Writing in The Atlantic on the disastrous February 28 meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Tom Nichols comments that Trump, “ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence.” Vance, he observes, “fully inhabited the role of a smarmy talk-show sidekick, jumping in to make sure the star got the support he needed while slamming one of the guests.”
Like Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette, Trump and Vance crooned for Putin and a MAGA audience, playing up the narrative of being attacked while they themselves were attacking Zelensky. In my recently released book, Cowboy Apocalypse: Religion and the Myth of the Vigilante Messiah, I talk about the different ways that guns can be conceptualized, some of which can help us make sense of this deeply troubling encounter between the two world leaders.
Cowboy Apocalypse: Religion and the Myth of the Vigilante Messiah
Rachel Wagner
NYU Press
Feb 25, 2025
It’s the fantasy of an absolute end to dialogue. As I discuss in Cowboy Apocalypse, guns are the perfect mode of excommunication since they can shut down real dialogue without even being shot—or put an end to an encounter when they are.
When one human shoots another, communication happens via explosion within the body of the recipient, simultaneously beginning and ending that encounter. The bullet is the material residue of a failed encounter that, paradoxically, succeeds by silencing the other. As I write in Cowboy Apocalypse:
Even without being fired, the gun is a means of establishing a fixed perimeter, of walling people out, of refusing communication. Symbolically, then, the gun is a form of radical, directional flow intended to prevent flow of dialogue. It’s a material and symbolic reaction against interdependence through the individualization of its own violent authority. It’s a movement from the world to the atomized self… the gun enacts a ritual of refusal.
In this sense Trump himself is a gun. In the televised meeting, he shouts and wags his finger aggressively in Zelensky’s face while JD Vance also shouts, attempting to create the impression of a heated argument while obscuring Zelensky’s claims that it was Putin who started the war; that Zelensky’s people are dying; that America had promised to help; and that Putin was likely to break any ceasefire agreement, as he has in the past.
This attack on Zelensky was swiftly amplified by Russia’s spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, who proposed on Telegram that Trump and Vance should have “punch[ed] this scumbag.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, (whom Nichols calls “Putin’s homunculus”) echoed Zakharova’s violent comment, claiming that Zelensky “finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office.” Like Trump, Medvedev blamed Zelensky for “gambling with WWIII” for refusing to acquiesce to a “deal” that further threatened Ukraine’s security.
There’s a kind of “castle doctrine” gun logic at work here. Zelensky was presented as a threat on American ground—someone who soiled the sacred space of the White House by failing to properly express gratitude, an offense portrayed as an act of violence that could provoke a world war. The castle doctrine, which is baked into American frontier mythology, stipulates that when you feel threatened at your residence, rather than retreat you’re permitted to attack the attacker and “stand your ground.” Indeed, the White House complained afterward on Instagram that Zelensky had been “disrespectful” in the “cherished Oval Office” and suggested his actions weren’t peaceful, but violent.
Trump’s reference to himself as a “peacemaker” during the meeting can be read as an allusion to cowboy culture. Scholar Wiliam Hosley explains that, due to the frontier belief that guns prevented violence, the Colt six-shooter and the Winchester carbine rifle were often called “peacemakers.” And, because guns were sometimes used to litigate disagreements, the Colt was also at times referred to as “Judge Colt and his jury of six.” Hosley references a newspaper editorial from 1852 declaring that wars could be decreased through the production of more guns (a sentiment echoed in the Right’s frequent suggestions that armed teachers are the solution to school shootings). Even abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher reportedly argued that, “there was more moral power in [a Sharp’s Rifle]…than in a hundred Bibles.”
Like the sheriff trying to head off a duel, Trump declared to Zelensky (and the cameras):
I’m here…as a mediator…between two parties that have been very hostile…there’s been a vicious war…It’s a very level battlefield and those bullets go out and…the only thing stopping those bullets is the human body and…we’re talking about generally young human bodies are stopping a lot of bullets. It’s dead level. That’s why it’s great farmland… But there’s very little protection against the bullets that are…being shot. So all I can do is see if I can get everybody at the table and get an agreement…I hope I’m going to be remembered as a peacemaker…I’m doing this to save lives more than anything else. Second is to save a lot of money, but I consider that to be far less important…This is a very dangerous situation, you know, this could lead to a third World War…
The accusation is implicit but palpable: Trump is blaming Zelensky, whose nation was invaded by Russia, for the deaths of soldiers in Ukraine. You can almost hear a drawl as Trump talks about Zelensky and Putin as if they’re a pair of quarreling cowboys:
They don’t like each other, I can tell you that…[T]his is not a love match and that’s…why you’re in this situation…I’ve stopped wars, I’ve stopped many wars…I stopped wars that nobody ever heard about. I stopped wars before they ever started.
