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Trump will be the first president in American history who is effectively above the law. The Supreme Court’s fateful immunity ruling last summer allows presidents to sell pardons for cash, to exchange ambassadorships for personal favors, to take bribes and kickbacks for a variety of things so long as it can be tied to an “official act.” Congress could theoretically impeach Trump for any of this, but the experience of his first term suggests that it won’t. His subordinates are demanding loyalty to the president as a guiding principle for the executive branch for the next four years; Republican lawmakers are eagerly pledging their fealty to him.
In exchange for their crucial support in last year’s presidential election, the president-elect has also given his blessing to a small coterie of right-wing Silicon Valley oligarchs who bankrolled his reelection as they seek to purge and reshape both the federal government and American democracy in their shared image. He is also giving them de facto control over policy decisions that could help enrich them even further. This government will be for billionaires, of billionaires, and by billionaires.
Americans chose the first Trump administration almost by accident in 2016; they chose it willfully in 2024. It is easy to be cynical about the Constitution and the Framers and their relevance to contemporary American life. “This will truly be the golden age of America,” Trump told his supporters in his victory speech in November. What it will likely be instead is a second gilded age, and the country may be unrecognizable by the time it ends.
In exchange for their crucial support in last year’s presidential election, the president-elect has also given his blessing to a small coterie of right-wing Silicon Valley oligarchs who bankrolled his reelection as they seek to purge and reshape both the federal government and American democracy in their shared image. He is also giving them de facto control over policy decisions that could help enrich them even further. This government will be for billionaires, of billionaires, and by billionaires.
Americans chose the first Trump administration almost by accident in 2016; they chose it willfully in 2024. It is easy to be cynical about the Constitution and the Framers and their relevance to contemporary American life. “This will truly be the golden age of America,” Trump told his supporters in his victory speech in November. What it will likely be instead is a second gilded age, and the country may be unrecognizable by the time it ends.
Donald Trump Is Back to Usher In the Second Gilded Age
The president-elect’s first term was a circus of self-dealing and plutocratic capture. His second term may end up making that look like an innocent era.