Your Questions Answered: We're Already in the Aftermath

On Trump and Russia, defeating the mafia state, and more.

Thank you, subscribers, for all your thoughtful questions! I answered most of them and tried to address the main points of the questions I didn’t list. I apologize that I ran out of space before I could get to them all!

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For the next month, I’ll be doing interviews and getting ready for a tour for my new book, The Last American Road Trip. I’m particularly grateful for my readers as this period is grueling, especially given the political crises and that I have a family of four to support. Trying times! Anyway, I’ll be posting more information about the book and the tour as the date approaches. Here are the answers to your questions!

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Lynn D: Wondering what your take is on the Krasnov allegation (that Trump is a Russian operative who uses that name). Normally, I would dismiss it as another wild conspiracy, but the light of what's happening, it seems worth considering.

SK: Whether this particular allegation is true is irrelevant compared to the broader question of why nothing was done to prevent a known organized crime associate from gaining access to the highest level of political power. Twice.

Trump’s allegiance is to a transnational organized crime network in which the Kremlin is a key node. He has operated in this network for over half a century. His criminal ties are extensively documented in my book Hiding in Plain Sight, which contains hundreds of end notes to others’ work. Trump is a Kremlin asset: his activity benefits Russian officials and oligarchs and puts their interests before those of the US. This does not make him a secret agent or a spy. Trump is primarily a mafia associate, and it is through that lens that his rise should be examined.

Despite a surfeit of documentation, most pundits and politicians have been reluctant to pursue Trump’s Kremlin ties seriously because: 1) they do not want to follow the money trail, which leads to donors to both parties 2) Trump’s network includes US allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia 3) and ties to cases like Epstein/Maxwell that highlight lost US sovereignty and decades-long sadistic plots 4) and exposes many US officials, especially in the FBI, as corrupt accomplices. As a result, the focus has been on trivialities, like bot farms, or on rumors like this one. As I wrote in Hiding in Plain Sight, “No one could see the forest for the treason.”

I’m suspicious that the Krasnov story is bogus and is being spread as an attempt to delegitimize solid research on Trump’s ties to the Kremlin and its oligarchs. There are many concrete examples of Trump’s illicit activity that were meticulously documented but played down by media and never investigated by officials — some of whom turned out to be on the Kremlin oligarch payroll. Nothing about this crisis is new. The most important question is why every administration, most recently Biden’s, enabled it.

Jodie: Timothy Snyder posted on BlueSky that "Something is shifting....people are starting to realize that there is no truth here beyond the desire for personal wealth and power." Do you agree? If so, what do you think happens next and how can we, the average citizen, support whatever is necessary to make lasting change?

SK: We lost our representative government: it was infiltrated by organized crime long ago. The last chance to fix it was surrendered by the Biden administration. We have been living in The Aftermath since 2022: it just took Trump’s reinstallation for many to realize it. If that’s a new way of thinking, view this realization not with fear, but with defiant pride that you’ve already survived two years in The Aftermath. And now you are joined by other good people who’ve shed their delusions. We may have driven past the point of no return, but at least we got a carpool going.

As I said years ago, you can’t vote out the mafia. US officials needed to hold Trump’s criminal network accountable for their crimes and admit to the American public the full extent of institutional failure. Only from a place of complete honesty could they prevent the inevitable reinstallation. Only with urgency could this be accomplished, and it had to be done by 2022. But US officials had no interest in doing that because their loyalty lies elsewhere: to their bank accounts, to criminal cults, to foreign states. There was a narrow window in which this crisis could have been remedied. Biden chose to defenestrate democracy while letting the burglars climb inside.

Trump has never been popular and remains unpopular. Musk is even more loathed. What folks seem to be realizing is that it took a bipartisan effort to enable this disaster, and the aims of its players are transnational. A criminal network is carrying out hostile takeovers of multiple countries. They do not care about public opinion. Perhaps people in Snyder’s orbit have shifted — I’m guessing MSNBC viewers woke up after they mass fired the non-white anchors — but most Americans were already angry and unhappy with the status quo. It didn’t matter which party was in charge.

