Missing the Czar

Will we prefer whoever comes next?

Atlanta, GA

May 5, 2026

I used to say that every president made us nostalgic for his predecessor. I’d no longer go that far.

A few years ago, I decided that every president since Coolidge was essentially the same. They pushed different policies on the margins, especially “hot button” cultural issues that kept the rubes fighting each other rather than combining forces against their real foe.

But on the few topics that matter most to connected cronies and Establishment “elites”… the fake money, big spending, targeted subsidies, favorable mandates, crooked deals, and reckless wars that shift wealth from us to them… each POTUS does what he’s told.

I still think this is true. But the current jefe’s ego, bombast, and lack of tact can make the enduring similarities harder to see.

Playing the Part

Donald Trump is obviously a narcissist. We’ve known that for fifty years. But so is anyone else who reaches the White House. No humble ascetic would seek to sit on a city council, much less in the Oval Office.

But he’s also a marketer (of himself) and a performer. And he’s very good at both. His talk of being a king, seeking a third term, and doing whatever he wants are part of the bit.

That’s not to say he doesn’t mean it, or that won’t try to attain these things. But where previous presidents were cautious enough not to admit their ambitions, Donald Trump doesn’t care. To his supporters, that’s part of his charm.

He also knows his outlandish behavior and comments drive his detractors crazy, so like a big brother who gets a rise out of a younger sibling, Trump intentionally does things to dent his enemies’ nerves.

But like his predecessors, this president is in the role to play his part. That his supporters consider him a disruptor who wants to shake up the system and hold malefactors to account makes Trump a perfect front man for the forces he claims to oppose.

Promises Made, Promises Broken

The broken promises of the early days of his second term reveal the mirage. Notwithstanding the excitement for DOGE, the pledge that the Ukraine war would end “on day one”, and that millions of illegals would be sent packing, spending was never going to be cut, wars continued, and mass deportations didn’t happen.

Among all campaign promises, only the bad ones ever seem to be honored. With this president, we got the tariffs… and not much else. Like much of what Trump does, they’ve been an ad hoc disaster imposed on his whim.

In fairness, sealing the border is a genuine accomplishment and a pledge he kept. But because the door was locked by executive order, Trump’s successor can convert the presidential pen from a bolt to a key. One signature can open the lock.

The plumbing thru which invasions flow is still in place. The United Nations and NGO networks that funnel third world “migrants” across the border and scatter them around the U.S. remain operational, and are biding their time.

The consequences of the idiotic Iran war should give these agencies plenty to work with. Coming fuel shocks will likely cancel travel plans for unsuspecting Westerners. But most of the world could endure much worse.

Thirty percent of the world’s seaborne fertilizer comes through the Persian Gulf. After the disruptions that have already occurred, what would happen if billions of Third Worlders (and millions of First Worlders) were deprived of essentials that produce their food?

Would we expect the victims to stay put and starve? Or will they become part of the “asylum-seeking” pipeline flowing into the U.S.? Not only did Donald Trump not dismantle the machinery that enables an influx, he launched a war that almost ensures it will happen.

Missing the Czar

Last week, in a conversation with a couple ladies at Barnsley Gardens, we shared our disapproval of what this president has done. Each of them couldn’t wait for him to be out of office, as if the next occupant would be an improvement.

“He has to be!”, one of them asserted.

“Maybe”, I said. “But who knows? What if in ten years we look back in this era as ‘the good old days’?”

A look of horror filled their faces. “Oh no!” one of them exclaimed. “Don’t say that!”

But they took my point. Bad as most conservatives thought the Clinton years were, would they take them now?

When Lyndon Johnson left office, few imagined we’d ever get a bigger ogre in the Oval Office. Actually, that may be a bad example; I don’t think we ever did. Crude and oafish as Trump is, and vile as Bill Clinton was, LBJ was worse.

Did Bush best Clinton or Obama improve upon Bush? Were the medical mandates, speech restrictions, woke insanity, and Ukraine war of the Biden years an improvement on Trump’s disastrous first term? Will whoever comes next make us nostalgic for his second?

I don’t know. But many Russians who despised the Romanovs soon came to miss the czar.

JD

PS - To know which presidents warrant being missed or deserved to be despised, read this book: