Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Lasting Wreckage of Trump’s Second Term

Coates argues Trump exposed that American institutions only protect democracy if actively defended, not passively trusted.

• Trump as "visionary": Coates argues Trump's genius was seeing that institutions—universities, law firms, media—would capitulate rather than resist, calling him "the most consequential president" and more.
• Elite failure, not just Trump: Coates blames the "elite class" and "caretakers of American democracy," including journalists like himself, for rolling over rather than defending institutions they claimed to value.

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