It might seem obvious enough, one year into Donald Trump’s second term, that he will leave behind an enormously destructive—and plenty durable—domestic legacy. He is the president who urged on a violent insurrection, transformed a major political party into his personal cult, and yanked America in a far more nativist direction. The old free-trading Republicans are now full converts to Trump’s manic tariff regime. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary are stacked with Trump appointees, validating his right-wing policy.

Yet it is hard to know, in the next decades, what America will look like and how much a former president can bend a party to his will—especially if that president is no longer alive. With Trump gone from the scene, Republicans could lose their appetite for tariffs or deranged Minneapolis-style immigration enforcement which carries so little upside. Given how unpopular DOGE was, a future Republican president might attempt more traditional austerity rather than the wanton layoffs prized by Elon Musk. The jury on Trump’s ultimate legacy is still out. We’ll know, in the next decade, how much of this can stand without one man. That’s the strength and weakness of cult leadership.

Journey out of the country, however, and it’s clear enough that Trump is doing lasting damage to the United States that won’t be immediately fixed by a successor Democratic administration. The foreign nations that, for so many decades, either believed in the promise of America or were content to operate in our shadow are now restive and seeking to permanently alter how........

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