[Editor’s Note: For nearly a decade, Donald Trump’s defenders insisted that critics were overreacting—mistaking impulse for ideology, chaos for strategy, and personal grievance for policy. The press largely played along, normalizing behavior that would have triggered alarms in any other presidency. Now, belatedly, even establishment foreign-policy journals are admitting what has long been obvious: Trump governs not through institutions, alliances, or coherent national interests, but through h...

[Editor’s Note: For nearly a decade, Donald Trump’s defenders insisted that critics were overreacting—mistaking impulse for ideology, chaos for strategy, and personal grievance for policy. The press largely played along, normalizing behavior that would have triggered alarms in any other presidency. Now, belatedly, even establishment foreign-policy journals are admitting what has long been obvious: Trump governs not through institutions, alliances, or coherent national interests, but through h...

There are moments when moral clarity arrives so belatedly that it risks being mistaken for courage. Last week, The New York Times editorial board declared, with unmistakable force, that Donald Trump is the January 6 president—that the attack on the Capitol was not a rupture from his politics but their clearest expression. It was a welcome departure from euphemism. It was also long overdue. The editorial is correct. Trump does not merely carry the legacy of January 6; he governs from it. The e...

There are moments when moral clarity arrives so belatedly that it risks being mistaken for courage. Last week, The New York Times editorial board declared, with unmistakable force, that Donald Trump is the January 6 president—that the attack on the Capitol was not a rupture from his politics but their clearest expression. It was a welcome departure from euphemism. It was also long overdue. The editorial is correct. Trump does not merely carry the legacy of January 6; he governs from it. The e...

There is a certain kind of man who interprets silence as weakness. When wars end, he hears a lack of courage. When treaties hold, he sees a lack of nerve. When prosperity rises without bloodshed, he wonders why no one took anything. To such a man, civilization is merely the intermission between battles: a moment when nations inexplicably forget that only force conquers, and only conquest counts. Europe, of course, knows otherwise. Europe buried this idea—literally—alongside the millions of yo...

There is a certain kind of man who interprets silence as weakness. When wars end, he hears a lack of courage. When treaties hold, he sees a lack of nerve. When prosperity rises without bloodshed, he wonders why no one took anything. To such a man, civilization is merely the intermission between battles: a moment when nations inexplicably forget that only force conquers, and only conquest counts. Europe, of course, knows otherwise. Europe buried this idea—literally—alongside the millions of yo...

The Luxury of Failing Forward When Donald Trump says that civil rights laws caused white Americans to be "very badly treated," he is not expressing confusion. He is asserting a theory of injury—one that redefines equality as harm and accountability as persecution. The claim deserves to be taken seriously, not because it is true, but because it is presidential. When a president recasts civil rights enforcement as an injustice against the historically advantaged, he is not commenting on the pas...

The Luxury of Failing Forward When Donald Trump says that civil rights laws caused white Americans to be "very badly treated," he is not expressing confusion. He is asserting a theory of injury—one that redefines equality as harm and accountability as persecution. The claim deserves to be taken seriously, not because it is true, but because it is presidential. When a president recasts civil rights enforcement as an injustice against the historically advantaged, he is not commenting on the pas...

🎥 Watch the 50-second video preview👉YouTube Short(Essay continues below…) There was a time when the idea of an American president “taking” Greenland belonged to the category of late-night jokes, novelty coffee mugs, or cocktail-napkin geopolitics. That time has passed. What was once absurd is now merely familiar, and what is familiar has become operational. Greenland is not the story. Greenland is the tell. A tell, in poker, is not the big move. It is the unconscious gesture that reveals th...

🎥 Watch the 50-second video preview👉YouTube Short(Essay continues below…) There was a time when the idea of an American president “taking” Greenland belonged to the category of late-night jokes, novelty coffee mugs, or cocktail-napkin geopolitics. That time has passed. What was once absurd is now merely familiar, and what is familiar has become operational. Greenland is not the story. Greenland is the tell. A tell, in poker, is not the big move. It is the unconscious gesture that reveals th...