What citizens can do is know their values and have each other’s backs. You have been betrayed. None of you deserve it. You are all survivors of an abusive state. They will try to split this country into parts for resource extraction and they will encourage you to attack each other to make their job easier. Refuse them. Do not fall for stereotypes about “red” and “blue” states or pretend that an election in a country this corrupt is a representation of the people’s will. Never sacrifice your humanity or that of others. If you find yourself willing to negotiate another’s humanity, that is when they’ve won something real. That is when you’ll have surrendered your soul.

Katie G: I have recently become terrified that he will declare martial law. Do you see this as a likelihood? If so, how long do you think we have? His recent stunt with the military has me very concerned.

SK: It is hard to answer regarding a timeline: Trump and his backers move very fast. Yes, he may declare martial law. Right now, they are testing loyalty and purging possible opponents. There are no limits as to what he will do. When it comes to Trump, in any given scenario, think of the worst thing he could do and know it is the thing he likely will do. The reason: because he can. This is why it was essential to stop him early. I feel bad that I may be making your fear of martial law worse and that’s not my intent. I find it easier to deal with threats when I anticipate them and play them out in my head. But if that method doesn’t help you, don’t do it!

Mark S: Nancy Pelosi and Schumer have been toxic forces enabling billionaire power to coalesce and infect the Democratic Party for years. Pelosi handpicked the feckless Hakeem Jeffries to replace her and she sidelined the dynamic AOC from the Oversight Committee. Schumer seems to be going nowhere. Is there any sign the Democrats are rejecting the Pelosi/Schumer lock on Dems?

SK: Democratic voters are certainly rejecting it; you see it in the polls and hear it in the mass frustration over their inaction. The Democratic elite are trolling the public by tweeting as spectators while the nation burns. They refused to use their power to stop Trump over the past decades and they refuse to use it now. But the stupor of savior syndrome that has long gripped Democratic voters is slipping away. While it is sad that it is happening late, better late than never. There is no timeline on the truth. Unfortunately, there is a timeline on consequences.

Every official you named is an enabler of Trump’s network. If you examine their finances and foreign ties, you will find a great deal of overlap. The better folks grasp this, the better chance we have of saving our country — not saving a party or its corrupt leaders, but our country and their victims: the American people.

Thom R: What is the hold that Trump has over the Republicans? It has to be more than simply the threat of a primary. Do you think it involves threats of violence? It's a mystery to me what could be so frightening that this large group of people would forsake their country.

SK: Trump has leverage over the GOP due to 1) lifelong connections with organized crime and willingness to deploy violence 2) blackmail obtained long before 2016 via his mentor, mafia lawyer and GOP advisor Roy Cohn, and Cohn’s networks 3) blackmail and state secrets Trump obtained during his first term 4) court packing that creates the potential of legal consequences for anyone who challenges him 5) bribery and/or shared evil goals with the GOP, though for many this incentive fades over time when they realize they will never be more than a disposable hired hand. Many Republicans were lured by corrupt ambition, but they stay due to fear.

Gretchen P: I was at a movie a couple nights ago in a theater built in the 1930’s, for a much-needed break. In the upstairs bar, people were doing the usual chatting and drinking. It felt very surreal, and I felt truly uncomfortable, thinking this could have been Germany as Hitler rose to power. What will it take to get more Americans aware that fascism is at our doorstep?

SK: It is less important that people define this government as fascist (even though it is) than that they know they are being screwed, spied on, and denied a future. I do not believe that the way people should learn this is “the hard way”. I hope the mass firings of federal employees, including hard-working people like the stewards of our national parks, end that terrible logic. Innocent people should not have to suffer so that misguided people can “learn”. But it is important to highlight the concrete cruelties of this administration and that anyone could be next. There is no protection in a mafia state. You are not safe even if you think you are. But you are safer when you acknowledge the existence of the goddamn mafia, and band with others to expose it.

Sabrina A: The use of private security (read: paid thugs) to cart out that woman in Idaho at a GOP town hall, as well as Elon’s private security being deputized by the FBI (I think), strikes me as the beginning of what we’ve been fearing all along, which is essentially an army of brownshirts enlisted to do Trump and Elon’s bidding and removing dissent. Literally. How likely would it be that governors or even private citizens could muster a class action lawsuit that would sue the government for using them? And even if it was deemed unconstitutional, could it be enforced?

