Back in 2016 - the year when apparently, we were jolted off the progressive forward-looking timeline into what seems to be a dark dystopian reality scripted by Alan Moore - I was speaking to a colleague about the recently inaugurated President Donald Trump.
He was obviously insane, I said, behaving like a spoiled child who is constantly being told he cannot have ice cream for dinner by his parents.
I thought that we were looking at a Stalin-like character - paranoid, fanatical and deeply dangerous.
Kaiser Trump
For her part, she had been reading a biography of Kaiser Wilhelm and the parallels, she explained, were eerie.
Both of them erratic and polarising figures who would tread their own path, regardless of advice to the contrary. Wilhelm's approach to diplomacy and his ego-led aggression certainly play its part in the decisions that led to the First World War and the slaughter of thousands.
Then it was an intellectual exercise - after all Trump’s win had been unexpected. Despite placing allies in some key roles, he did not have free reign in 2016 as grown-ups in Congress and at the Pentagon were not going to allow him to start WWIII.
Now?
It is all frighteningly real.
The Madness of King Trump
Since re-election Trump has run riot. He has managed to alienate allies in NATO, side with Putin, start trade wars, and escalate tensions in the Middle East, seemingly unaware that striking a match near a bone-dry haystack has consequences.
At this point, the Kaiser comparison falls away—and the shadows of a far more infamous German leader begin to loom.
Where do you even start with the loudly trumpeted "Alligator Alcatraz"?
The pride with which this was announced was truly sickening. Cages with bunks to imprison people for the 'crime' of being undocumented? This is unlikely to be the last. I suspect we’ll see more of these spring up across the U.S.
MAGA (well, Laura Loomer at least) have been 'joking' about feeding immigrants to the sharp-toothed denizens of the swamp, a nasty echo of Trump’s own words about alligator-filled moats back in 2019. That is not just tasteless - it has a nasty tang of something that someone has actually thought about.
Concentration camps (increasingly this is what this camp seems to be) were usually not boasted about - and certainly I have never heard about proudly wearing merch – albeit unofficial!
There is little underhand about this - the US seem genuinely excited about the rapid descent into a dystopian nightmare.
All Things Big and Beautiful
Of course, as is almost always the way of these things, when it emerges that none of this will benefit Americans it is likely to be far too late to do anything about it.
The so-called “Big Beautiful Act” — a grotesquely rebranded budget reconciliation bill passed on July 7 — will disproportionately impact the very Americans still cheering Trump on: those on low wages, the disabled, seniors, and veterans.
The impact of the measures will fall after the midterms - but the fallout begins now.
In the past such unpopular policies, especially those that hit the Red States would lead to a rout of Republicans in the mid-terms - but the truth is that none of us can be sure as the cult of Trumpism is so strong that it may not matter to those who will suffer.
Perhaps most chilling of all is Trump’s rhetoric following Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York Democratic mayoral primary.
Not content with the usual slurs, Trump questioned Mamdani’s citizenship and publicly threatened him with arrest—simply for opposing ICE operations in his city.
Eyes Wide Shut
If leaders can threaten opponents with arrest and still gain applause, democracy becomes theatre—not governance.
We’ve seen where this road ends. History has shown us.
The question now is: will we act in time, or will we once again stumble into catastrophe with our eyes wide shut?
As ever, I want to hear your views. Are there chinks of light in the darkness? Am I being overly pessimistic? Please let me know 👇👇👇
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