Trump's hall of mirrors presidency

[marmar]

Trump’s hall of mirrors presidency
From Jan. 6 to Venezuela, Trump has created his own reality and it threatens to subsume our own

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published January 13, 2026 6:45AM (EST)


(Salon) Donald Trump has constructed a political hall of mirrors. It is a sinister, distorting reality that shows the president only what he wishes to see: fantasies of greatness and unchecked power. The effect disorients those who still live in the reality-based community, with centrists, institutionalists, mainstream liberals and progressives among the most vulnerable. For the president and his MAGA followers, though, these distortions are more comforting and real than the outside world. Since Trumpism is a political personality cult, the hall of mirrors and alternate reality it creates are a powerful tool for tying its followers to their dear leader.

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In keeping with Trump’s thought-crime regime, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has erased the text accompanying the president’s portrait that referenced his two impeachments. The administration has also rewritten the events of Jan. 6 and the broader plot to nullify the 2020 election. The official White House webpage now describes the events of that horrible day as “peaceful” and “orderly” until the police incited Trump’s followers — a delusional version of events that is demonstrably false — and has sanitized the role that Trump’s own words and actions played in the resulting assault on the Capitol.

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POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin captured this atmosphere best: “Trump is living his best life in this second and final turn in the White House. Coming up on one year back in power, he’s turned the office into an adult fantasy camp, a Tom Hanks-in-Big, ice-cream-for-dinner escapade posing as a presidency…This is free-range Trump. And the country has never seen such an indulgent head of state…”

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Trump’s action against Venezuela and his designs on Greenland are reflective of an imperial logic that has a name: neo-royalism. Traditionally, under such a system, the king is the state. Since his return to office, Trump has made clear his belief that his personal interests are America’s, and the country’s vast military and economic power can and should be used to serve him. The foundations for this were laid last year by the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity. In Trump v. United States, the court’s conservative majority effectively elevated him (and future presidents) above the law, ruling that he can do anything he wants as long as he claims “presidential responsibilities.” ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/13/trumps-hall-of-mirrors-presidency/

[J_William_Ryan]

1. The tyranny of the Imperial Presidency and unitary executive dogma

– unlimited power in the hands of Trump, a thuggish authoritarian and despot, unchecked by a flaccid Republican Congress and Supreme Court dominated by conservative ideologues.

Worse, future Republican presidents will likewise have access to unlimited power to subject Americans to the same rightwing tyranny and authoritarianism with impunity – the impeachment process eliminated by Senate Republicans and amendments to the Constitution to check presidential tyranny impossible to ratify the consequence of Republican-controlled states.

[Danascot]

2. "Alternative facts"

courtesy of Kellyanne Conway in 2017. They're alive and thriving in trumpland.