Trump's Second Term
Field notes from the operating system, now that the circus has become the government.
15 essays
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Gold Leaf Governance
Trump's gilded renovations aren't a matter of taste. They're a disclosure about how he understands power, ownership, and permanence.
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The Loyalty Economy
How Trump Turned Trade Policy into a System of Favor
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When Authority Follows Action
Tariffs, DOGE, and the courts look unrelated. They share one method: act first, locate the authority afterward.
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The Qualification Gap
What JD Vance Reveals About Who Governs Now
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World Stage, MAGA Script: Coercion Without Credibility
American power was strongest when it didn't need to prove it. Now allies are planning for a partner they can no longer count on.
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World Stage, MAGA Script: Willfulness as Governance
How impulse displaced architecture in American statecraft [This essay is Part 1 of a two-part series on Trump’s foreign policy method and its global consequences. Part 2, Coercion Without Credibility Publishes March 3.]
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Everything Trump, Still All at Once
How the Presidency Became a Souvenir Shop
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The Domestic Terrorist in the Oval Office
Trump and the Politics of Permissioned Violence
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The World Is Not a Real Estate Listing
Trump, Sovereignty, and the Politics of Cramping His Scene
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The Strongman Who Mistook Civilization for Decay
Trump calls Europe "decaying" because it stopped behaving like Trump—a worldview last held earnestly by the generals of 1914.
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Margin of Terror: Why America Keeps Betting on Bad Numbers
America trusts polls the way gamblers trust systems—and democracy keeps paying the house.
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What Trump Understood About the Republican Party
Trump didn't hijack the Republican Party. He drove off in a vehicle already idling, keys in the ignition and a "For Sale" sign in the window.
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World Stage, MAGA Script: The Ignorance Doctrine
The Know Nothings of the 1850s built a movement on proud ignorance. Trump rebooted them—and handed them the nuclear codes.
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Jim Crow 2.0 — Trump Style
The burning cross became a trending hashtag. America's oldest sickness didn't die—it found a business model.
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Dancing on Empty: Trumpism and the Choreography of Illiberal Power
Trumpism didn't invent the performance of hollowness. It perfected it—emptiness staged as rule, chaos scripted as destiny.