IN THEORY, IT SHOULD BE enough that he is a certified loser. Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump once before, and it could happen again. In that election, Trump’s major liabilities were his mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic and its related economic fallout. For this one, he is campaigning in between stops on a national tour of court appearances and arrestdates. The risk for the Republican Party is not just that history will repeat itself but that it will elaborate.
Yet with each successive indictment, Trump grows stronger. His support deepens. It has always been true that Trump’s fans see him as their id. Now, his legal troubles have had the effect of turning this very rich and powerful man into a proxy for anyone who feels like the victim of a conspiracy cooked up by the system. Outside the courthouses where he stands accused of fraud and election interference and mishandling of classified documents, among 91 felony counts in four criminal cases, they tell you this is all playing out exactly as they suspected, just as Trump said it would. The deep state had set him up, and now it would hold its trials. In the official Donald J. Trump campaign store, he sells the image of his persecution, his mug shot splashed on merchandise that says never surrender and not guilty.
The other candidates made decisions to run informed by political science and traditional experience. Trump would not enter the race, the thinking went, because his term in office had ended so poorly, and if on the off chance he did run, he would be rejected. Just as in 2016, these calculations did not appreciate that Trump is not a political phenomenon. He is better understood as a celestial event, like the appearance of a black hole. Everyone in his orbit is defined in relation to his gravitational pull.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 09 - 22, 2023 من New York magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 09 - 22, 2023 من New York magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
