Image: watson/getty
analysis
The USA’s disastrous 250th birthday celebration is a symbol of an incompetent government – and a reason for hope.
Jul 4, 2026, 6:08 amJul 4, 2026, 6:08 am
In his essay “The Flight 93 Election,” Michael Anton, a leading thinker on the right-wing scene, made the following comparison: Just as brave men stormed the cockpit of the fourth hijacked plane on September 11, 2001 and thereby prevented the passenger jet from crashing into the White House, the right must storm Congress to prevent a dystopia on the left.
The former banker now works at the Claremont Institute, a private university and think tank for very right-wing theories. In his book “The Stakes,” Anton not only warns of an impending collapse of the USA, but he also contrasts this with his version of how the country should ideally develop.
California, the lost paradise
It’s a trip back in time, to California in the 1950s. “This California was the greatest paradise for the middle class in the history of humanity,” says Anton. “His promise – and the majority of it was kept – was no less than the American dream in capital letters, even better: freer, wealthier, sunnier, happier, more developed and more future-oriented.”
According to Anton, the Democrats have destroyed this paradise. They are said to have driven the old middle class out of California and turned the Golden State into a multicultural hell. “The people who voted Republican six times in a row and voted Republican in six of eight gubernatorial elections have been displaced with high taxes, expensive homes, terrible schools, indifferent law enforcement, excessive bureaucracy, poor service and broken infrastructure,” Anton said.
Donald Trump recognized early on how politically powerful this desire is. Without a shred of evidence, he made the claim 15 years ago that Barack Obama was not born in the USA and was therefore an illegal president. That wasn’t just nonsense, it was also racism in its purest form. But it worked. The MAGA crowd got the message. Trump moved into the White House.
Trump has now quietly buried the birther thesis, but the racism remains. The first act of his second term in office was to issue a presidential executive order in which he arbitrarily repealed the right for every child born in the United States to automatically receive American citizenship.
Donald Trump and Barack Obama at the inauguration ceremony in the White House.Image: EPA/EPA
This right is clearly stated in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It was introduced after the Civil War to ensure that freed slaves also received their civil rights. The Supreme Court therefore had no choice but to overturn Trump’s decree. The majority of the population also supports this law. For America, a country of immigrants, it has become an integral part of their own identity.
For the MAGA movement, however, it is an open door to a multicultural society in which whites lose their supremacy. The president is therefore formally bowing to the ruling of the highest judges, but he will not drop the issue. Now he wants to force Congress to pass a law against alleged baby tourism. He knows that the fear of the white middle class of losing their power still forms the basis of their power.
Unlike in his first term, Trump uses this power shamelessly and uninhibitedly. At that time, he was not yet familiar with the complex processes of the American political apparatus and first had to learn which buttons to press and when. That’s why he surrounded himself with a group of “adults”, people who knew the system.
The nine members of the Supreme Court.Image: keystone
Trump’s second term is fundamentally different from his first. Loyalty is the only currency that matters anymore. In addition, the president had enough time to remodel the USA to his liking. It also helps that he is only restrained by the Supreme Court in a few cases, such as the birthright case described above. The conservative chief justices have allowed him to expand his power. So they gave him unlimited immunity. They have allowed gerrymandering to change electoral districts in his favor; and they eliminated the last vestiges of the Civil Rights Act, a 1964 law that protected the rights of the black minority.
Nobody doubts that Trump and the Republicans will do everything they can to manipulate the midterm elections in their favor, because he knows that this is the only way he can achieve his goal. The fear that the oldest democracy is gradually turning into an authoritarian state is therefore justified.
It’s not just American democracy that’s in danger. Corruption has now reached a level that makes even the kleptocrats in Moscow green with envy. According to the latest information, the Trump clan raked in more than $2 billion last year alone, around $1.4 billion of which came from dubious crypto transactions. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Economically, the USA is becoming a K-society, a society with an absurdly wealthy upper class and a middle class that suffers from an affordability crisis. Politically, Trump is doing everything he can to destroy the sophisticated system of checks and balances and flatten institutions. Civil servants are being fired en masse, development aid is stopped, universities are being defunded, immigration police are hunting down illegal immigrants, and National Guard soldiers are intimidating the residents of Los Angeles and Washington.
Fired officers with a chainsaw: Elon Musk.Image: keystone
In the first year of the second term, these blows came as a shock. Trump ruthlessly implemented the plans set out in the infamous pamphlet “Project 2025”. The opposition seemed paralyzed.
But suddenly things are no longer going well for Trump. With the Iran war, he not only broke one of his most important election promises, he also completely gambled away. The president is also unable to keep his second important election promise, namely to defeat inflation. Inflation is now approaching the 4 percent mark, twice as high as the central bank’s target.
Trump’s second election victory came about because he managed to rally a broad coalition behind him. Tech libertarians, business lobbyists, paleoconservatives, evangelicals, conservative Catholics, young men, and a surprising number of blacks and Hispanics voted for him. But the president is increasingly unable to hold this coalition together. She dissolves.
Now call Trump a traitor: Tucker Carlson.Image: keystone
There is strife in the MAGA camp. Former standard-bearers like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, both former Fox News stars, but also Marjorie Taylor Greene, once his greatest admirer, are turning against Trump and accusing him of treason. Trump’s popularity ratings are now abysmal, his mental and physical health is in question, and Republicans have lost virtually every election there is to lose in recent months.
The concept of a “vibe shift” is making the rounds in Washington, a change in mood to the president’s disadvantage. Nothing makes this clearer than the completely unsuccessful events intended to celebrate the 250th anniversary. No self-respecting artist wants to take part in the celebrations. The “Great American State Fair,” a trade fair at which each state can demonstrate its specialties, was intended as a showpiece and ended up being a total flop. Many states have decided not to have a pavilion and there is a yawning emptiness on the exhibition grounds.
But the most embarrassing thing is the thing with the reflecting pool. Trump wanted to make the approximately 600 meter long and 30 meter wide artificial pond between the Lincoln Memorial and the memorial for those who fell in World War II shine in America blue. Instead, he turned it into a greenish algae swamp, giving late-night comedians plenty of material for bitter ridicule.
Symbol of the Trump administration: the muddy reflecting pool.Image: keystone
The founding father Benjamin Franklin called out to his compatriots after the successful revolutionary war against the British king: “You now have a republic – if you can maintain it.” Trump and his right-wing apologists have no interest in this. No matter how willing they are to sacrifice democracy if they can retain their power in return. Like all authoritarian movements, they deeply despise and hate liberalism.
In his inaugural speech, Abraham Lincoln – along with George Washington still the greatest US president – spoke of the “better angels” who will ultimately prevail over all adversities. Historically speaking, he was right – and the chances that one day nothing will be left of Trump and the MAGA movement other than the memory of a bad dream are not bad.