SK: It is worth trying lawsuits but know that Trump’s goon squad prepared for this by packing the courts, and that when the courts are not packed, they simply disregard the law. Once the Democrats let them get away with ignoring subpoenas, the confines of law ended for Trump’s crew. The value of something like a class action lawsuit would be to highlight mass dissent. The value of a governor pursuing a lawsuit is to show that they will do their job — protecting the residents of their state — even in the face of threats. But know that the brownshirt army has been in place for a long time. We are only seeing a more overt manifestation. This means that their protectors stretch beyond this administration, and they also need to be weeded out.

Judy G: Judith Levine’s editorial in the Guardian last week stated, “It’s time for Americans to withhold their taxes.” This has been on my mind as a form of resistance—I can’t stand the idea of funding these robber barons. Any thoughts on this?

SK: I’m intrigued by the idea of a tax protest. Our tax money is being stolen and repurposed by unelected anti-American plutocrats. If a tax protest occurred, it should be broad and include wealthy people removed enough from the billionaire world that they worry about the economy (or simply have a conscience and don’t want their country destroyed) yet still hold significant political sway. I’m curious if folks like this exist. Like the class action lawsuits suggested before, a mass tax withholding would be a public statement of civil disobedience. If pursued, folks need to be strategic: pretend you are the Trump admin, imagine how you’d get revenge, and then protect yourself from their move before you make yours. Otherwise, the Trump camp will weaponize the IRS against dissidents, a common tactic in autocracies.

Jac Qui: When do you know it is time to leave the country? My partner is a US citizen. I live in Canada. I’m worried about her eventual safety both as a woman and as a masculine presenting member of the LGBTQ2S community. Do you anticipate violence between MAGA and those population groups who Trump is trying to erase? He seems to be sending the message that violence in his name is condoned.

SK: I got this question from Jewish and Black readers in past Q&As. Every time I get it, my heart breaks. This is your partner’s country, and I am furious that she feels she has to flee it. As I said in past Q&As, I don’t give advice about moving, because that is a very personal decision. I’m also not confident that Canada will be safer in the long run. But yes, I am worried about violence against LGBTQ people. I also worry about legal repression, including the end of legal gay marriage and denial of healthcare and jobs. There is now a horrific backlash against LGBTQ people after what had been a great era of advances in civil rights. That said, there is a long and admirable tradition of LGBTQ activism that cannot be erased (no matter how hard this admin tries.) The history of LGBTQ activism offers many useful lessons for today, especially that of the Reagan era.

Once again, because your life is your personal business, my answer goes out more to people reading this than to you: stand up for those targeted. We are living in a time of incredible threat and pain, and no one deserves to feel alone, or like they will be abandoned out of political convenience. Let your LGBTQ friends and LGBTQ people in general know they are wanted and appreciated in America. This is a civil rights issue: an important one, and a straightforward one.

Kelly S: Do you think an unforeseen turn, or multiple turns, could come in which Musk's and Trump's and others' actions actually backfire sooner rather than later and hurt them and their plans?

SK: Trump is easier for me to understand because I’ve been studying him as a villain since I was a child. Musk is more unpredictable, as are his tech cohort. It’s not hard to understand what they want — money, power, depopulation, and the replacement of people with artificial entities — but predicting their daily activity is difficult. Because the US government long worked with Musk despite knowing he was a security threat, he already had much of the classified data his lackeys recently stole. Same with Trump. He left his first term with an enormous amount of state secrets that he uses as leverage, and it’s not those boxes in Mar-a-Lago. It’s digital files; it’s everything. The leverage of secrets helped secure his reinstallation and likely aided other corrupt foreign leaders. A complicit DOJ and CIA allowed it.

That said, Musk is much more erratic than Trump. Whereas Trump is a career criminal whose behavior and beliefs have remained consistent over decades, Musk shifts alliances and behaves in wild ways. So yes, things may backfire. I don’t buy recent allegations of feuds (like Bannon vs Musk), but I think the odds of someone powerful getting in a real feud with Musk are high, and he may get ousted. How much damage is done by that point is hard to say. The US crisis should be viewed as a global crisis, one made worse by technological dependence.

