"Shaking the curtains for secret details about the inner workings of the Trump administration is pointless. We could spend the next four years attempting to understand exactly what Trump wants, the motivations behind his volatile actions, and why it is that his brand of white nationalism has resonated with so much of the country. But we already know enough about him.
We know that the new president of the United States is a narcissist and a bully, beholden to no political organization and to no group of big donors. We know that he has surrounded himself, intimately, with carnival barkers and shallow thinkers. We know that they have encouraged an atmosphere of self-congratulation—standing on the sidelines of his press briefings to applaud and cheer his disparagement of the press—and that his cohort feels, much like white nationalists in general, profoundly aggrieved...
So the question, then, is not how the press should be covering Trump, but rather: How it should cover everything else? And how should all of us—as thinkers and citizens—be a part of the effort? How should any of us watch and write about and critique this moment in history?
I propose that we turn away from Washington, DC, to chronicle the end of the republic as we know it. Let’s take his spotlight away. We know his routine.
What we need now is to understand how people are enduring, surviving, and fighting back. We should find those impacted by Trump—and by Trumpism more generally—and share their stories. We could use our platforms to amplify their voices and focus on their struggle to survive in the age of white nationalism, tracing the material impact of Trump’s autocratic racial regime."
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