Make the Great Learning (大學) Great(er) Again: How Confucius, Augustine, & Aquinas Might Instruct Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and Yoon Suk Yeol

With South Korean President Yoon, Suk Yeol’s unsuccessful “emergency” martial law decree in December, coupled with the beginning of the Second Trump Administration in January we have witnessed deepening troubling trends towards global authoritarianism. The Yoon and Trump Administrations defended their policies are “creative” reinterpretations of established political “sacred texts” in each culture, namely the Confucian Five Relationships (五倫), especially the responsibility of the Ruler with his Ministers (君臣) to guide the nation and hold it safe from threats internal and external. Meanwhile President Trump has brought into his orbit a number of supportive religious leaders, and his Vice-President, J.D. Vance has lectured his Catholic bishops and fellow citizens on the “proper” and restrictive interpretation of ordo amoris (Order[ing] of Love) concept traced back to Augustine and Aquinas. A closer examination of each of these “sacred texts” and traditions reveals their usages to be quite misleading and woefully deficient.