Trump’s autocratic antics risk becoming the new normal

It is easy to forget the abnormality of Donald Trump’s presence in the White House. Before his election it would have seemed unthinkable to have the leader of the free world bragging of being a ‘very stable genius’ on social media, then taunting the despotic ruler of a nuclear-armed nation as ‘Little Rocket Man’ and threatening annihilation of his country. Or for a United States president to lie so frequently and casually that the Washington Post counted more than 10,000 ‘fishy claims’ by the end of last April alone.

But we have become inured to Trump’s self-obsessed boasts and infantile tantrums. We have become accustomed to the deceit, the disorder, the disruption and the daily outbursts on Twitter that pass for policy- making under the 45th presidency of the United States. As Masha Gessen says in this impassioned tract, one way to respond to these absurdities and tensions is to accept the new reality. The other is to stop paying attention and to retreat to one’s private sphere, as seen in totalitarian systems. ‘Both approaches are victories for Trump.’

This is a fabulous, furious blast of a book — short, sharp and very much to the point. Gessen is not part of the cosy, consensual crowd, seeing the ‘dirty story of Russian interference’ in the 2016 presidential election as simply one more distraction from difficult facts that daily stare the American people in the face. The author points out that Trump ran as an outsider to ‘drain the swamp’, and after winning declared himself above the law, lied consistently, ignored norms of accountability and then saw some of his closest associates go to prison. ‘We already knew that his was an administration of swindlers and conmen — and in effect we had come to accept it.’

Gessen, born in the Soviet Union and the author of a brilliant biography of Vladimir Putin, is offering a warning to the world’s leading democracy based on her observations of the Russian leader — another egotist focused on the spectacle and trappings of authority.