A self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation that one believes in so strongly that it influences your behavior, thus causing the belief to come true. A great current example of this are the legal cases against former US President Donald Trump. The cases are causing him to bleed money, and the legal bills, appeal costs and damages he has to pay are staggering.
The expectation is for Trump to be corrupt… and it is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy because the more the man is persecuted, the more corrupt he becomes. It forces his hand, because a more well-off candidate isn’t beholden to special interest groups and isn’t liable to be influenced by foreign nations. 2020 Trump could say “fuck off” to Russia, to China, to everyone. He could call for TikTok to be banned — and he did.
People believed Trump would be corrupt, that he would be a geopolitical liability. And yet by going after him in various cases, revoking his business licenses, suing him to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and putting him on trial repeatedly, he’s only become more of a liability. Compared to 2024 Trump, 2020 Trump was almost harmless. The danger that he represents has been, largely, a self-fulfilling prophecy. He went from reasonably tough on foreign policy to “Comrade Trump” over the course of just one year.
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