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Though the GOP could conceivably support something like the Muslim ban again — to say nothing of believing the 2020 election was stolen — it has moved to the center on economic issues. The party that longed to privatize Social Security no longer exists. The small government ambitions of former House speaker and onetime Republican wunderkind Paul D. Ryan still elicit rote mentions. But under Trump, politicians who might once have cared about ballooning deficits pushed through two of the largest stimulus packages in U.S. history.

After the election was supposedly stolen by Biden — something more than 60 percent of Republicans still claim — this Trump-ified version of the GOP worked with Democrats to pass major legislation, including a historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the $280 billion Chips and Science Act to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research. It was still an unhinged party, to be sure, but one that was more functional than anyone had reason to expect.

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Even on culture war issues, Trump’s ideological intensity tends to vary according to his mood. After DeSantis doubled down on fighting “wokeness” as his signature issue, Trump mocked him, saying, “I don’t like the term woke because I hear woke, woke, woke, you know, it’s like just a term they use. Half the people can’t even define it. They don’t know what it is.” Just hours after saying this, though, he went back to using the word himself and made no apparent attempt to define it.

This is not a weakness. It’s a strength. In a time when U.S. politics revolves around the intangibles of “who we are” rather than the policies we support, Trump’s authenticity — his honesty about being dishonest and his unapologetic prioritization of self over country — appeals to tens of millions of Americans. This is also what makes Trump uniquely dangerous. Just as he is not guided by ideology, he is also not limited by it. He has no evident belief in ideas, beyond the idea of himself and his own greatness.

This twisted authenticity and indifference to any greater cause or vision — combined with his charisma and comedic timing — is a sort of superpower. And there’s some hope in this. For better and worse, Trump is a once-in-a-lifetime political talent. It’s hard to imagine a confluence of events that would produce anyone comparable in the foreseeable future. This, at least, is a relief.

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In the final days of his campaign, Ron DeSantis was reduced to hoping he might win the four delegates awarded by the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was a precipitous fall from grace. Not so long ago, the Florida governor seemed a genuine contender, the rare Republican who could challenge Donald Trump’s iron grip on the party. But it turned out he could not, for reasons both simple and complicated.

The country’s past five presidents — Joe Biden, Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — could all claim some mix of charisma, charm and folksiness. They were candidates you could conceivably enjoy getting a beer with. But this was not anyone’s idea of the stiff and robotic DeSantis, who often appeared at a loss when compelled to make conversation with voters.

It was a reminder that, for all the ideological charge of the Trump era, some things wouldn’t change: In a presidential system, personality matters. Competence, while nice in theory, wasn’t nearly as appealing in practice. Trump didn’t pretend to be competent. But he was entertaining, unencumbered and unusually funny.

Yet what has made Trump truly unique is the paradoxical nature of his political orientation. To even call it an orientation might overstate matters, since it suggests coherence where there is none. Trumpism manages to be extreme without being dogmatic. Its ideological nimbleness might, at times, even be mistaken for moderation — or more precisely “unhinged moderation,” to use writer Matthew Yglesias’s memorable term.

Though the GOP could conceivably support something like the Muslim ban again — to say nothing of believing the 2020 election was stolen — it has moved to the center on economic issues. The party that longed to privatize Social Security no longer exists. The small government ambitions of former House speaker and onetime Republican wunderkind Paul D. Ryan still elicit rote mentions. But under Trump, politicians who might once have cared about ballooning deficits pushed through two of the largest stimulus packages in U.S. history.

After the election was supposedly stolen by Biden — something more than 60 percent of Republicans still claim — this Trump-ified version of the GOP worked with Democrats to pass major legislation, including a historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the $280 billion Chips and Science Act to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research. It was still an unhinged party, to be sure, but one that was more functional than anyone had reason to expect.

Even on culture war issues, Trump’s ideological intensity tends to vary according to his mood. After DeSantis doubled down on fighting “wokeness” as his signature issue, Trump mocked him, saying, “I don’t like the term woke because I hear woke, woke, woke, you know, it’s like just a term they use. Half the people can’t even define it. They don’t know what it is.” Just hours after saying this, though, he went back to using the word himself and made no apparent attempt to define it.

This is not a weakness. It’s a strength. In a time when U.S. politics revolves around the intangibles of “who we are” rather than the policies we support, Trump’s authenticity — his honesty about being dishonest and his unapologetic prioritization of self over country — appeals to tens of millions of Americans. This is also what makes Trump uniquely dangerous. Just as he is not guided by ideology, he is also not limited by it. He has no evident belief in ideas, beyond the idea of himself and his own greatness.

This twisted authenticity and indifference to any greater cause or vision — combined with his charisma and comedic timing — is a sort of superpower. And there’s some hope in this. For better and worse, Trump is a once-in-a-lifetime political talent. It’s hard to imagine a confluence of events that would produce anyone comparable in the foreseeable future. This, at least, is a relief.

QOSHE - Trump is authentic, appealing and funny. That’s what makes him dangerous. - Shadi Hamid
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Trump is authentic, appealing and funny. That’s what makes him dangerous.

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25.01.2024

Follow this authorShadi Hamid's opinions

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Though the GOP could conceivably support something like the Muslim ban again — to say nothing of believing the 2020 election was stolen — it has moved to the center on economic issues. The party that longed to privatize Social Security no longer exists. The small government ambitions of former House speaker and onetime Republican wunderkind Paul D. Ryan still elicit rote mentions. But under Trump, politicians who might once have cared about ballooning deficits pushed through two of the largest stimulus packages in U.S. history.

After the election was supposedly stolen by Biden — something more than 60 percent of Republicans still claim — this Trump-ified version of the GOP worked with Democrats to pass major legislation, including a historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the $280 billion Chips and Science Act to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research. It was still an unhinged party, to be sure, but one that was more functional than anyone had reason to expect.

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Even on culture war issues, Trump’s ideological intensity tends to vary according to his mood. After DeSantis doubled down on fighting “wokeness” as his signature issue, Trump mocked him, saying, “I don’t like the term woke because I hear woke, woke, woke, you know, it’s like just a term they use. Half the people can’t even define it. They don’t know what it is.” Just hours after saying this, though, he went back to using the word himself and made no apparent attempt to define it.

This is not a weakness. It’s a strength. In a time when U.S. politics revolves around the intangibles of “who we are” rather than the policies we support, Trump’s........

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