Cherie: What do you think is up with the secretary of defense “firing” all the generals and JAGS, making comments to the effect that experienced generals & JAGs were fired “in case anything happens” and they don’t want any interference? Jonathan O: What do the experiences of other dictatorships tell us are the likely outcomes of the military becoming an instrument of the strongman in power?

SK: Trump made similar moves in his first term: this is classic autocrat behavior. He is purging the military, testing their loyalty, and replacing them with lackeys. Erik Prince and other mercenaries will be tapped to fill positions with their own men. The Trump team does not want people who are loyal to the US or who would hesitate to fire on American civilians. As for learning from other autocracies, the military is always key to whether an authoritarian regime consolidates. But I worry that the ultimate plan is not consolidation, but dissolution — and that Trump and his backers may be seeking people with no national loyalty for precisely that reason. They want people who will feel nothing should the United States cease to exist.

Gauri: Have been thinking about your phrase “stripping America for parts” nonstop watching this unfold. What should Congress be doing and what, if anything, should we be demanding of our elected representatives? Is there anything you recommend at the state / local level? I’m sadly not surprised by how aggressive Trump 2.0 is, but horrified and grieving none the less. Thank you as always for your work and clarity. Jeff: Where are those with courage and a backbone to stand up? I am so frustrated with Congress and the Supreme Court to put up a fight in this battle. With feckless cowards like Merrick Garland these folks seem to just shrink. I am just so dismayed right now and feel powerless. Darrell: It's really hard to look forward but I have two young adult daughters and I'm not about to lay down and give up. I know we can't let this mad man go for another four years. I have no answers. Where are our so-called leaders?

SK: I am grieving too. One of the wildest rumors about Trump has been the time traveler theory due to Trump’s scientist uncle allegedly having sole access to Nikola Tesla’s papers. I wish this theory were true because Congress needs a time machine to go back and expel itself and be replaced with people who actually care about this country! Their failure is intentional. They are complicit. It was bad enough that they failed in 2016 when Trump’s kleptocratic ambitions were obvious but hypothetical; it is unforgivable that they then left an entire term of state crimes unpunished.

My advice here is do not wait for elections. Do not give money to politicians; give it to groups and people who you know are helping others. Many Americans are barely getting by. In order for people to participate in politics, basic material needs must be met. Work to improve and protect your community or focus on whatever causes interest you. Also, it’s fine to take breaks or concentrate on small efforts: if everyone does something small, bigger changes will happen. But do not rely on people with a track record of betrayal.

Andrew: Do you struggle with family members in the MAGA cult, and if so, how do you deal? I was raised in a conservative Christian household, and I haven’t spoken about religion or politics with my parents in about two decades. We have sort of had a truce. But the current administration is negatively affecting the livelihoods of my spouse and my siblings. My folks sold out their values and their children’s future to a carnival barker conman. I am so disappointed in and angry with my parents and am unsure how to express it, for fear of what I might say.

SK: No one in my family is in the MAGA cult, but I have friends in the same situation as yours. It is very difficult, and I am sorry you have to go through it. There is a difference between the Trump voters (who often are ambivalent people who hate the Democrats more) and the hardcore base. I have made headway with ambivalent Trump voters by focusing on shared sources of frustration, like political corruption. But if people see Trump as a messianic figure, even rationalizing his sinful ways as a manifestation of Biblical prophecy, they are almost impossible to reach.

The best approach I’ve found is through expressing compassion for the victims of the Trump administration rather than emphasizing Trump himself. There are millions of new victims thanks to the federal layoffs and attacks on social services. It’s hard to have political conversations with parents. It’s possible that if you break through to them by detailing your own plight, they may feel guilty and get defensive at first, and hopefully express compassion in the end. I don’t know though. All I know is you didn’t do anything wrong and I’m sorry you have to go through this.

Laurie: Looking forward to the new book! Any idea what the Fort Knox/Gold interest is about and what damage they may do there?

SK: No idea. The gold might be a red herring. Their real interest lies in replacing the dollar with a digital currency that they can control and linking our rights and freedom to it through mass digital surveillance.

