Jan. 20, 2025—yet another date that will live in American infamy.
History will not be kind. But that’s of little concern or consolation right now. America now has a criminal, celebrity-felon, autocratic president-predator. Nostradamus couldn’t have foreseen this.
America also has a diminished reputation. It comes with an execrable Capitol insurrection in defiance of Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat. Banana republics are still having the last laugh.
But more importantly, NATO, which considers America indispensable in world affairs, is worried. As are advocates of climate-change initiatives. Vulnerable immigrants are scared. DEI proponents are alarmed. Federal grant recipients are disturbed and distressed by chaotic executive orders. Anyone who equates higher U.S. tariffs with higher prices is anxious. Trump and nuclear codes is still a nightmarish rumination. Love letters from Little Kim won’t help.
In addition, those outside the malignant MAGA bubble are flat-out embarrassed. Trump’s lame cabinet nominations, presidential grifting and discomfiting, ego-driven manifest destiny over Canadian statehood, Greenland purchase or Gulf of Mexico name change have led ineluctably to domestic and international ridicule. Then add expansive immunity, a MAGA-enabling GOPster Congress, a Federalist Society-impacting SCOTUS and no re-election guard rails.
No, history will not be kind. Only kind of haunting. Reflective, no-longer-nostalgic Americans will be glad they weren’t around now when Retribution Republicans took back our country.