This is maximal Trump.
This is maximal Trump.
T here was a common, wishful phrase among Republican opponents to Donald Trump in the GOP nomination fight in 2015–2016: “peak Trump.”
The idea was that, after an unsustainable rise, Trump was finally beginning to descend. We have reached peak Trump.
I said it a few times myself before I realized it made for bad punditry, but now we can all agree that we have indeed reached peak Trump — not peak Trump in the sense that he’s soon going to start to fade, but peak Trump in the sense that it’s hard to imagine how he could be more dominant in our politics, have a stronger grip on his party, loom larger globally, or have more influence on our culture than he does right now.
This is maximal Trump. Trump unbound. Trump in full.
His speech to the joint session of Congress was longer, more showy, more entertaining, more boastful, and more rapturously greeted by his side and more disdained by the other side than any of his prior addresses. Even if he tries, it’s hard to see how he can make subsequent congressional speeches any more Trumpy than last night’s.
Peak Trump.
He’s so accessible to and ubiquitous in the media, he’s probably maxed out unless they install Big Brother–style cameras to follow him around in the White House. (If this happens, I get credit for the idea.)
It’s been Trump’s insight from the beginning that it’s crucial to win the battle for attention, and he’s won it in a rout, not just in the U.S. but around the world.
Trump has always imagined his presidencies as shows. This time the show is so big that even the spin-off program — DOGE, starring Elon Musk — is overwhelming. It has its own fascinating plot, its own social-media channel, its own mysteries, and its own legal fights.
Speaking of legal fights, can anyone keep track of how many Trump is embroiled in after nearly two months in office? How many Supreme Court cases will there be even if nothing else happens?
The Republican opposition, if that’s the right word, to Trump in Congress consists of very occasional, apologetic statements of mild dissent, followed by the implicit or explicit plea, “But can’t we talk about something else?”
He’s at such an apex of his congressional influence that he could — and, in fact, did — nominate as health secretary a pro-choice environmental extremist prone to conspiracy theories and get him confirmed easily.
On the global stage — and never has that term been more apt — he’s the paramount player. The push for a peace deal in Ukraine was created by him and is being driven by him, with all parties needing to take him into account above anyone or anything else.
He’s got two friendly neighbors on the string with his tariffs. Will he or won’t he impose them? Will he keep them or lift them? Deal or no deal? Who knows?
This is no way to treat friends or for a president to operate, but there’s no doubt that it’s very Trump.
He’s talking about taking the Panama Canal and Greenland, and the possibilities can’t be entirely discounted.
He’s the driver of the “vibe shift” that has affected major institutions of American life. The new speech-moderation policy at Meta? Probably Trump. Editorial changes at the Washington Post? Probably Trump.
And on and on it goes.
If hubris comes before a fall, well, there’s more of that, too.
Whether it’s victory or defeat, success or failure, there’s no doubt that it will be authored by Trump and about Trump. We live in the era of peak Trump.