Bernard: How does one fight the idea that the kleptocracy and mobsters posing as government officials have won? Is there truly anything that can be done to stem the tide of corruption and destruction we're all experiencing?

SK: I’m very frustrated because there were many offramps over the past decades and our officials chose not to take them. They instead pin the blame on ordinary American people, as if we could do a citizens’ arrest of a transnational crime syndicate.

The tide of corruption is already here, so seek shelter and swim. Work to protect what we have and remember the vast majority of Americans reject this kleptocratic agenda. No one likes a thief. Folks will vote for an asshole, but they’ll never vote for a thief. When talking with Trump voters, emphasize the thievery.

Folks are going to have to get very creative. This is a mafia state, not a full autocracy. We have a long rich tradition of free speech and pure American wildness. Embrace our gung-ho, lowdown American ways! Recent political culture pushed us to place ourselves into neat little categories and rely on algorithmic gadgets: shed those dependencies. Be strange and obnoxious and loud, like an American! Be furious while grinning, like an American! Before I focused on the US, I studied authoritarian states in the former USSR. What amazed me was both how long they dragged on, and how people made meaning within them anyway, because it is human nature to love and create. People defied the regimes subtly, even when they were afraid. We don’t have to be so subtle. We are Americans and not very good at subtlety anyway.

JV: What do you think our phones have physically done to us? I occasionally throw my phone across the room (onto a soft landing, I ain’t wealthy), out of frustration based on what I’m reading in the news. But damn, sometimes it feels good to do, and good to just leave it there. However, I feel like my phone has physically changed my mind and body, not in a good way. For one, my attention span has become very short. Thoughts?

SK: Smartphones are the worst invention of my lifetime. I love the internet, but I hate smartphones. I use as few apps as possible. If payphones were still common, I’d leave my phone at home. It hurts attention spans, but more than that, it erodes compassion, self-reliance, and our collective sense of reality. AI makes this much worse. Commerce smartphone requirements like QR codes are dangerous. I refuse to use my phone for anything but rudimentary tasks. But I am not against the internet: the ability to communicate across wide geographic boundaries remains wonderful.

Rebecca: When Chelsea Clinton was on Watch What Happens Live, she was asked about what books she's read recently, and she mentioned your books. Did you know about her answer, and what do you think about a Clinton reading your books?

SK: This is the first I’ve heard about Chelsea Clinton! But I know Hillary Clinton enjoyed The View from Flyover Country because she praised it and quoted it in her speeches.

Patricia: I don’t understand what the end game is of blowing up the economy. Who is going to build their stuff if we are all ruined?

SK: Robots and slaves. They will call the slaves “prisoners”, and they will include many people incarcerated for no reason. Keep an eye on the private prison industry.

Annette: Hi Sarah. Do you know that if ever you need anything there’s a legion of your readers who will gladly do whatever we can. We owe you the world for your fearless chronicling of the machinations of autocracy and for the beauty of your travel tales and photography. You know how to contact us. Best wishes and solidarity.

SK: Thank you Annette! That is very much appreciated.

Bryan S: You mentioned briefly in one of your books about 9/11 but didn’t comment further or wrote about it very briefly. Do you have information regarding our government or officials within our government having prior knowledge of the attacks? For me literally everything about our country changed that day and there have been so many unanswered questions left in the ether. Are you able to offer any insight or new information?

SK: We know they had prior knowledge of 9/11 because members of the Bush administration were briefed and either ignored the warnings out of incompetence, or purposefully ignored the warnings and let the attacks happen. This isn’t a controversial statement; it was reported by direct witnesses. A lot of real-time reporting on 9/11 has been erased — sometimes intentionally, sometimes as a result of technological change in the early 2000s — and I expect that erasure to continue.

I wrote in They Knew how “truthers” were unfairly demonized. The media equated citizens looking for information with the likes of Alex Jones, a propagandist and monster. There is nothing wrong with civic inquiry into a horrific attack. I still think the inquiry should be broadened given that the 9/11 attacks were a pretext for long-held Iraq War ambitions and because leaders like Netanyahu openly applauded them, saying they were good for Israel. The connections between the Bush family and the Saudis also need more examination. And all that is the tip of the iceberg. On that note, there is a four-part series from, of all places, Fox News, that aired in fall 2001 and is worth watching — if you can find it before it’s deleted again.

