One month into his second term, President Donald Trump’s shock and awe campaign against America’s multiracial democracy — and the very idea of responsible governance — continues mostly unabated. Trump’s many dozens of executive orders, diktats and other mandates (many of which are clearly unconstitutional) were just an opening fusillade. Trump’s shock and awe strategy will last much longer as his autocratic rule takes hold.

The courts have intervened, but President Trump is signaling he will (and in some instances already has) ignore any rulings he disagrees with. This will inevitably cause a constitutional crisis, which is likely the next step in a much larger plan to expand Trump’s increasingly unlimited power and authority.

Ultimately, the not-so-secret power of Trump’s political success and rise to power is that he is an expert propagandist and entertainer who knows how to manipulate and maximize his relationship to, and control over, the news media and attention economy. Trump is an expert at being “Donald Trump." The mainstream media and political class have few effective defenses against such a leader in an era of global populist discontent.

In an attempt to help the American people better navigate and make sense of Trump’s surreal and unprecedented first month back in power, the country’s rapidly worsening democracy crisis and the role of the media, I recently spoke with David Altheide. He is the Regents' Professor Emeritus on the faculty of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University and author of the book "Gonzo Governance: The Media Logic of Donald Trump."

This is the first part of a two-part conversation.

Trump’s first month back in power has been a spectacle, a shock and awe campaign against American democracy and society. So many horrible things are happening at once that it is very difficult, by design, to make sense of it all. Beginning with Trump’s surreal inauguration, how are you trying to make sense of these last few weeks?

The inauguration was a spectacle on steroids, with amped-up drama emphasizing power, strength, salvation and greatness. It was a vulgar display of power. America First. First, the setting at the Capitol Rotunda, where Trump-inspired insurrectionists battled police just four years ago, became a stage for the usual pomp. People were sitting close to the rostrum so that Trump’s insults at President Joe Biden were not even a head turn away. Trump made his financial statement very clear: Seated in front of........

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