Like the Colt “peacemaker,” Trump uses preemptive threats of violence to bring about “peace.” His ability to “shoot” is what gives him both the strength and the right to interfere in Ukraine’s future. Trump is a gun.
But Trump isn’t just any gun. He’s Putin’s gun. Nichols says Trump and Vance “acted like a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets instead of American leaders.” Said another way, they acted as the Kremlin’s gun, threatening to fire at Zelensky.
French theorist Bruno Latour talks about guns as social objects that have numerous moving parts, including the people who hold them. Some people, he says, instrumentalize the gun at the expense of the person holding it, declaring: “Guns kill people!” Others instrumentalize the gun holder at the expense of the gun, responding: “Guns don’t kill. People do!” But according to Latour, a gun is tightly networked with the world and people around it. We can’t only blame the gun, since it must be held by a person who shoots it, and we can’t only blame the person, because it matters if that human is holding a gun or not.
Instead, we should think of the gun and the person as a hybrid unit—as a single networked thing. Only when placed within the hands of someone wishing to fire it does a gun-human hybrid become an operational machine. A gun is a network of a million moments, of numerous designers, and the desires of the person who might shoot it; it’s only when these elements are working together that guns can perform the function for which they were designed. If we think of Trump as a gun, we could say that he’s a gun being held by Putin and aimed at Zelensky—with malice. Trump’s job was to “excommunicate” Zelensky, to shut down the possibility of any real exchange on Ukraine and Russia.
Ironically, as a convicted felon Trump isn’t allowed to own or use firearms. And his personal knowledge of guns is, at best, questionable. But Trump need not be an expert on guns to be a gun. He needs only fire when his trigger is pulled.
Gun ‘expert’ Donald Trump discusses something-47s on right-wing media.
Cowboy and gun themes are rife in Trump fandom—and not just in cowboy country. You can buy MAGA cowboy hats, and cowboy boots, cowboy Trump stickers, T-shirts, mugs, and pins. Elon Musk’s team of post-adolescent coders use what’s known as “cowboy coding” to break into the government’s sensitive systems, working “fast and alone.”
Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wears a cowboy hat; Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, calls himself a “cowboy Catholic”; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently wore a cowboy hat and boots onstage at the Grand Ol’ Opry (he’s also been seen wearing a flag-themed cowboy hat); and even Musk wears a cowboy hat.
Trump’s fans intuitively understand his identification as a gun, as evident in a barrage of actual guns for sale decorated with Trump’s face and words. Missouri Guns offers several custom-engraved Glock pistols with Trump’s image on the barrel, one of which features Trump’s mugshot and the slogan “Never Surrender.” Bond Arms offers another pistol, the “DT47,” the barrel of which features a stylized profile of Trump with the words “Living Legend. I’m Back!” on one side and “We Are Patriots!” on the other.
Numerous firearms featuring Trump’s face are available, like this semi-automatic rifle for sale at Duke’s Sport Shop in Pennsylvania. Palmetto State Armory is selling a stock rifle named after Trump, featuring his image in a red MAGA hat. The barrel displays stripes and stars, while “Trump Take America Back” is written on the magazine. Compatible with AR-15 accessories, this rifle is advertised as “perfect for your truck” because it can fold up and be stored under the seat.
Presented almost as a sacred relic, Cabot Guns recently offered a $30,000 gold-plated “Limited Edition Cabot 1911” pistol with a “hand-jeweled magazine” and “Trump 47” engraved on the side. Marketing materials identify the pistol as a symbol of “President Trump’s relentless commitment to making America great again.” With a “soul” that was “forged in the fires of American tradition” the Cabot 1911 is “as audacious and commanding as the man it honors.” The trigger reflects “the layers of effort, toughness, and fortitude required to overcome the relentless attacks aimed at preventing Trump’s rise back to becoming the President of the People.”
To fire the Cabot 1911 pistol is to speak as Trump and for Trump—to be a tough guy fighting back against oppression. If a gun can be viewed as a proxy mouth, then Trump—as Putin’s proxy mouth—can be viewed as a gun. Trump appears to shoot on behalf of the Kremlin, creating violence and chaos, shutting down conversation, refusing real dialogue, and threatening annihilation. That is, after all, what guns do best.
