Donald Trump 2.0

t’s Monday, January 20. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: Donald Trump the rabble-rouser, the debut of $MELANIA the meme coin, and why the 47th president appeals to black and Latino voters. Plus, three Israeli hostages are released after 471 harrowing days in captivity.

But first: a second Trump term.

Today, around noon, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.

The Free Press has been in Washington, D.C., for the last 72 hours covering this historic moment—and already, we’ve been breaking news. Texas senator Ted Cruz told Bari that Trump’s 90-day extension for TikTok could lead to “a very dangerous situation.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson revealed the time, one year ago, when he met Joe Biden in the Oval Office and the president couldn’t remember an executive order he had signed just three weeks earlier. In the coming days, we’ll share more conversations about the upcoming administration and the national vibe shift it signifies.

But right now, we’re handing the mic to the man who predicted the rise of MAGA more than ten years ago: Martin Gurri.

In 2014—one year before Donald Trump even declared his first White House run—Martin forecast the ascent of MAGA with his seminal book, The Revolt of the Public. The printing press transformed humanity in the 1400s, but Martin argued that the internet has ushered in even more radical change in our current moment, leading to Trump, Brexit, WallStreetBets on Reddit, BLM, the yellow vests movement, and more—while our elite institutions have grown increasingly out of touch.

Fury at the system led to Trump’s first norm-bashing presidency in 2016, Martin says, but this time around, the 47th president has a mandate to lead. And what will that look like over the next four years, exactly?

Here’s Martin:

“During his first term of office Trump’s energies were concentrated on negation”—but “this time around, all thoughts are turned to action.” The president-elect has “attracted a band of talented eccentrics”—including Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert Kennedy Jr., and J.D. Vance—“who are united in their repudiation of the status quo but disagree about much else.”

And “whether harmony can flow from this chorus of soloists will depend on the president-elect’s skill as a conductor.”

Read Martin’s piece, “Trump Has a Mandate to Lead. What Comes Next?”

A Long Line of Rabble-Rousers

Many critics say Donald Trump is a demagogue. But is that true? It’s complicated, as Adam Rubenstein discovered in his interview with Charles Zug, assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri and the author of Demagogues in American Politics.

Zug says it’s “difficult to think of a more effective demagogue than Donald Trump—if by ‘effective’ we simply mean someone who uses public speech to amass and maintain power. I can’t think of a single politician more adept at evading responsibility, undermining the credibility of his adversaries through ridicule (rather than through reasoned criticism), and recruiting followers into his own simplistic worldview of what America is and should be.”

And just wait till you hear what Zug has to say about Greta Thunberg.

Read the interview here: “Yes, Trump Is a Demagogue. But So Were Many of His Forebears.”

The Rising Democratic Coalition Fell. Now What?

Today is not just Donald Trump’s inauguration day. It’s also the day Americans celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. The irony, of course, is that for decades, the Democratic Party has been the political home for minority voters. But a record number voted for Trump in this election, a stark signal that the Democrats are struggling to maintain their loyalty.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) represents a heavily African American and Latino district in the Bronx that swung significantly toward Trump. The incoming president, says Torres, has succeeded in “creating the kind of multiracial working-class coalition that Democrats like me dream of building.”

But if Democrats want to win back people of color, Torres argues, then they could start by speaking to them. “Listening to working-class people of color means unshackling ourselves from self-anointed socialist saviors who speak falsely in their name,” he writes.

Read his piece on how the Democratic Party started losing voters of color—and how they can win them back.