The David Frum Show: Frum on Gatsby, Trump the Fascoid and What It Means to Be an American

About this episode

David Frum discusses the complexities of American identity and politics through the lens of literature and his experiences.

“That’s not the America that I believed in and that I chose to merge my fate with.” — David Frum on Trump’s predatory foreign policy What does it mean to be an American? It’s a slippery question — especially for those of us born outside the United States. Take, for example, David Frum , the Toronto-born writer and Presidential speechwriter who coined the phrase “Axis of Evil” in 2002. Back then, it included Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Today, one wonders if Frum, who has written two powerful jeremiads about Donald Trump, would include what he calls this "fascoid" in this exclusive club. Frum still lives part of the year on Loyalist Parkway in Ontario — a road honouring British troops fleeing the American Revolution. From his deck, what remains of the Canadian in Frum gazes across Lake Ontario at the American shore. The lights on the other side of the lake, he admits, are more glittering. But unlike Nick Carraway in his favourite American novel The Great Gatsby , David Frum isn’t seduced by all that glitters. Carraway, Frum says, is an unreliable narrator impressed by the gangster glamour of Jay Gatsby. But Gatsby, like Donald Trump, Frum reminds us, is a criminal. And Gatsby…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Keen

Guest: David Frum

Topics covered

• American identity
• politics
• foreign policy
• literature
• Trump
• Gatsby

Keywords

• David Frum
• American identity
• Trump
• The Great Gatsby
• foreign policy
• Loyalist Parkway
• Nick Carraway

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Great Gatsby

Places: Canada, United States, Loyalist Parkway, Lake Ontario

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