Op-Ed by Mark Rein-Hagen
It is time to embrace an uncomfortable truth. Trump is not an aberration; he is historic. As in, a maker of history. As in, someone who changes the course of a nation.
Donald’s second inaugural address was a spectacle as grandiose as the man himself—a gaudy, roaring, unapologetic assertion of everything his supporters adore and his adversaries fear. He was triumphant, defiant, and messianic, casting himself as both the architect and the vessel of an American revival. To his followers, he was a rockstar prophet; to his enemies, a self-anointed emperor. To everyone, in this great postmodern “attention economy” of ours, he was and will remain utterly inescapable.
Gone was any pretense of humility or propriety. Trump’s declaration to “end the deep state” and “reshape the vast federal government” around his vision was breathtaking in its scope. His raucous jingoism thundered with promises of retaking the Panama Canal, rechristening the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and dispatching federal troops to the border and to every major city. Every syllable dripped with theatrical bravado, a quality that has always defined his brand of populism and will certainly define his place in history.
But here’s the thing: whether you view Trump as a savior or a scourge, there’s no denying the truth that looms over this moment like a cathedral shadow: Donald Trump is, objectively, the most consequential American (or, heck, global) figure of his era. Of our era. And we’re stuck with him now.
Let’s be clear—this isn’t about righteousness or villainy. It’s about sheer gravitational pull. For a decade, Trump has dominated not just the Republican Party but the entirety of American political discourse. He isn’t an anomaly or a fluke, nor is he misunderstood. After years of relentless media scrutiny, voter revolts, and one “epically failed” presidency, Trump is back, not diminished but magnified. He’s a force of history, and that force has exposed the Democrats’ most tragic flaw: our insistence on treating him as a deviancy. Because that he isn’t. This avatar of the age of Tiktok proved it by getting reelected after trying to steal the election. He is the game changer.
The Bitter Lesson for Democrats
We libturds, bless our deluded hearts, have clung to the comforting illusion that Trump is a grotesque blip on America’s timeline—a mistake that could be corrected with enough fact-checks, outrage, and appeals to decency. But Trump isn’t a mistake: He’s a mirror.
His survival through scandals, impeachments, and even a criminal indictment isn’t just a testament to his resilience—it’s a reflection of his unparalleled ability to connect with a large swath of the American public. Trump speaks a language of grievance and triumph, of “us versus them,” that resonates deeply with his base and leaves his opponents spluttering platitudes.
Trump isn’t a mistake: He’s a mirror
For the left, Trump’s re-election is a rancid stew of humiliation, served cold under the ice-covered Capitol dome. Yet within this defeat lies a brutal clarity: The left can no longer win by dismissing Trump as an illegitimate anomaly or by hoping the courts will sideline him. Trump and his MAGA movement aren’t outside the system—they are the system’s consequence, as its loudest expression.
The political system in the USA has long been for sale, corrupt and decadent, now it is completely openly defiled and despoiled, run by a man who has utterly no shame about it or who he is. And they love him for it.
The Trump Paradox
Trump is divisive, but so were many of the “great” presidents. Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” and then his election precipitated a bloody civil war. FDR said, “Judge me by the enemies I have made” and proved his mettle. And let’s be honest, Trump is nothing if not a virtuoso at making enemies. He has mastered social media like Roosevelt mastered radio, using his platforms not to unite but to galvanize and attack. His base grows stronger with every punch he throws, and his remarkable resilience in the face of legal and moral quagmires is unmatched.
But here’s where the Trump myth fractures. Great presidents don’t just divide—they break the system and then create a new one. A new era.
Lincoln led a new political party to shatter the corrupted system and then led the nation to a rebirth. FDR polarized a traumatized country but ushered in an era of unprecedented unity and prosperity. Trump, by contrast, broke the system himself and is now clearly rebuilding it in his own image.
The man thrives on perpetual conflict and so creates more of it to help him reap change. He is like the alter-ego of Obama in that way. His second term promises a cascade of pitched battles—on immigration, on the rule of law, on education, on America’s place in the world. He might shift the terms of debate, but can he create a new level of national understanding? Can he or does he even want to reunite us after breaking us apart like the other greats did?
What is his era going to be like, can we have any hope at all? Could it be that he will tear apart what is already broken and allow something new and better to emerge?
A Cracked Mirror
Trump is the inevitable consequence of a Democratic Party that has grown too comfortable assuming it knows what the populace needs without actually engaging with them. He is the backlash to a politics of complacency, one that believed it could win with any candidate, regardless of connection to the people. The Democrats created the vacuum, and Trump filled it—with more than a little help from Republicans who fed the flames.
Trump embodies an America desperately clinging to a fading era, longing to cement itself as historic before it slips into irrelevance. He isn’t just a political figure; he’s a reflection of a broken system, a cracked mirror showing us the rot, the grime, and the grotesque reality of a nation grappling with its own moral and cultural decay.
There are those who believe we’re witnessing the final chapter of the American experiment, the twilight of the Republic, from which there is no return. As a friend put it, “The Republic is desecrated and destroyed. The fascists have won. And I am not being hyperbolic.” But this despair, I think, is premature. Trump’s presidency is a storm, yes, but it is a storm that burns through its fuel too quickly. His tendency to overreach—pushing too far, too soon, too fast—will reveal its consequences in time. The next two years, and especially the midterms, will tell us just how much this once-great nation is willing to endure before it pushes back.
The Ukraine Paradox
And who knows? When it comes to Ukraine and Russian imperialism, Trump might surprise us yet. Putin, once a master of leveraging Trump’s admiration, seems increasingly out of step with Trump’s new dynamic. He hasn’t adapted to the evolving international protocol of appeasing Trump’s ego or bending the knee, leaving him isolated from the new Caesar’s will. In fact, Trump seems to have shed whatever intimidation he once felt toward Putin—perhaps even relishing the power dynamic now tipped in his favor.
One suspects the Don no longer fears leaked tapes of showers, golden or not.
Trump has demanded that the war in Ukraine must end. Yet Putin, unable to retreat without losing face—and likely his grip on power—cannot give Trump the one thing he craves: a deal, a compromise he can sell as a personal triumph.
The result? We may witness Trump doubling down in Ukraine, if only to impose his will and prove he can succeed where others faltered. Whether his actions are driven by a genuine belief in democracy, a desire for world peace, or simply his own ego—at this point, does it even matter? If it means Ukraine survives to fight another day, let him have his victory lap.
The Road Ahead
Trump’s second term is not a historical divergence; it’s a turning point. His America is one where spectacle ‘trumps’ substance, where division fuels power, and where grievances overshadow aspirations. But his opponents have a chance to meet this moment, not by trying to “out-normal” him, but by rallying their own transformative vision of America; by coming up with a well-crafted powerful and lyrical response as great as the one that has taken over the minds of half the nation.
If they don’t, Trump’s loud, messy, chaotic vision of greatness may well become the only game in town. Heck, it already is, the question is will it remain the only circus around still selling out. [We need a better circus fellow libturds!].
Prepare for chaotic greatness. Likely a greatness you won’t entirely like, or like at all, but one which just might lead to a new era of reform that rebalances the republic, restores democracy, and puts limits on the power of the rich.
If/when he turns on Elon, he might turn on all of them. And if he doesn’t, the country might very well turn on him. We can only hope.
Op-Ed by Mark Rein-Hagen
