: By William E. Halal

The above video was inspired by this article. Visit our YouTube channel for additional empowering videos. And please subscribe. Thank you!

What Comes After Trump? Political Chaos, Collapse, or Collaboration?

by William E. Halal, PhD, author of the book: Beyond Knowledge

The harshness of Trump’s rule became personal when ICE agents swept through my favorite restaurant. My companion was French, and he recoiled at childhood memories of Nazi troopers storming into his neighborhood. Knowing those deported souls are sent to gulags in El Salvador, this sent a message telling immigrants, “This could happen to you.”

The same message was sent when eliminating USAID. The Lancet calculated it could cost the lives of 500,000 children and Nature estimates it could result in 25 million deaths. Apart from the moral travesty, cutting USAID also destroys American soft power and hands global dominance to China. Yes, it's stupid, but it makes sense as a way to inflict pain.

Help or Trauma?

Don’t forget the drastic cuts of Federal employees mowed down by Elon Musk’s chainsaw. Downsizing is usually done regretfully while often helping laid off workers find new jobs. Whereas the agenda in the Project 2025 plan aims to, “Put them in trauma.”

The other attacks on law firms, universities, media are intended to instill the same message of enforcing obedience with pain and fear. Where FDR struggled to end the Great Depression by encouraging hope and unity, Trump is doing the opposite. He provokes fear and division.

All this drama is largely based on fantasy. The honorable bulk of Trump’s followers think they support the “policies” and ignore Trump’s character, while many feel like the revolutionaries who fought the war of independence.

Really? Religious zealots insist this man who excels at all 7 deadly sins is appointed by God! Half of the country lives in a mass delusion so unrealistic it can only crash.

But, The Trains Ran on Time

Of course, Trump’s autocratic power may ease the border crisis and resolve other problems. Mussolini made the trains run on time ... for a while. Demagogues have always been with us, and they usually collapse after a few years. Dictatorship is blind to truth, dooming their regimes. Think of Pinochet in Chile, Berlusconi in Italy, and Chavez in Venezuela.

Some form of conclusion seems likely as Trump continues to foment chaos. Remember how he ignored the Covid threat for months, thinking it would “just go away?” That critical delay prevented containing the virus, so it spread throughout the country, killing a million Americans.

As Trump pushes boundaries beyond the breaking point, any critical issue could erupt into a political crisis: a blunder into war (Bush in Iraq), a constitutional crisis, clash with the Supreme Court, his tariff embargo, impeachment charges … almost anything, really.

A Critical Turning Point

A serious economic crisis could become a critical turning point politically. Improving tariffs may be a good idea, but Trump's tariffs are brutal and constantly changing, and the uncertainty is toxic to business investment. Whatever trade deals he cooks up, his goal is to “protect” US markets with a wall of tariffs, raising prices and reducing growth – like the stagflation that doomed Carter.

And his tax cuts give the rich $390,000 per year, cost working stiffs $1,000 per year, and add $3 trillion to national debt. Economists estimate a 50 percent probability of an economic meltdown. With the US now being reckless and chaotic, China is now seen as offering stability and reason.

Whatever the political crisis, Trump may be the last of ever more extreme Republican presidents since Reagan. Then we could see the idiocy of glorifying money and hating government that has seized the American psyche.

Many seem to have lost their minds in a hopeless trip back to an idyllic past of industrial jobs, fossil fuels, no foreign competition, obedient women, and white people ... ignoring climate change, global hypercompetition, and endless diversity.

What Will Come After?

Considering the above, I estimate a roughly 70 percent probability that Trump ends the dominance of conservative politics. The big question then will be, what fills the political vacuum?

Hopefully, both ends of the political spectrum would collaborate by integrating ideas from all sides to serve everybody better. Americans have to end the crazy idea of starving the middle class while giving tax cuts to the wealthy … and plan the transition to a green, high-tech future of good jobs, lean government, social benefits, and a collaborative world.

Possibly, we could even convince people that Americans have learned to avoid autocrats and lead the world again. Otherwise, the USA is likely to become a fading empire, like the British Empire and a long line of failed nations.

Book by this Author:

Beyond Knowledge: How Technology Is Driving an Age of Consciousness
by William E. Halal.

The Knowledge Age of the past two decades is passing today as the digital revolution and artificial intelligence replace knowledge work. Halal’s study of social evolution explains how this marks the passage to a new frontier beyond knowledge that is poorly understood – an “Age of Consciousness” is here. But more pandemics, climate change, gross inequality, gridlock and other threats form a “Crisis of Maturity” that is blocking this historic transformation.

This book provides a wealth of evidence and leading examples of an emerging “global consciousness” now driving the world to grow up, resolve this global crisis and develop a sustainable world order – or perish. With foresight and hard work, we could see the triumph of human spirit, once again.

For more info and/or to order this book, click here. Also available as a Kindle edition.

About the Author

William E. Halal, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at George Washington University. Professor Halal has published seven books and his articles have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, and other major media. He consults to corporations and governments and is a frequent keynote speaker. He was cited by the Encyclopedia of the Future as one of the top 100 futurists in the world. He also served as a major in the US Air Force, an aerospace engineer on the Apollo Program, and a business manager in Silicon Valley.

His new book, Beyond Knowledge: How Technology Is Driving an Age of Consciousness (Foresight Books, August 27, 2021), explores a vision for the next stage of human evolution.

Learn more at billhalal.com.

More books by this Author.

Article Recap:

William E. Halal warns that Trump’s chaos-driven presidency is pushing America toward a political tipping point. As authoritarianism exhausts itself, the real question becomes what comes next—continued decline or a rebirth rooted in cooperation and collective sanity. Either way, the Trump era seems destined to implode under the weight of its contradictions.

#TrumpEra #PoliticalCrisis #EndOfConservatism #WilliamHalal #GreenFuture #Project2025 #AmericanPolitics #innerselfcom

How the Trump Era Ends: The Coming Political Crisis by William E. Halal, PhD — Trump’s reign isn’t just controversial—it may be unsustainable. Could this be the beginning of the end for right-wing dominance? Or just a darker chapter ahead? #TrumpEra #PoliticalCrisis #WilliamHalal #Project2025 #innerselfcom Click to find out more.

break

Thanks for visiting InnerSelf.com, where there are 20,000+ life-altering articles promoting "New Attitudes and New Possibilities." All articles are translated into 30+ languages. Subscribe to InnerSelf Magazine, published weekly, and Marie T Russell's Daily Inspiration. InnerSelf Magazine has been published since 1985.