Having predicted the broad outlines of what would transpire if American voters were stupid enough to give Donald Trump a second bite at power, I can’t say that anything that has happened thus far is surprising. It didn’t take a Magic Eight Ball to predict that Trump would surround himself with pliable lackeys whose only qualifications are blind loyalty and incompetence. That Trump would attack the Constitution at every opportunity and attempt to consolidate power was equally obvious. What I didn’t foresee was the active role that Elon Musk would take in crippling the federal government.
The lesson on offer: never underestimate the wrecking-ball power of an unelected and unaccountable billionaire.
America is now all power and no virtue. Gone are the days of pretend support for freedom, democracy and human rights. No longer do we cloak our imperial lust with soaring rhetoric. The shining city on the hill is a hologram that fools no one; the world sees our arrogance and hypocrisy. The carefully constructed world order with the United States at its center is crumbling. Donald Trump will accelerate the demise of the American Empire, even if he succeeds in annexing Greenland and the Panama Canal, coerces Canada into becoming the fifty-first American state, and transforms Gaza into a Palestinian-free playground for elite Israelis and the world’s kleptocrats.
Wherever Trump’s odious son-in-law is at the moment, you just know that Jared Kushner has a perpetual hard-on as he dreams of building a new Riviera on the bones of the Palestinians.
I heard the Yale historian Jason Stanley on a podcast the other day, and he was very pessimistic about our future, basically saying that the American democratic republic had a decent run that has come to an end. It’s difficult to argue with Stanley’s conclusion, particularly when some polls claim that Trump’s approval rating stands at 49%.
Since 2016 I’ve noted many times my willingness to forgive Americans who voted for Trump that first time around. I understood that tens of millions of people from all walks of life believed that the prevailing political and economic arrangements had left them behind, gutted their communities, eliminated their livelihoods, and generally made life more difficult for them and their families. It was perfectly understandable for people to take a flyer on Trump, even though he was as full of shit in 2016 as he is today. Fool me once, OK. But people who came back for more in 2020 and 2024 — after witnessing all the chaos and corruption, the failures of the Covid response, and the attack on the Capitol on January 6 — get no forgiveness. Not ever.
I’m not the slightest bit shocked by the utter fecklessness and cowardice of the Republican Party, though I marvel at how these people place their personal privilege and position above their duty to their constituents and their oath of office. If a couple of dozen in the House and Senate had any spine, any fidelity to the nation and the rule of law, they could throw sand in the gears. But no such cadre of real patriots exists, so they remain silent and complicit, and confirm the most reprehensible people for critical posts. Craven, cowed, chicken-hearted.
When this era passes, and it will, it will be fascinating to watch people like House Speaker Mikey Johnson and Senator Lindsey Graham rewrite the history of their capitulation to Trump; the excuses and justifications will be breathtaking, the logical contortions will defy the laws of physics, the shamelessness will boggle our minds. Mikey will probably claim he was misled by his pastor; Lindsey will shed crocodile tears on Fox News.
Part of what we must do as a nation is recapture basic values like duty and honor, integrity and fidelity. Then we somehow need to make Shame and Hypocrisy mean something again, and make damn sure that people who trade in both pay a cost for doing so.