The imperial trappings accompanying the presidency have long been accumulating. Motorcades, Secret Service details, Air Force One, Hail to the Chief, the announcement of the president upon entering the House chamber with an escort to give the annual State of the Union address, are among the things which set presidents apart from the populace. Under Biden, all this was inverted. Foreign leaders showed him no respect. NASCAR fans chanted something that sounded something like “Let’s go Brandon.” The White House was transformed into Weekend at Bernie’s and administration spokespersons routinely and shamelessly spun transparent lies. Biden was an embarrassment, not a leader. Kamala only made matters exponentially worse. The longing for normalcy, competency, and honesty became intense. The rebound effect from the Biden administration only contributed to the Trump cult’s ascendancy, bringing it to fruition perhaps faster and stronger than it might otherwise have developed.
Thanks to Trump’s popularity, the song Y.M.C.A. has finally made it to number one on the Billboard charts after 45 years. The Trump dance and hats are all the sorts of juvenile, high school level actions accompanying an imperial cult. No one would have considered such a thing with Reagan 40 years ago. The dignity and formality of Reagan, appropriate for his era, has been superseded by Trump’s informality and brashness, necessary traits for the monumental tasks, past and future, History has assigned him as he leads a populist revolution far broader than Reagan’s coalition.
These emblematic displays comprise methods of communicating group membership , similar to displaying the American flag or wearing motorcycle gang colors. These represent displays of patriotism, allegiance to the national welfare over individual advancement. Few proudly display their state flag. Nor does any American enemy target the state of Iowa, it is only the entire nation which is singled out, by our patriots and enemies. Patriotism increases in concert with existential threats. Witness displays of the flag after 9/11. Or the numbers then enlisting in the military to fight the global war on terror. The celebratory gestures now appearing represent a sense of relief after decades of oppression by powerful economic forces. Similar to the fireworks and jubilation after the British surrender at Yorktown, displays reiterated annually on the Fourth of July.
Contrast the imperial cult surrounding Trump with how Reagan was treated. It can unequivocally be stated that Reagan was, in the Roman sense, “afterwards deified.” After death emperors were depicted differently on Roman coinage, with their head tilted slightly upward to signify deification status. The treatment was analogous to sainthood in the Catholic church. Reagan was deeply mourned by the original base of the Tea Party, which evolved into the MAGA movement. Thousands silently waited hours to pay their respects as Reagan laid in state in the Capitol. Crowds stood silent along the route his casket took departing California for Washington, and again to the airport for his final flight home to California, timed so he would be interned at his library in concert with the setting sun. More crowds lined the final route to his tomb.
Reagan’s funeral was 20 years ago. America is a far different nation than in 2004. It has been tested, and once again displayed the strength to endure after having peered over the edge of the existential precipice. Americans pulled together as they did during the Revolution, Civil War, the Depression, WWII, and 9/11. And as they again did on November 5. Reagan’s deification came after death. Trump’s is now coalescing during life. The posthumous deification of Trump will obviously be profound, but almost an afterthought. It is already upon us. His funeral will prompt an outpouring of grief and reminiscences of the battles he led us through. Those who lived through Trump's era will regale their grandchildren with tales.
Reagan’s posthumous deification is actively advancing. He was a complex individual, able to communicate great things while humbly concealing a profound intellect. His humility (not shared by Trump) contributed greatly to his success. Too many would-be scholars/historians have approached this humble leader intent upon confirmation of their biases. Objectively, he was our Caesar, and nothing less. Trump will soon enjoy similar status, for similar, yet different, reasons. He is our Augustus, the great adminstrator who reforms the collapsed democracy.
The stimulus for an imperial cult.
The difference between Trump’s greater adoration than Reagan’s, and especially adoration during life, is the trauma the country experienced during his era, the degree of existential crisis that his countrymen confronted. Reagan threw down the gauntlet, sparking the first effort to make America great again (a line Trump stole from Reagan). But under Reagan the nation was not teetering on the edge of an existential crisis. Reagan provided hope. Hope for a return to normalcy and better times, unlike the malaise experienced under Carter. Unless Trump prevailed in 2024, prospects for America’s continuation were dim. For those who had lost hope, Trump represented a lifeline to the future. Many of his supporters remain pessimistic, convinced his opponents will eventually prevail and will not willingly cede power, wallowing in a species of low-grade PTSD. Historical comprehension shows them to be wrong. Political and economic forces will soon combine to generate a withering of opposition to MAGAism. The country will move on from the dark days of Obama/Biden and become preoccupied with new challenges and repairing the damage.