Donald Trump didn’t hijack the Republican Party; he just drove off in a vehicle that was already idling with the keys in the ignition and a “For Sale” sign in the window. He saw, long before the pundits did, that the party of Lincoln had quietly transformed into a franchise operation for resentment — a loyalty rewards program for people who believed history had wronged them. All he had to do was slap his name on the hood, crank up the grievance engine, and start selling hats. For decades, the...

Donald Trump didn’t hijack the Republican Party; he just drove off in a vehicle that was already idling with the keys in the ignition and a “For Sale” sign in the window. He saw, long before the pundits did, that the party of Lincoln had quietly transformed into a franchise operation for resentment — a loyalty rewards program for people who believed history had wronged them. All he had to do was slap his name on the hood, crank up the grievance engine, and start selling hats. For decades, the...

America does not believe in fate — unless fate comes in the form of a bar chart. Nothing thrills this country more than a good poll, preferably one with trends, arrows, and a double-digit swing that suggests redemption is just one statistical miracle away. We may no longer trust our elections, our courts, our news, our neighbors, or even our thermostats — but we trust polls. Polls are the national pacifier. Polls are democracy’s emotional support spreadsheet. Some countries cling to ancient m...

America does not believe in fate — unless fate comes in the form of a bar chart. Nothing thrills this country more than a good poll, preferably one with trends, arrows, and a double-digit swing that suggests redemption is just one statistical miracle away. We may no longer trust our elections, our courts, our news, our neighbors, or even our thermostats — but we trust polls. Polls are the national pacifier. Polls are democracy’s emotional support spreadsheet. Some countries cling to ancient m...

[Editor’s Note: This essay marks a shift in Mr. Dunneagin Speaks from documenting events to naming the governing logic that connects them. It was prompted by recent episodes of state violence—including the killing of civilians by federal agents in Minneapolis—that made unmistakable how fear, narrative preemption, and force now operate together as tools of domestic governance, with implications far beyond any single city. What follows is not an escalation of rhetoric, nor a departure from earl...

[Editor’s Note: This essay marks a shift in Mr. Dunneagin Speaks from documenting events to naming the governing logic that connects them. It was prompted by recent episodes of state violence—including the killing of civilians by federal agents in Minneapolis—that made unmistakable how fear, narrative preemption, and force now operate together as tools of domestic governance, with implications far beyond any single city. What follows is not an escalation of rhetoric, nor a departure from earl...

A Note to Listeners Before we begin the work of this new season, I want to pause—not to analyze, but to acknowledge. What follows is not a policy argument, not a forecast, and not a debate brief. It is something rarer in public discourse: a moment of recognition. Because if you are listening to this, chances are you are tired. Not uninformed. Not disengaged. Tired. We have just come through a year in which the language of inevitability was everywhere. You were told—repeatedly—that democracy i...

A Note to Listeners Before we begin the work of this new season, I want to pause—not to analyze, but to acknowledge. What follows is not a policy argument, not a forecast, and not a debate brief. It is something rarer in public discourse: a moment of recognition. Because if you are listening to this, chances are you are tired. Not uninformed. Not disengaged. Tired. We have just come through a year in which the language of inevitability was everywhere. You were told—repeatedly—that democracy i...

There is a persistent American belief that democratic collapse is noisy—that it announces itself with uniforms, barricades, and emergency broadcasts. History suggests otherwise. Modern democracies more often fail quietly, through accommodation rather than assault, with institutions continuing to function even as their purpose is hollowed out. What distinguishes Donald Trump’s second term is not merely the scope of the damage, but its speed. In less than a year, practices once treated as aberr...

There is a persistent American belief that democratic collapse is noisy—that it announces itself with uniforms, barricades, and emergency broadcasts. History suggests otherwise. Modern democracies more often fail quietly, through accommodation rather than assault, with institutions continuing to function even as their purpose is hollowed out. What distinguishes Donald Trump’s second term is not merely the scope of the damage, but its speed. In less than a year, practices once treated as aberr...