At this point they’re actively hostile to all American Institutions that keeps them in check and are also actively hostile to the population itself. Trump’s previous Term was comparatively tame and even if he won in 2020 it would’ve been tamer than this. This is pretty much war being waged against the working class by the rich.
Do these people believe that they’ll be able to assert total control of all government institutions by 2028? Or is it some form of fascist self destruction ritual? Because right now even the chuds are having second thoughts about their party.
I’m less and less convinced there is one. Sure, there was one. There were actually many! Libertarian think tanks have been brainstorming ways to cut the federal government down to the military for decades, the theocrats have been working on their Dominion theory, the war hawks have been planning their wars against Iran and China, but the people calling the shots have no idea what they’re doing. They’re just acting out the most dumbed-down versions of those factions’ propaganda because that’s where their comprehension meets its limits. The entire edifice is becoming increasingly unmoored from reality and they’re all busy acting out their fever dreams in real life. It’s pure nihilism; destroy for destruction’s sake. And it’ll continue until it hits a resource constraint; until there’s a crisis because the ports are empty or the market finally crashes because the smart money’s done ripping the copper out of the walls and needs foreign safe havens to escape to, or someone’s itchy trigger finger starts a conflict that the country cannot win, and that’s when gravity’ll kick back in and everyone will feel the empty air beneath their feet and the scrambling will start.
I think this is the key. Previous admins were all reined in by the directives of the deep state (which is a thing, if you can get over the left/right synonym game). But the deep state is faltering, both from internal contradictions and from Trump’s administration which has campaigned on an anti-swamp platform. That’s opened the floodgates for all sorts of new agendas. Deep state/neocon solidarity has been replaced with a free-for-all. Let a hundred flowers bloom and all that.
Except Trump is a weak ruler, and he’s surrounded himself with scheming viziers. Each of them has their own agenda that they want to implement. Each thinks that they can get what they want if they gain Trump’s favor. Trump is not mentally prepared for this. It’s not that he’s necessarily senile, and it’s not that he’s unused to the attention. Rather, the game being played is just way over his head. He’s a reality TV huckster, not a geopolitical grand strategist.
But I would caution against confusing executive branch gridlock with sheer incompetence. The Trump admin is not a monolith. Some of the people around Trump are quite competent. Miran and Bessent stand out as especially dangerous. If either of them manage to consolidate power, there could be trouble.
The thing about the scheming viziers is that I don’t think any of them are capable of ruling. The whole thing seems to be held together by Trump’s - for lack of a better term - charisma, and even Elon Musk, who seems to be somehow managing the same trick at Tesla, can’t match it. And, given the way that Trump changes his mind so often, if anyone with an actual agenda wants to fully implement it, they’ll have to get him out of the way, but then they won’t be able to fill the vacuum.
No, I don’t think so. I think that by the end of his term, if he makes it that long, Trump will basically just be a figurehead. A triumvirate of Bessent, Miran, and Vance would be more than capable of ruling. White House reporting already makes it clear that Trump’s wishy-washiness on tariffs has basically depended on whether he spends the day talking to Navarro (cuckoo Gordon Chang type guy) or Bessent. At the same time, the deep state and Wall Street are both looking for a steady hand at the helm, which Trump isn’t right now.
Allegedly, Elon’s departure from the WH is due to an argument with Bessent. If that does turn out to be the case, it wouldn’t surprise me if the deep state and Wall street throw their weight behind Bessent, who then allies with Vance to rope in the Tech Right. Elon could be a wildcard that either falls in line or splits with the rest of the Tech right. Wouldn’t be surprised if in a year we see tweets calling him “CCP Elon”.
Yeah it was the case in 2016 also that Trump just listens to the last person he’s talked to. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bessent comes out on top. I’ve already seen him portrayed as “the adult in the room,” especially after this recent spat with Musk.
Any idea what wing he represents? I know he worked for a hedge fund. I don’t think of him as one of the Thiel-backed tech bros though