When the riot ended, Congress returned to its business early Thursday morning and affirmed Joe Biden’s presidential win. Donald Trump’s January 6th insurrection could not change that. What changed was the nation’s sense of itself and the world’s image of the United States.
It got worse on Nov. 5, 2024. In an act of Swiftian self-satire, Americans drove a stake though the heart of the American century and reelected a twice-impeached, career criminal and convicted felon with ties to a notorious pedophile to a second term in the White House over the price of eggs.
Reports of insurrection came in a flood Wednesday. Scenes of chaos played out at the U.S. Capitol as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol complex instigated by the outgoing president himself.
Calling his election loss an “eggregious assault on democracy,” Donald Trump told a rally they should walk down the Mall and confront Congress. “And I’ll be there with you,” he said. But after getting the mob moving, true to form Trump retreated to the White House.
View from inside the Capitol as people gather on the West Front. The Capitol is currently on lockdown. pic.twitter.com/XKNKWNbHxZ
As a joint session of Congress attempted to conduct the business of formalizing the presidential win of President-elect Joe Biden, the mob in MAGA hats began chanting QAnon slogans. They then swept past police barricades, overwhelmed Capitol security, and entered the building through smashed windows and doors. The Secret Service whisked Vice President Mike Pence to a secure location and the members of Congress took shelter.
“We’re storming the Capitol. It’s a revolution,” Elizabeth from Knoxville, Tenn. told a White House reporter for Yahoo News. Police had maced her as she tried to enter the Capitol.
Pro-Trump extremists broke windows, ransacked offices, shouted “Trump, Trump” and “Whose house? Our house!” as they went. They included a Republican West Virginia state delegate who streamed the assault. Many carried Trump flags while a couple bore Confederate ones.
In a standoff with police, one woman was shot and killed, reportedly a QAnon cultist from San Diego. Three others died from “medical emergencies.” Police found a couple of improvised explosive devices somewhere outside the building.
No. It’s not over. Five years later, the world still looks on aghast. An imperial Trump 2.0 administration has not only defied U.S. law and U.S. courts, it has rejected U.S. constitutional limits and the post-WWII, rules-based order. Might makes right is back. Trump has attacked Venezuela, abducted its president, and invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify it. Now his team of madmen has designs on Cuba, Columbia, and looks to annex Greenland. The U.S. is no longer the arsenal of democracy or the steady leader of NATO. Russia and China look lustfully at Eastern Europe and Taiwan.
What in the wake of the Great Recession began as a conspiracy cult quickly evolved into a reactionary cult of personality. The Trumpian personality cult, backed by billionaire American oligarchs, morphed in 2025 into a xenophobic police state bent on ethnically cleansing the United States of nonwhite residents. One year into a second term, 19th century imperialism is Trump’s demented agenda.
I don’t believe I even wrote those last two paragraphs. This isn’t politics anymore. It’s a nightmare.
