But, especially as the price of oil has risen, the administration has continued to use this whole conflict to present Trump as a bold, decisive, and courageous president who is uncharacteristically willing to endure short-term economic, military, and political hardship in order do what is necessary to make the world a safer and more prosperous place for future generations in America and across the globe. The legal seeds for that transformation were planted in the late 1800s, when so-called “reformers” absurdly took advantage of the fact that one of the delusions of the deranged man who had killed President James Garfield was that he was about to be appointed as an ambassador to some European country to characterize him as a “disappointed office-seeker.” It was dangerous, these reformers reasoned, to have so many potential disappointed office-seekers every time an election happened, so better to do away with the offices to be sought. And if a president is in office and tries, in any meaningful way, to roll back any component of the warfare state the establishment will move heaven and earth to stop them and remove them from power—as Trump was subjected to in his first term after occasionally making some sane comments about foreign policy while also trying to repeal legal protections that make it harder to fire unelected bureaucrats.
Author: Connor O 'Keeffe
Published at: 2026-03-11 22:30:22
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