By Dr. Adam McConnel
- The author is an American scholar.
ISTANBUL (AA) - "You are a lie, you are my illness, you are a ghost … I see I'll have to suffer through it for a while. You are my hallucination. You are the embodiment of myself but of just one side of me … of my thoughts and feelings …" [1]
Politics is a form of theater, and in our time, television, the internet, and social media have added new dimensions to the pace and possibilities for politicians to present themselves to their constituents, whether voters or not. And after only five months of Donald J. Trump's second term as US president, all tools at his disposal are wielded around the clock in order to present the policies, decisions, and activities of his administration. The political show never stops, not even to take a breath.
Throughout the past weeks, we witnessed a stark illustration of how Trump views politics. The minor street disturbances in Los Angeles, sparked by the mass arrests of immigrants, were immediately identified by Trump as an opportunity to score points with his political base. To that end, he sent both the National Guard and a contingent of Marines to clamp down on the protests.[2] For Trump, whether such forces were necessary or not was immaterial: he had a wide-open stage to attack not just California as a whole (for Republicans, a bastion of anti-American behavior), but also California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
The domestic media coverage of the situation was fervent and partisan. For Trump's supporters, he's restoring order in a city and state that have long been known for unruly behavior; for his detractors, he’s taking more steps towards authoritarian, personalized rule, and the deconstruction of US democratic norms. No matter which version is closer to the truth, Trump clearly relishes this sort of political theater and sees it as a way to connect with his voters. He wades into the event with combative rhetoric and takes controversial decisions knowing that the uproar will give him even more media attention and keep his supporters focused on him.
- Trump: An embodiment of US political culture
The reality is that Trump – his persona, his attitudes, his decisions – is a manifestation of American political life. He is not an anomaly. Simply, American society and culture, and the trajectory that US politics, especially the Republican Party, have been on since WWII, made Trump possible. Trump performs on a 24-hour stage, conjuring feats of enticing and violent "magic," like an American Woland, the devilish illusionist from The Master and Margarita [3]. The crowd is pleased and rapt just long enough to have the desired effect before the trick dissipates and a new, more sinister distraction appears.
It's anyone's guess how long Trump can sustain this performance. The tensions in his policies, born of their inherent contradictions, are building. Domestic strain in the US continues to mount as Trump's tariffs and budget, coupled with the damage parceled out to federal state institutions by Elon Musk's DOGE[4] team, will most likely result in economic contraction and increased poverty in the coming months. Trump also maintains a constant state of aggressive conflict with the entire US judicial system. Political violence is becoming more frequent [5].
Meanwhile, abroad, Russia presses forward in Ukraine as a paralyzed EU frets; Israel lashes out at Iran, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria while slaughtering dozens of Palestinian civilians daily, turning Gaza into a wasteland; Chinese President Xi Jinping eyes Taiwan and cements his grip on the world's rare earth metals and derived products [6] while lethargically negotiating tariffs with Trump. DOGE's deconstruction of the US aid administration essentially handed Africa to Beijing [7]. The US' international standing, outside of a handful of Trump sympathizers, is in tatters.
- Tactical retreats, aka TACO
However, at certain points Trump has shown an ability to recognize that he cannot press an issue as far as he would like. His media allies cover for him, and his rhetoric eases only momentarily, but the tactical retreat does occur. Most recently, this happened in regard to the immigrant arrests in California. After days of tension and low-level street violence, Trump admitted that some categories of immigrants, such as farm laborers or hospitality sector workers, should be exempted from the crackdown [8] [9]. In effect, Trump admitted that his all-out blitz against immigrants had flaws, or had not been well thought out, resulting in a backlash from some economic sectors strongly affected by the arrests.
This is not the first instance of Trump stepping back from extreme policy decisions. Even in the past five months, Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs even led to the ironic acronym TACO, "Trump always chickens out," which, in the past several weeks, became a main theme among the US' chattering classes [10].
- Image, spin, rhetoric
Undeniably, Trump and those he has surrounded himself with in this administration are highly proficient at media manipulation. They are focused, mediagenic, on message, and appeal directly to the media organizations that support them in their effort to dominate the news cycle. When cracks in the veneer occur [11], power is wielded, threats uttered, and a new controversy is quickly forwarded to the public's attention. The speed at which the narrative moves is head-spinning.
Thus is the fabric from which contemporary US politics is cut: stage performers and octogenarians, rhetoricians, and bullies. Long gone are the calm, measured orators in rumpled suits doing their best to represent local constituencies. But Trump is only the current representative of this un/reality. Like Ivan Karamazov arguing with Satan, those who try to wave Trump off as a temporary phenomenon, a hallucination, or a fever dream simply deny the deeper, long-term transformation that defines US politics today.
[1] Ivan Karamazov speaking to Satan in Part IV, Book 11, Chapter 9 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov." Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, translators.
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cvg7vxx888kt
[3] See Chapters 1, 3, and 12 of Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita."
[4] Department of Government Efficiency
[5] https://abcnews.go.com/US/2-minnesota-lawmakers-shot-targeted-incident-officials/story?id=122840751
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/business/china-rare-earth-samarium-fighter-jets.html
[7] https://www.newsweek.com/china-global-investment-donald-trump-usaid-2026465
[8] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/12/trump-immigration-migrant-farmers-hotel-workers-deported/84166061007/; https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/us/politics/trump-farmers-hotels-immigration.html
[9] Trump had returned the policy to its original implementation, but not publicly: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/17/trump-ice-immigration-raids-farms-hotels-restaurants/84245742007/
[10] https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-there-a-tariff-end-game
[11] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/politics/trump-elon-musk-fight-power.html
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu's editorial policy.