Member-only story

The Second Coming. Part Two: The Ascendance.

Trump’s second term has not yet begun, but the warnings and dire predictions are already rife, but will Trump really be the dictator many expect, and if so, how far will he go? Here I look at the some of the psychology that looks to explain the man, his resurrection, & how he might rule.

Peter Winn-Brown
25 min readDec 19, 2024
Image of man’s hand being raised to swear an oath.
As Trump might say, ‘Oaths are for pussies!’

‘This reminded me of when Trump forced Sean Spicer to go out in 2017 and say, Trump had had the largest inaugural crowd ever, which we could see was not true from photos. And a point people made was that this kind of thing is a loyalty test. Making people do something that they know is going to humiliate them, that they know is going to go against both their values and the way they’ve traditionally seen themselves and acted in the world. And the Gaetz Pick in particular felt like that on a larger scale felt like Trump forcing this on Senate Republicans who do not like Matt Gaetz, who view him with complete contempt and forcing on the Republican party more broadly, Trump could have picked a, a hatchet man whose name nobody knew.’

Ezra Klein in conversation with Anne Applebaum onThe Ezra Klein Show.’

The ascendance

--

--

Peter Winn-Brown
Peter Winn-Brown

Written by Peter Winn-Brown

The past can illuminate the present if we shine the light of inquiry openly, truthfully, with attention to detail & care for the salient facts.

Responses (15)