The Trump 2nd Presidency is McCarthyism in a red baseball cap – except the witch-hunt isn’t for communists, it’s for anyone insufficiently worshipful of the Great Orange Leader. Forget “reds under the bed” – it’s “RINOs in the ranks” and civil servants who didn’t genuflect deeply enough before His Trumpness.
McCarthy had his hearings; Trump’s got a rolling circus of loyalty tests, sackings and social media denunciations. Careers are torched not for ideology, but for the sin of insufficient sycophancy. It’s less a government than a cult headquarters with nuclear codes.
The Red Scare at least pretended to defend America from an external foe. This is an orange scare, turned entirely inward – hollowing out institutions, stuffing them with nodding dogs, and ensuring that the only guiding principle is “What does Trump want today?” It’s not statesmanship – it’s courtier politics, medieval in its pettiness.
And like McCarthy before him, Trump insists it’s all to protect the nation. From what, exactly? From independent thought? From the quaint notion that public office is a public service? The man’s remaking America in his own image – loud, fragile, and permanently in need of applause.
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