How extraordinary, in the context of American history, is Donald Trump? A decade into a political career that once seemed unfathomable, the answer seems to be very. His second term is disturbing and bizarre in many aspects, from his attempts to deport legal, law-abiding residents to the immolation of the federal bureaucracy. For DOGE alone, Trump is unique, and we’re only in the first months of a four-year stretch. A tariff policy like this one hasn’t been seen since at least the 1930s, and the blatant attacks on the Federal Reserve chair are bound to lead to further market chaos. When it comes to democracy itself, we inhabit a tenuous moment: Trump has shown contempt for the courts and veers ever closer to triggering a true constitutional crisis. If Trump can successfully deport people who have committed no crimes — the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case is the Rubicon the 47th president has already crossed — there’s no telling, really, what might be next.

But even now, with Trump threatening to steamroll the democratic institutions we have left, it’s important to retain some perspective. America, in fact, has been here before, and it wasn’t very long ago. If some of the anti-Trump Republicans and conservatives in the media would like to pretend otherwise, there was another recent president who flirted with authoritarianism — and may have come far closer than Trump ever will. Though he was president less than two decades ago, George W. Bush feels like a relic of another age. He was a Republican who carried himself with a degree of gentleness and even grace when he wasn’t, in somewhat amusing fashion, tripping over his own words. After 9/11, he

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