by Roger Kimball
Trump is the great magnetic north of our political metabolism.
Harold Macmillan, prime minister of Great Britain from 1957 to 1963, was once asked by a journalist what was the most troubling problem he faced during his prime ministership. “Events, my dear boy, events,” was his reply.
It was ever thus, of course. But in the great pudding of life, the currents of events seem to cluster more thickly in some moments than in others. I understand that every age is naturally inclined to exaggerate the importance and vividness of its own dramas. The incessant beat of our 24-hour news cycle abets that sense of perpetual emergency. One of the great lessons of history is that no period, whatever its reputation for stability, is really free from an obligato of successive crises. That said, some moments seem to be marked “presto” even as they are orchestrated for booming timpani and blaring horns. Is not America living through such a moment now?
I think it is. Forget about the midterm elections. The party in power has gained seats in both houses of Congress only twice in modern history. In 1934, as the country began the slow climb out of the Great Depression, FDR made gains in both houses. In 2002, in the aftermath of the 9/11 Islamist terror attacks, George W. Bush likewise saw gains in both houses. Most pollsters, and nearly all pundits, believe that the Democrats will retake the House in November. Many believe the Senate is up for grabs as well. Having elevated my moistened finger into the air, I discern some contradictory crosscurrents. Back in 2022, I agreed with the conventional wisdom that the election would be a blowout for Republicans. I was wrong. This time, I suspect that the conventional wisdom has failed to price into its calculations the astonishing number of victories the Trump administration has racked up in its first 18 months.
It is a long list. The Dems recently learned the word “affordability” and have been practicing saying it aloud early and often. News from many quarters is undercutting their complaints. Yes, gas prices, which peaked in 2022 under Biden, are still elevated because of the war in Iran. But they are on their way down and will plummet in coming weeks as markets begin to register Iran’s defeat. Recently, the Atlanta Fed predicted that real growth in the third quarter will come in at a blistering 5.0–5.1 percent. At the same time, the Census Bureau released data showing that the poverty rate fell to 10.2 percent, the lowest in our history. Blue-collar income has jumped between 4 and 5 percent since January 2025, when Trump began his second term. Manufacturing—and manufacturing jobs—are flooding back into the United States.
On the foreign policy front, it is hard to keep up. At the beginning of the year, Trump nabbed Nicolás Maduro and his wife from their supposedly impregnable fortress in Caracas. He then made what the White House called “the biggest oil deal in world history, delivering U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela.” Last month, Trump signed a permanent security deal with Denmark and Greenland. The agreement recognized official “Danish sovereignty and Greenlandic self-determination.” It is an odd or “lite” version of sovereignty, however, since the agreement also grants to the United States the exclusive right to maintain and expand military bases in Greenland. The deal also grants the U.S. exclusive say about access to Greenland’s extensive mineral wealth and “sensitive sector investment.”
Then there is technology. Trump recently convened a meeting at the White House with the crème de la crème of America’s high-tech titans. As is so often the case with presidents, the ceremony involved a naming-the-animals moment. What had been called “AI” or “artificial intelligence” was rebaptized “SI,” “super intelligence.” It is too soon to say whether the change of name will catch on. I think it might. I will do what I can to encourage the change of rubric.
One of the main reasons Trump convened the meeting was to address concerns about the safety of SI. It is something that Elon Musk broached several years ago. Like any powerful technology, SI can and doubtless will be abused. Trump and his team want to make sure that reasonable guardrails are in place. But the biggest news coming out of that meeting was Elon Musk’s prediction that SI would usher in not just an age of abundance but also an age of superabundance. That, he said, is the “most likely” scenario.
Trump also just launched a new government website, America.gov. Described as a digital “front door” to government information and services, the SI-powered site will obviate the roughly 29,000 federal, state, and local websites that hover over the populace like a paralyzing net. It is early days yet, but soon one will be able to do everything on the new chatbot-style website, from renewing a passport and applying for Medicare to getting park permits, business registrations, or changing your name when you get married. Readers with long memories will want to compare the rollout of this new user-friendly utility to the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website in 2013.
You may also have noticed, Dear Reader, a marked uptick in ads, video clips, and social media memes disseminated by Trump World. Some are official administration products; some are produced independently. As I write, the midterm elections are exactly 30 days away. Expect that uptick to crescendo in the coming weeks. The legacy media will do what it can to keep the spotlight off the president as the midterms approach. But they will fail. Trump is the great magnetic north of our political metabolism. He will be crisscrossing the country over the course of October to hold his signature rallies and support GOP candidates. How strong his determination to reach out to his supporters and rally the troops became apparent the other day when the Secret Service warned him that the weather was too inclement to fly from Texas, where he attended an event for Senate candidate Ken Paxton, to a long-planned event in Oklahoma. “How fast does the Beast [the presidential limo] travel?” he asked his entourage. “Almost 100 miles an hour,” he was told. “Get your asses in that car,” he said. “We’re going to Oklahoma.”
I think I can hear the anti-Trump sorority sniff at that demotic locution. Very unpresidential, you know, to use such language. But in the rushing stream of “events, my dear boy, events,” the kaleidoscope of Trump’s indefatigable ministrations is a piercing beacon in the storm.
Photo: MEDINAH, ILLINOIS - SEPTEMBER 27: U.S. President Donald Trump waves to the crowd during the trophy ceremony after the U.S. Team wins 17-13 following the Sunday's Singles on day four of the Presidents Cup 2026 at Medinah Country Club on September 27, 2026 in Medinah, Illinois. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Roger Kimball is editor and publisher of The New Criterion and the president and publisher of Encounter Books. He is the author and editor of many books, including The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (St. Augustine's Press), The Rape of the Masters (Encounter), Lives of the Mind: The Use and Abuse of Intelligence from Hegel to Wodehouse (Ivan R. Dee), and Art's Prospect: The Challenge of Tradition in an Age of Celebrity (Ivan R. Dee). Most recently, he edited and contributed to Where Next? Western Civilization at the Crossroads (Encounter) and contributed to Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the New World Order (Bombardier).
Source: https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/04/trump-and-the-relentless-momentum-of-events/
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