Monarchs, more often than not, claimed to rule by divine right. The king was essentially a divinity on earth. In many (most?) civilizations in their mature form, the monarch was a divinity himself, e.g., Japanese emperors, or Montezuma — considered a manifestation of the Sun by his subjects.
America began as a revolt against monarchy. Having tried democracy, and experienced its unique tyrannies, we turn to a neo-monarchy to restore liberties stolen by an oligarchic cabal that bankrolled its political servants. With both monarchy and imperialism (bracketing opposite ends of over a millennium of societal development) comes an initial desire for a dynasty, a means of perpetuating a proven brand, a known entity. When government is running smoothly, a continuation is desired. This desire arises spontaneously from the people. Those named Trump have an advantage over all other presidential contenders in the years ahead. Speculation centers around Donald Jr. perpetuating the lineage, but it appears far more likely the next Trump to eventually occupy the Oval Office will be RNC co-chair Lara Trump. Do not be surprised if Trump soon moves her into a more prominent role, perhaps into Rubio’s soon to be vacant Senate seat.
Two centuries of accumulated baggage must now go.
The Constitution’s system of checks and balances was created in response to monarchical abuses, a means of preventing the concentration of power into the hands of one individual. It marked an epochal change, ushering in the end of the European monarchies. The downside to that was nothing could get done. It was a system designed to prevent the government from doing too much. It essentially gave veto power to both the legislature and the executive. Which is fine if you are an orthodox libertarian. The problems which arose include a legislature purchased by special interests and the accumulated weight of a leviathan bureaucracy. The two work hand in hand, symbiotic creatures. The immediate necessity now is to eliminate those two power centers. Which checks and balances prevent. Trump’s historical assignment is to find workarounds.
The battle lines are now drawn. Two powerful forces prepare to engage head on. The special interests and their bureaucracy now confront the populist masses. The election was merely the first phase, now comes the battle in Congress, especially the Senate. The founders foresaw the likelihood of monarchical tyranny and designed a system of federalism, with a relatively weak federal government coordinating largely independent states. We know how that eventually worked out. The opposite of what they intended was the result. Methods of diverting around the checks and balances must now be devised to produce the necessary reforms.
Trump is playing good cops, bad cops
Matt Gaetz was the designated weapon of destruction for targeting some of the most substantial problems. There was no downside to his fleeting Attorney General nomination, which has been described as a shock and awe opening salvo against the department which was Trump’s designated stalker for four years. Elon Musk, RFK Jr., etc. have their assigned roles. The Swamp foiled Gaetz’s assignment, so Trump must find an end run around the opposition. (There is no way for us to know if Trump planned the Gaetz nomination to fail, to absorb some of the Swamp’s finite political capital in gnawing away at Trump’s nominees.) Pam Bondi is unquestionably a swamp creature. (HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.) She is also highly overrated as an attorney. The Potomac swamp will gladly bless an Everglades swamp Attorney General. Either Trump is clueless regarding Bondi’s background, or he sees this as an asset. Those he is installing at the tier below her in the DOJ are ringers, sent in to mean business. Trump is packing the DOJ with stern men, regardless of who stands behind the counter as Attorney General. At this time it is unclear if Trump is being shrewd or is screwed. The Bondi nomination could represent part of a pattern: Trump appoints a swamp creature to head a department and gain Senate approval (e.g., Rubio at State), while his second tier appointments are there to implement the MAGA agenda. Or what he is doing by appointing RFK Jr. to head the massive HHS bureaucracy, while appointing a vaccine cheerleader as Surgeon General, with shared responsibility for a staff of 6,500 at the U.S. Public Health Service vs. a total over 80,000 overall in the remainder of HHS. Some of his high profile nominees are clearly intended to be window dressing, with the White House largely running policy remotely. Trump is a manipulative SOB. And he’s our SOB.
When a vassal state leader has the temerity to criticize Trump and his followers, it falls to his consiglieri Elon Musk to mete out the discipline.
Perhaps the Gaetz nomination was an opening salvo, which although initially parried by the Swamp forces, may bite them in the end. Trump may have placed himself in a win-win situation with the nomination. Gaetz is now free for other assignments, which we may not immediately learn. How about Special Counsel Matthew Gaetz, targeting voting fraud or other aspects of the retribution which must be meted out if the MAGA movement is to prevail? A number of Biden’s federal prosecutors are now retaining criminal defense counsel, for good reasons. Many possibilities are open for how Gaetz might be put to use.
