An Enemy You Can Depend On - Trump, Pershing’s Bullets, and the Folklore of the War on Terror - Volume 15 - Issue 20

Sep 6, 2026

This essay, adapted and expanded from an article published in Foreign Affairs, examines the origins of a legend used by Donald Trump to justify torture and war crimes against terrorists. The piece analyzes claims that Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing had Muslim prisoners in the Philippines shot with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood. While the story is demonstrably false, it traces what the Pershing tale reveals about widely held American beliefs about Islam and how it functions as an archetypal parable of the “war on terror.”

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Trump’s use of the Pershing legend

How the legend is introduced and repeated

Variations and rhetorical slip

Debunking and scholarly response

The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 15 | Issue 20 | Number 4 | Article ID 5078 | Oct 15, 2017 An Enemy You Can Depend On: Trump, Pershing’s Bullets, and the Folklore of the War on Terror Paul Kramer Abstract This essay, adapted and expanded from an article published in Foreign Affairs, explores the origins of the legend used by Donald Trump to justify torture and war crimes against terrorists that Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing had Muslim prisoners in the Philippines shot with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood. While the story is patently false, it is worth revising Pershing’s knowledge that his men attempted to terrorize Philippine Muslims with pigskin burials, while asking what widespread American beliefs about Islam the story traded in. Approached in this way, the Pershing legend emerges not just as Trumpian fabrication, but as an archetypal parable of the “war on terror.” Keywords: Pershing, Philippines, Moro, historical legend, terror | | | --- | | | | Gary Cooper: A still from the 1939 colonialist action movie "The Real Glory": William Canavan (Gary Cooper) confrontsa treacherous datu who has been pretending to aid American forces. | | --- | | | The most intriguing thing about Donald Trump’s speeches and tweets about General Pershing around 1910—which claim he had his men shoot 49 captured terrorists in the Philippines with pig-dipped bullets in order to terrorize the rest—is not that he made the story up. That the tale is a fabrication is not pattern breaking when it comes to Trump’s general approach to history, or reality. One thing that is distinctive about the yarn is that it may qualify as the quintessential Trumpian use of history: the story’s naked and brutal hatred of Islam, its romance of aggressive, martial masculinity, its raw violence and obsession with blood released from bodies point squarely to its teller. But while important, it’s not enough to simply call out a uniquely mendacious demagogue for playing fast and loose with historical facts for his own purposes. It is far more illuminating to ask why Trump has repeatedly (most recently, in response to an attack in Barcelona) chosen to transport his audiences to the early 20th century’s colonialist pith-helmet tropics. Where does the story comes from, how does it work, who is it meant to hail, and why—those exultant audiences—has it hailed them? Without doubt, the fable reveals more about its speaker than most would ever want to know. But what does it say about America? Here is how Trump introduced the legend to 1 [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1557466017018678](https://doi.org/10.1017/S1557466017018678) Published online by Cambridge University Press APJ | JF 15 | 20 | 4 supporters at a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina on February 19, 2016, the day before the state’s Republican primary. He’s about a half-hour into his stump speech, mocking his rivals’ leeriness about talking about water-boarding—“your minimal, minimal, minimal torture”—and embracing it and more extreme measures as necessary to counter ruthless, medieval-style decapitators. He baits his audience.“You know, I read a story, it’s a terrible story, but I’ll tell you,” he says.“Should I tell you, or should I not?” There are cheers. Trump proceeds. It’s early in the last century, he says, and Gen . Pershing—“rough guy, rough guy”—is facing a terrorism problem, somewhere. Trump doesn’t say outright who the terrorists are, but “there’sa whole thing with swine, and animals and pigs, and you know the story, OK? They don’t like that.” Pershing sits upright on his horse, “very astute”—Trump chops his hand straight downward—“like a ramrod.” He catches fifty terrorists who have done “tremendous damage and killed many people.” He has fifty of his men take fifty bullets and dip them in pigs’ blood. Then they line up the prisoners and shoot fortynine of them. To the fiftieth, Pershing says:“You go back to your people and you tell them what happened.” P

FAQs

What legend does Donald Trump use to justify torture and war crimes?

Trump repeatedly cites a claim that Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing had captured terrorists shot with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood to terrorize others. The essay treats this legend as false.

Why does the essay say it is not enough to only call the story false?

It argues the more revealing task is to ask where the story comes from, how it works, who it is meant to appeal to, and what it says about America and beliefs about Islam.

How does the Pershing story’s message function in Trump’s speeches?

The story is presented as evidence that the enemy obeys no law, so America must respond with toughness and ruthless measures to avoid defeat and humiliation.

Sep 6, 2026

Upload by Lucas Martin