alt Hacker NewsYa, honestly it is getting scarier than I thought it would. I disliked him from the outset, but figured "after his term we'll at least return to normalcy and fix things". Now I'm much less confident, but desperately hope it goes back to normal after the next election. Maybe we can use this experience to strengthen the institutions that crumbled under the pressure.
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> "after his term we'll at least return to normalcy and fix things"
We'll only return to normalcy after Trump upon implementing our own Nuremburg-style trials for members of his administration and enacting a number of constitutional amendments to fix the structural failures which allowed it to come this far. Even then, it would take at least a generation before the rest of the world will consider treating the US as a sane, good-faith member of the global community.
Unfortunately, the chances of either reform occurring are near zero right now.
The only way to get enough support for such reforms requires the bulk of the MAGA cult wake from their delirium, which won't happen unless/until things get a lot worse. Loyalists have a pretty large capacity to compartmentalize their dislike of actions taken by Trump separate from their support of Trump the person, even when you can get past the "fake news" mantra that lets them dismiss anything negative which doesn't affect them directly.
The institutions "crumbled" because of the hostile Supreme Council with its "unitary executive" theory (aka sparkling autocracy). The only way we're going to have institutions again is a Constitutional amendment laying out that Congress can charter independent agencies. I'd suggest their heads be directly elected by the People. And of course we've got to get rid of the supplicants on the Council too, and then maybe we can call it a Court again.