Donald Trump has been a phenomenal figure in recent world history. Generally, all recent U.S. presidents have made quite a difference to the entire world thanks to the U.S. being the most powerful nation since World War II. I would argue that none has made such a show in front of the world, ever. He's made history. Introducing Donald J Trump,

• the first U.S. president without any prior public service
• the first convicted felon serving as U.S. president
• the first U.S. president impeached twice (possibly more to come)
• the first U.S. president to win an election after being impeached

However, enough people don't care about any of these. Well "don't care" is an understatement; the reality is, enough people voted him into his second term. All those 'firsts' make him a stronger candidate than ever. He became a symbol of anti-establishment, and all charges against him just became proof of a rigged political system, waiting to be purged by him.

Leaders make mistakes, and those mistakes amplified by the number of those who follow without questioning, move inevitably toward great disasters.

― Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune

He became the leader of angry mobs.

A demogogue

A good leader is generally considered to have the following traits.

• vision
• wistom
• action

To become a leader in a U.S.-style democracy, certain requirements must be met.

• enough recognition of a party to become a nominee
• enough popularity among voters

Then it's clear that there is a gap between these two sets of traits.

One of the most famous policies Trump made during his first term was the tariff. It's carried out in such a pattern that the U.S. puts a tariff on every country. In return, it also receives a retaliation tariff from the targets. Since the targeted countries did not impose tariffs on each other, the U.S. effectively sanctioned itself economically, well, in the short term. The policy is meant to be a long-term policy, though, by forcing industries investing in the U.S. to avoid tariffs, creating new jobs, and increasing productivity.

But there is a loophole. The tariff is meant to be a temporary measure. Factories take time to build, even if the tariff can last long enough for the U.S. domestic investing to ramp up, it has to stay there, possibly forever. Without a tariff, the industries will just invest wherever it is cheap and away from the U.S. again, just like the last time. Long-lasting tariff instead weakens competition, encouraging unhealthy reliance, making it even harder to open up later. It's a vicious loop, a vision of a nightmare.

Fall for it once, shame on the trick; fall for it twice, shame on the half-wit. Guess what! tariffs against all countries, again, in 2025, by Donald Trump. YEAH!

A polulist of no vision, no wisdom, that's what I call a demagogue.

No smart populist?

There is, of course, a smart populist. There has always been. But why did they fail the election?

Politics is fundamentally a struggle between factions, hopefully, a peaceful one. Whether it's a class struggle, an ideological clash, or a split of interests. Politics, among other things, is about uniting some people together against others.

In this regard, smart is often counterproductive to popular. Generally, we can agree on that, the smart (and often the elites) are usually a very small part of the general population. There is a natural identity split between being smart and being one of the common. Being smart, on the other hand, does not forge an alliance among the smart themselves. (See Brave New World). This makes smart populists relatively rare.

On top of that, being smart, being sarcastic, like George Carlin or Jon Stewart, despite being emotionally persuasive, often makes too many enemies to unite.

The fractured left wing fails to find a populist to rally around, underestimates the unity of the right wing, and so it fails.

The silver bullet

A demagogue fails when he becomes the "rigged" establishment. Trump will fail on the Epstein files, as concealing the files will mark him as one of the rigged system, while publishing the files is political suicide. Ironically, he is always the rigged one, but among those who believe the entire system is rigged, he will only be considered rigged when he's in office.