Animal Farm In Trump’s America

Alessandro Pioltelli ’26

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is one of those books that almost everybody has heard of, having read it for school at some point in their lives or, in my case, finding it in a bookstore and deciding to read it because it’s considered a classic. But despite its short length, its warning against authoritarianism is more relevant than ever a year into Donald Trump’s second presidential term.

The satirical novella tells the story of Manor Farm, whose alcoholic owner, Mr. Jones, is overthrown in a revolution by the animals there who rename it ‘Animal Farm’ and seek to make an equal society where animals rule. The revolution is led by two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon. The latter inevitably resorts to propaganda, manipulation, and physical force to exile his compatriot, turning the revolutionary system into a totalitarian one in which he and his fellow pig comrades hold all the power. The animals end up in a worse position that they were under Mr. Jones’ original rule, although they never realize it.

The book was originally published in 1945, and it’s no secret that Orwell meant to critique authoritarianism, autocratic regimes, and more specifically, the totalitarian regime of Stalin in the USSR and the failure of the Bolshevik Revolution’s promise to bring about a less oppressive society, and actually doing the opposite. It’s such a thinly veiled critique that each character in the book represents either an actual person in the Bolshevik Revolution or a system/group that fuels and enables authoritarianism. Snowball is Leon Trotsky, who was sent into exile by Stalin since he was his only rival for power. Napoleon is Stalin himself, an absolutist who twists the ideals of the revolution to create an autocratic regime with himself at its center. Boxer, the hardworking horse who is sent to a slaughterhouse for all his fine work, represents the honest working class, those who blindly believe in the leader (His personal motto is literally “Napoleon is always right”) and their promises despite all the evidence to the contrary. Squealer, Napoleon’s right-hand man, who convinces the animals that they are misremembering the wording of their seven commandments rather than the truth of their rephrasing, represents the propaganda peddled by an autocratic regime and its state-controlled media. The sheep, who bleat out whatever phrase Squealer tells them to- at first “four legs good, two legs better,” but by the end of the novella, “four legs good, two legs better” represents the simple-minded masses who listen to the propaganda the regime tells them to, and then mindlessly repeat it as political dogma.

This gets to my main point for this piece: the increasing relevance of Animal Farm in the political climate of today, particularly that of the U.S.

One of the major themes of Animal Farm is how the betrayal of the revolution does not happen all at once, but gradually, and step by step. Napoleon does not instantly exile Snowball and become a totalitarian dictator, but through careful manipulation and political power plays. This can easily be applied to today’s governments, if not to an even greater effect than 80 years ago. While in the past, many dictatorships used coup d’etats to establish their base of power, as shown in Animal Farm, in many cases nowadays, leaders are democratically elected and then transform the government into an autocracy or authoritarian dictatorship, like in Turkey, India, Venezuela, Russia, and now, the United States. Besides the fact that officials in the Trump Administration act like literal pigs, minus their remarkable intelligence, they are also acting like the pigs in the novella. They have been gradually stripping away rights, strengthening the executive branch (the power of the president), and dismantling institutions that serve to educate people on and fight back against the very system of government they want to install. And like how characters in the book were parallels to people in Stalinist Russia and generally, the groups that enabled authoritarianism and autocracy, figures in the Trump administration today fit the characters of the book. Trump himself is obviously Napoleon, a greedy pig who doesn’t provide anything himself and only wants power, wealth, and influence. Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, is Squeaker, spewing lies and propaganda that the administration wants — and needs — people to believe. Both Boxer and the sheep represent Trump supporters and the MAGA movement- they blindly follow Trump and believe whatever lies he and his administration tell them, even if the truth is the complete opposite. They chant vague phrases and work hard (or at the very least, believe they do) to provide for their family and to get closer to achieving the ‘American Dream’. Snowball is a composite of many different people, who all outgrew their usefulness to Trump or defied him and were subsequently shunned from the party. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the most recent example of this, but Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, is another example, losing all of his standing in the party when he dared to do the right thing and certify the 2020 election results, siding with the truth instead of his politics. This allegory can be carried even further when you look at Napoleon’s dogs, whom he trained from youth and serve as his private guard and police force. They are a clear parallel to ICE agents and ICE in general, which has been greatly expanded since the beginning of Trump’s term, with thousands joining because they believe in Trump and his lies. I guess in that regard, they are more like the sheep masquerading as dogs than actual dogs.

Animal Farm is a great satire, but it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that Orwell intended it to be a criticism of Stalinist Russia, and not much else. Nearly a century later, though, we find that his writing has stood the test of time and remained relevant, becoming even more so in a country known for its democratic ideals backsliding into authoritarianism because of one greedy pig.