Most men, as they age, get wiser. Their speech and conduct reveal this to those who know them.
So, what’s the deal with Trump?
Two years ago it sounded like he was learning some good lessons from his hard life as a public servant. But today it sounds like he is stumbling. It sounds like he may be reverting to 2020 Trump, or maybe the 2010 Trump. The immature Trump. The overconfident Trump. The unteachable Trump. The know-it-all Trump. The conceited Trump.
One possible answer is what I call "The February Hypothesis," which refers to politics in 2025, and is fully in operation now.
The Deep State knows they cannot beat him now, assassinate him now, or get him off the ballot now.
So how do they control a President Trump? Easy. By manipulating him through flattery, misdirection, traitorous personnel, and controlled blindness. Today it sounds like candidate Trump is already following the deep state script on personnel choices, vaccine narrative, and his own personal identity. Trump is not walking in reality. This means the February 2025 Trump will not govern in reality.
Here’s the February Hypothesis:
The deep state lets him be elected this November. The MAGA folks give three cheers and go back to sleep. The deep state lets him be inaugurated in January. The MAGA folks chant “USA! USA!” and then go back to sleep.
Starting in February, the deep state runs the world through a gratified, clueless, tone-deaf, compromised president. In February the deep state tightens the screws on what he can do and not do. They control all information to him. They control most personnel appointments, like they did in 2021. Especially Defense, State, NSA, DHS, and DOJ. The deep state controls his meetings. They control his executive orders. They tell him he’s the greatest, toughest, MAGA president there ever was, and then feed him the next creative lie.
Imagine how much easier it would be to run the world through a passive puppet than it would be to grapple with the anarchy and chaos of a November 2024 civil war, or a January 2025 civil war. If Trump wins but is not certified, there will be carnage.
But if Trump wins and the deep state fully supports all the next stages of a Trump Inauguration, and if the media are told to fall in line, just imagine the vast control the deep state can wield. Imagine how easy it would be to run the world if all the MAGA folks cheered Trump along at every destructive turn? Simply because he's Trump?
Is this why Donald Trump still brags about the vax, and throws out names of deep state cronies for jobs in the next Trump administration?
"We are smack in the middle of a Fourth Turning, and the turmoil of it all has affected the entire West. Over the last five years, virtually every major institution has disgraced itself. What used to be a high-trust society has been blown to smithereens, and nobody knows what to think anymore. And even when an individual person’s convictions haven’t changed, despite the societal turmoil, it is very difficult to know who to think those convictions with. This implosion of all the trusted institutions and relationships has of course included those of us on the political right.
"...So what am I saying? When being normal is weird, be normal. When being normal is normal, remember why you should be normal, and be prepared to defend it, which cannot be done apart from Christ. And when being normal is weird, don’t be extra weird. Be extra normal. Normal you say? By what standard? To the law and to the testimony. Exactly so."
Doug Wilson
“The decline of community in the modern world has as its inevitable religious consequence the creation of masses of helpless, bewildered individuals who are unable to find solace in Christianity regarded merely as creed.”
Robert Nisbet
American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism. Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory.
The White House
The National Security Strategy Document