The eternal return of the Trump presidency

Time passes. Trump news remains the same.

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Andrew Spear/Getty Images, str33tcat/iStock)

As the third summer of the Trump presidency nears its close, it's possible to grasp with enhanced clarity precisely what's distinctive about the era that dawned on the morning of November 9, 2016.

What's distinct is the sameness, the sensation of repetition, the feeling of forward momentum giving way to the permanence of an eternal now. This isn't the static nunc stans (abiding now) of the medieval theologians — the achievement of a God-like state of rest and fulfillment that transcends time and change altogether. Far from it. The "now" of the Trump era is a dynamic one filled with fluidity, flux, and constant turbulence, yet also following certain recurring patterns. Those patterns are so powerful, in fact, that they bring to mind the state of being evoked by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of "the eternal return of the same."

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.