How Trump Became the Dominant American of Our Age

Ta-Nehisi Coates: “Trump’s quarter millennial—featuring overt buffoonery and historic grifting as neighbors—was characteristic of his two presidencies. But both emanate from something his opponents have never quite grasped. Trump is not just the most acquisitive politician of his era, he is also the most visionary, gifted with the ability to appreciate his country’s darkest pathologies and profit from them.”

“Perhaps more ­importantly, Trump understood that the inanities and shibboleths of this country’s alleged institutional guardians, its senators, lawyers, elite universities, and free press, were little more than that, and the guardrails of this liberal democracy were illusions easily dispelled by one who would dare. One such as Trump.”