initially defended the January 6th rioters: “These were good protesters: my protesters.” But as soon as they became a liability, he dismissed them: “These aren’t our people, these idiots with these outfits.” In Trumplandia, once your usefulness ends, so does your value.
Backstabbing as a Core Principle
Hell in Screwtape is defined by the absence of genuine love or loyalty. Alliances are transactional and fleeting. Trump’s world is no different—built not on unity but on perpetual infighting. Steve Bannon vs. Jared Kushner, DeSantis vs. Trump, even Melania’s rumoured distaste for certain advisers—it’s a court of paranoia and shifting alliances.
True loyalty does not exist. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, once praised, was publicly humiliated. Pence, after years of unwavering service, was nearly lynched. Even Elon Musk, initially courted, now faces Bannon’s scorn. In Trump’s world, everyone is either a useful pawn or a future target.
Flattery as a Survival Tactic
In Screwtape, flattery is both a weapon and a shield—useful until it isn’t. Trump’s world operates the same way. Lindsey Graham, who once called Trump a “kook,” transformed into his most slavish defender. Ron DeSantis showered him with praise—until he thought he could take the throne himself. Flattery in Trumplandia is currency—valuable until it runs out.
Even Ted Cruz, who once declared, “Donald, you’re a sniveling coward,” later called Trump the greatest president of his lifetime. The lesson? Grovelling is mandatory, but it offers no protection when the tide turns.
The Ultimate Fate: Self-Destruction
Lewis imagined hell as a place where demons consume each other in an endless struggle for dominance. Trump’s movement appears headed in the same direction—its leaders consumed by their own ambitions, devouring one another in a battle where the only guaranteed loser is loyalty itself.
When the game is built on consuming the weak, what happens when there’s no one left to eat?
Dean M Thomson is currently a lecturer with Beijing Normal - Hong Kong Baptist University, United International College (UIC).
My work is entirely reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber
Alternatively why not make a one-off donation? All support is appreciated
The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.” – Martin Luther (the opening quote of The Screwtape Letters).