A strange illiberalism about the return of Trump

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Even the anti-Donald Trump graffiti on the streets of West Hollywood is sparse and half-hearted now. Eight years ago, California was a “protest” state. In the year A visitor in 2025 will encounter a different mood: resignation, boredom with the subject, among ideological Democrats and, at times, a growing curiosity about America’s economic potential under presidential control.

There is a great deal of liberal shirk going on. After Trump secured his victory in November, the world is watching, and it’s natural. You can’t be angry all the time. In the autocracy of 20th century Europe, people without a conscience often did what is known as “internal migration”. In other words, instead of running away or fighting, they went to private life as the political environment darkened. Such isolation is smart, not weak.

Don’t overdo it, that’s all. I feel like liberals have allowed a healthy acceptance of electoral reality to hope that Trump’s second term won’t be as bad. please.

Three things have slowed Trump’s influence in the past. None of them apply now. First, he wanted to be re-elected. This made the moderate voter willing to move up to a point, but no more. (The speed with which he rejected the weak theocratic project of 2025 last summer showed just how much he wants to avoid unnecessary populism, which is supposed to be cruel.) Unless something happens about the 22nd Amendment, Trump is now free from natural political discipline. As the race to replace him begins immediately, the interpretation of the middlemen is of little use. Second-term presidents have two years.

What else is there? His first administration had enough old-school Republicans — Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson — to curb his excessive power. It is now spoiled for officials and cabinet secretaries in the Maga mould. Tulsi Gabbard may soon become the head of the US intelligence agency. There’s nothing stoic or urbane about erasing that.

After all, the world was stable enough to absorb a certain amount of chaos in 2017. Inflation was low and Europe was at peace. The last major epidemic in the Western world was a hundred years ago. It’s a very weak double for Trump to drop his tariffs and foreign evasion this time around.

We could continue in this vein, citing both practical and contingent reasons for concern. We can mention the federal judiciary, which is more hated by Trump now than when he first took office. Will it limit him? We can mention that he will be 82 years old when he stops. In the past, he had to think about the legal exposure, potential and social reputation he would have in his post-presidential life. Will there be such a reason now?

But in the end, my argument – and a lot of political opinion – comes down to instinct. There is a hubris in the maga-world right now that wasn’t there in 2017. Talk about massive economic growth, territorial conquest, planting the American flag on Mars: if that doesn’t make you proud before the fall, because it’s achievable, then we have different antennas. (I hope I’m wrong.) In all democracies, nothing is more dangerous than when a party is riding high on new electoral success. The difference with the US is the size of the foreign stakes. In the year Think of George W. Bush in his historically good midterms in 2002, or Lyndon Johnson’s progress in Vietnam after 1964, when the echoes of the vote could be seen from space.

Yes, election war is impossible under Trump. (Though events can push leaders into uncharacteristic actions. Remember, Bush’s understanding before 9/11 was that do nothing was isolation.) Perhaps, a tariff strike would set off an uncontrollable world reaction, or drive the economy. It’s too hot, otherwise the Constitution will be at breaking point as Trump seeks to reward friends and impress enemies. At the very least, there will be internal agitations when it becomes clear that the public debt, urban sprawl, and other American issues cannot be fixed by techno-libertarians.

Regardless of the chaos to come, the relative anxiety about it is as palpable as it was eight years ago. In the year Here’s what the line for liberalism looks like in 2025: We overdid the panic over Trump last time, and we’re wrong again. Half of these ideas don’t survive a little intellectual scrutiny. The shock has been Unless the two charges – seeking to overturn the election results – do not count in any way. Also, if the first term isn’t that bad, why is the second supposed to be the same? Trump and his movement are a serious concern right now. His opening speech this week was terrifying in both vision and speech.

But that doesn’t mean people who don’t like Trump should accept the man’s advice to “fight, fight, fight.” Protest and activism have become dead ends for Democrats. But if cheating is bad, so is confidence. The Liberals’ 2024 election lesson was, or should have been, narrow: stop electing useless candidates. This has somehow escalated into a broader crisis of confidence in whether their assessment of Trump as a threat is correct. It’s never going to be fun to be proven in the coming years.

janan.ganesh@ft.com