Trump apparently (and with good reason) feels that if he appointed only scorched earthers, Congress would mount an impenetrable defense. Trump’s nominations are a mix of bomb throwers and those acceptable to the Swamp, clearly by design. Moving too far, too fast might not be the best tactic for overcoming Senate resistance.
Trump adroitly uses flattery with his opponents and offers a warm embrace to those converting to his side (“except for Rosie O’Donnell”). Don’t be surprised if in coming weeks or months he lays it on thick for any Senate RINOs surrendering to Team Trump. The list is long of former Trump opponents now tightly held within his orbit: J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, RFK Jr., Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, etc. who all originally denounced Trump in the strongest terms. Those still afflicted with incurable Stage 4 TDS grow increasingly irrelevant with each passing month.
America’s innocence was buried with Reagan. He was our Caesar, the great military leader appearing at the end of the republic who consolidated the empire into its near final geographical dimensions. Reagan eliminated the Soviet adversary which had been hanging over America’s head since the end of WWII. Caesar and Reagan were populists who both served two terms. Caesar decentralized Rome’s government, cut the number on the dole in half, and placed the nation back on the gold standard. Under Reaganomics, power was returned to the states, welfare rolls were slashed, and consideration was given to returning to the gold standard. These policies of both addressed the accumulated negative detritus of aging, centralized democracies. Democracies go hand in hand with a) overbearing bureaucracies, b) welfare states, c) the inflationary destruction wrought by fiat currencies, and d) ultimate oligarchic control over the levers of power. For daring to confront these issues (especially the latter) Julius Caesar paid the ultimate price. Over 20 centuries later, we still know the date of his death. We still use the calendrical reform he instituted and still honor the month of his birth with his name (July) and the month of his heir’s birth similarly (August).
Caesar’s calendrical reform of 45 B.C. (referred to as the year of confusion when the transition occurred) gave us the calendar we use today. Trump intends to finally eliminate Daylight Savings Time, which will constitute his own modest calendrical refrom. Why this simple, obvious reform has taken so long underscores Washington’s political and governing bankruptcy.
Reagan fulfilled the task his era demanded (as did Washington and Lincoln), but would have been out of place in the 21st Century as the final battle pitting populists against oligarchs was destined, followed by an imperial era approaching with soft footsteps. Reagan was content to vanquish the Soviet foe, no small accomplishment. Our century calls for competent administrators able to streamline America to prepare it for its imperial oversight, its destiny to herd the nations into peaceful coexistence over the next two centuries, and hopefully beyond.
These times demand far coarser leaders than a Reagan or a Thatcher. Less theoretical, more pragmatic and willing to wrestle in the gutter. Trump‘s Thanksgiving Day message to the nation reflected this:
Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the Radical Left Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country, but who have miserably failed, and will always fail, because their ideas and policies are so hopelessly bad that the great people of our Nation just gave a landslide victory to those who want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Don’t worry, our Country will soon be respected, productive, fair, and strong, and you will be, more than ever before, proud to be an American!
Most of the second half of the last century involved the Cold War and the final battle to define the ultimate dimensions of the emergent American Empire. Reagan battled communists for decades, first in Hollywood, then on the world stage. He perceived, as clearly as anyone, that system’s hostility to everything America represents. He carried a gun during his Hollywood years for protection against communist radicals, a practice he continued as president, regardless of his Secret Service detail. But he was at heart a romantic, in love with his wife, God, and nation. No matter what his critics might assert, Reagan was an intellectual, at home with men such as William F. Buckley Jr. and a student of Ludwig von Mises. As was Caesar, who was also the greatest orator his civilization produced.
Our century now calls for competent administrators, able to work the levers of a vast imperial machine and make the planes crisscross the globe on time. Able to discipline and herd the various nations using carrots and sticks, via negotiations, not arms. When Trump demands that the killing must stop, he stands astride History, looking back at two centuries of continuous warfare which began with Napoleon, the era all young civilizations experience, the period Spengler referred to as the Period of Contending States after the Chinese example. Weary of wars and their pointless human and economic destruction, the world longs for peace. Warring nations are now willing to set aside their differences to embrace a new objective.
But first, the final remnants of America’s internal communist and oligarchic collaboration must be put to bed. A task Trump just accomplished on one level with his defeat of Harris/Walz. Now he must confront their congressional fellow travelers and other Washington swamp denizens.
Reagan’s epitaph:
I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.