Susan P: With Kash Patel and Dan Bongino running the FBI, I'm expecting horrors. If we can pull out of this mess, is there any way to build a new FBI that's any better than the historical horrors, or is any national investigative body always going to be corrupt?

SK: Very interesting question. The FBI is, overall, an abhorrent agency with a long history of abuse dating back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover. That is not why Trump wants to transform it. He wants to transform it because it’s not abusive enough, and not obedient enough to him and his cohort. He wants a full gestapo. While I would normally applaud the end of the FBI, I do not when Trump is initiating it. We need an agency that protects Americans from terrorists, militias, mafias, and other organized violent groups. We do not need an agency that streamlines organized crime under the guise of “confidential informants”, attacks civil rights activists, and violates everyone’s privacy, which is what the FBI does. So yes, I think it is possible for there to be a federal legal protective body, but it needs to be pared down, transparent, and subject to enormous oversight so that it cannot abuse power.

Sarah: Thoughts on all the National Parks staff firings? How is Musk simultaneously a renewable energy/battery/solar power guy and an enemy of land conservation?

SK: Of all the horrors unleased, the national parks is hardest for me to watch. In 2016, I worried the parks would soon be destroyed and took my children to as many of them as I could over the past eight years; that journey is described in my new book The Last American Road Trip. The parks are very close to my heart. I hope the stories in my book prompt people to fight for them. But I think folks will do it anyway: this is one of those causes most everyone embraces. That’s why it’s a dire sign that the administration would threaten the parks, for they clearly do not fear public unrest.

As for Musk, I have not followed his life trajectory like I did Trump’s, so I don’t know if his alleged environmentalism was real. I know that he engages in destructive environmental practices now. He’s obsessed with crypto and AI and other tech that rapes the land. I do not think he has reverence for nature, human or otherwise, so it does not surprise me that he backs this destruction.

Marina: Do you think AOC will get any support from the rest of the Democrats?

SK: I am wary of AOC because of her support for Biden when he was abetting atrocities. I don’t know if her current outrage is rooted in sincere frustration or she’s the state-appointed token dissident. But regardless, the information she shares is useful to people, so even if she’s doing good by accident, that’s better than doing nothing at all like the rest of the Democrats. I don’t expect them to join her.

DaveinNH: What will America look like when your kids are taking their kids on road trips? (Will we still have functioning roads?)

SK: I don’t know! I hope I am around to see it, even though I dread the future to some degree. Over the past decade, I’ve looked for places that will never change no matter how bad things get. I describe some of them in The Last American Road Trip. I hope I will see them again with my children and their children someday.

Keith: What do you see as the big picture roadmap out of this mess that is unfolding at light speed in front of us? Also, have you found any more cool rocks or gems lately?

SK: Honesty and compassion are the ways out. Things are moving fast, with lots of worry about the future, but it is still critical to preserve the record of how we got here. Our current crisis is the result of no accountability for previous crises like Iran-Contra, the Iraq War, the 2008 financial collapse, etc. Or, going back further, to slavery and other practices of selective autocracy. The radical right found the focus on accurate American history very threatening. It showed that we have long been at war with corruption, that certain groups were always targets, and that ordinary Americans have long used creative tactics to strike back — and sometimes, they won.

There is no set road map out. We have an unprecedented situation with climate change creating a time limit and digital media altering the notion of reality. So my answer reflects the second part of your question: push the dirt aside and recognize that the people around you are in a shared plight, with their fears buried deep. When I dig, I find rocks that are so special, it’s hard to believe they were there all along, with everyone stepping right over them. People are like that too. We’re all better than we seem and hurting more than we show.

Laura H: Hi from Little Rock! Any chance you'll come to the Clinton Library for the new book tour?

SK: I won’t be for the book, though I wish I were. I’ve got a whole chapter on Arkansas including my 2019 trip to the Clinton Library!

Justin: When reading warnings about authoritarian creep in the US from you and journalists like Chris Hedges, Jared Yates Sexton, and others, I always find myself asking if the US has the social muscle memory to support this. Russia did: it was easy to move from Tsarism to Bolshevism, and it was easy for Russia and the ‘stans to move to post-Soviet autocratic rule, but building an authoritarian nation from scratch seems like a lot of work for a group of people who haven’t done it and never had to work for a living. Do you believe the circumstances in this country will support this?

