Christopher Caldwell has been just about the most perspicacious writer about Donald Trump, the phenomenon since 2015. So it is notable that in his latest essay for The Spectator, he says the war in Iran represents the end of his movement. Caldwell tries to remind people what it was all about:

Contrary to its portrayal in the newspapers, Trumpism was a movement of democratic restoration. At its center was the idea of the deep state. In recent decades, selective universities created a credentialocracy, civil-rights law endowed it with a system of ideological enforcement, the tax code entrenched a class of would-be philosopher-kings in the nonprofit sector, and civil-service protections armed government bureaucrats to fight back against any effort at democratic reform. The Trump movement is what happened when Americans discovered the system could not be reformed democratically, only dismantled. It was not a move against democracy, or even liberalism. In fact it was a return to the original constitutional understanding that Alexander Hamilton laid out in Federalist No. 70: Americans are led not by a class-based bureaucracy but by an executive they choose. Unfortunately, this democratic idea is dangerous. That is why no one ever dared try an American-style presidential system before 1788, and it is why progressives hemmed the presidency in with the deep state. Without it, there are really only two safeguards against a rogue executive: first, the public must elect a public-spirited person of unimpeachable character, and, second, that person must honor the constitution. The Iran assault shows neither condition to be operative.

Contrary to its portrayal in the newspapers, Trumpism was a movement of democratic restoration. At its center was the idea of the deep state. In recent decades, selective universities created a credentialocracy, civil-rights law endowed it with a system of ideological enforcement, the tax code entrenched a class of would-be philosopher-kings in the nonprofit sector, and civil-service protections armed government bureaucrats to fight back against any effort at democratic reform.

The Trump movement is what happened when Americans discovered the system could not be reformed democratically, only dismantled. It was not a move against democracy, or even liberalism. In fact it was a return to the original constitutional understanding that Alexander Hamilton laid out in Federalist No. 70: Americans are led not by a class-based bureaucracy but by an executive they choose.

Unfortunately, this democratic idea is dangerous. That is why no one ever dared try an American-style presidential system before 1788, and it is why progressives hemmed the presidency in with the deep state. Without it, there are really only two safeguards against a rogue executive: first, the public must elect a public-spirited person of unimpeachable character, and, second, that person must honor the constitution. The Iran assault shows neither condition to be operative.

Ouch. And the indictments come down even harder: “Trump is now carrying out the policy of the very think-tankers and democracy-spreaders he rose to power by promising to fight.”

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