In 2016, if you weren’t paying attention, it was just possible to believe that Donald Trump was a brilliant outsider businessman who would make America great again by upsetting a turgid status quo and making inspired deals with politicians on both sides of the aisle. Millions of people voted for him for that very reason. We all know how that turned out. It was an illusion.
In 2024, if Trump wins, it will probably be because millions of Americans think he will bring back the economy of 2019, and that all of the authoritarian talk is just empty noise. That is also an illusion. The truth is that Trump has no idea how to bring back 2019, but he now knows very well how to make himself a strongman, and he is grimly determined to do so. This time, take him both seriously and literally.