SK: Interesting question. It’s hard to compare our time to the Bolshevik era due to vast differences in literacy and traditions of free speech and media. That said, what our overlords want to do is similar in the sense that they want to destroy every vestige of the past and replace it, largely through digital technology. They want to control meaning itself; they want to regulate our ability to find meaning in our life and to know our own past. But it’s more akin to what Pol Pot wanted than to the Bolsheviks.

I also don’t think Russia, or other former Soviet states, moved easily from one system to another. Younger generations were often grateful to be free of Soviet oppression, but it was difficult for older folks. The chaos and violence of the 1990s was traumatizing — it was romanticized in the West because Westerners did not have to live in the turmoil. Anyway, any US autocracy will not be formed from scratch, but will borrow from the selective autocracies of the past — slavery, Native American genocide, Jim Crow, etc. We see this happening now. My larger worry is still that the goal is the dissolution of the US into oligarch-run fiefdoms, and that the fascist ploys (threatening to conquer Canada and Greenland for example) are aimed at capturing territory and then reorganizing under new borders. We are much more powerful as people if we stay together as the United States of America and fight to put the principles of democracy, never fully honored, into practice.

Ordinary People: Will there be another presidential election in the United States and, if so, will Trump run again in 2026? Who will run for the MAGA party after Trump dies or is so obviously disabled that he cannot run again?

SK: I don’t know. Trump is a unique figure in terms of his cult status and the amount of leverage he holds (largely blackmail). The leverage can be transferred but attempts to create a GOP successor have been unsuccessful. We are in a very turbulent period, which is typical for mafia states — but I also wonder if they’re trying to get things done before Trump dies. However, it is important to stress that we are looking at a network: the system is deeply rotted, precedes Trump, and will continue after him unless people fix it. But the lack of a successor is a real problem for them.

Pat B: Little bit of a softball question... are there any juxtapositions (thematic, visual, etc) you saw during your travels that really stuck with you that didn’t make the book?

SK: Yes, there are a ton of places that didn’t make the book and stories that ended up cut due to my editor! Some of them ended up in this newsletter instead. I wish I’d written more about the places between St. Louis and New Orleans, which is an amazing drive, especially if you love American music and have an interest in the civil rights movement. I wish I’d done a chapter on New Orleans, Mississippi, and states on or near that route — especially southern Illinois, which is a fascinating region — but I ran out of room. Expect more on them here! (I’ve already written on a few: Memphis, for example.)

Derryk: In line with your new book, what was your favorite out of state place to visit?

SK: I don’t like to play favorites — I genuinely love all the states! But northern Michigan startled me with its beauty.

Victoria: Is there an “other side” of all this where the coup/collapse is complete and whatever rats are left standing move in to fill the vacuum? Where there’s a break in the daily onslaughts? How do we know when we’ve reached the “other side,” or have we already reached it, and this is just what daily life is now?

SK: There’s been a Stephen King quote in my mind since Trump declared candidacy in 2015: “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don't.”

That’s from The Stand, King’s novel about the US turning into a post-apocalyptic hellhole. But it reflects what we are going through as individuals and as a nation. To some extent, we are already in the aftermath: the chance at ridding our life of Trump was squandered by the Biden administration. On one hand, things can get much worse, as this past month showed. On the other hand, they may get better. But they won’t be the same, and neither will we. We will always be going through.

It’s hard to live with constant chaos. The instability aids autocrats because they offer an illusion of control. But it is only an illusion — a lie, a lure. Americans should expect some form of autocracy but never accept it: there is a difference. Find some routine in your life — a hobby, a daily walk, anything — that is the same every day and that no one can take away. It’ll help give you a sense of steadiness during very uncertain times.

OK, that’s all for now! Please preorder The Last American Road Trip — my next Q & A will be on the road! Hope to see you there. I will be back with more articles here soon. Thank you again for your support — it is greatly appreciated and needed!

My son looking at the Super Wolf Blood Moon of January 20, 2019.