"Screenshot President Donald Trump is not just serving as commander in chief. He's also running a content studio. This week, he bragged about extrajudicially killing alleged cartel members on a boat in the Caribbean a boast that landed less like a policy declaration than a deleted scene from Narcos. Then he doubled down with an AI-generated photo of himself as Robert Duvall's Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. Aviators, chiseled jaw, the whole bit. It was either shamelessly embarrassing and hilariously over the top,"
"Trump's genius if you can call it that is in making extremism feel unserious. This is authoritarianism by way of irony. The more absurd the packaging the memes, the cosplay, the AI warlord avatars the easier it is to shrug. It's only a joke, only a post, only Trump being Trump. And while his critics scream that democracy is under siege, he turns their outrage into proof that they lack a sense of humor,"
"The danger isn't that no one takes him literally. It's that enough people take him half-seriously, which is more than enough. Think about it: if a sitting or former president had once openly bragged about extrajudicial killings, it would have been a constitutional crisis. Look at Senator Rand Paul's reaction to Vice President JD Vance's defense for a rare and brave Republican reaction. Under Trump, it's just another Tuesday, just another scroll."
President Donald Trump transforms provocative, violent, and extreme actions into consumable entertainment by using memes, cosplay, and AI avatars. He boasts of extrajudicial killings and posts stylized images that frame authoritarian behavior as theatrical. The absurd presentation makes serious violations feel unserious, enabling audiences to shrug, laugh, or view critics as lacking humor or patriotism. Critics' outrage becomes fodder that reinforces his image and diminishes perceived severity. The danger arises when people take him half-seriously, normalizing threats to rule of law and democratic norms. What would have been a constitutional crisis becomes routine scrolling and partisan spectacle.
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