It began on the slopes in Aspen the last week of 1989. A real estate mogul and his paramour, a model named Marla Maples, had the misfortune to walk straight into the path of the mogul’s wife, Ivana Trump. There was a confrontation. And a short time later the gossip columns were consumed with the first juicy scandal of the 1990s. One tabloid headline went so far as to declare “Best Sex I Ever Had,” a reference (some say apocryphal) to how Ms. Maples rated Donald Trump.



The scandal, and the Trumps’ messy divorce, was but the opening salvo in a decade dominated by baby boomers who had taken the cultural reins in Hollywood, on Madison Avenue — and in Washington. Here’s what soon followed: an escalation in tabloid coverage in general; the birth of the web, Fox News and the 24/7 news cycle; incessant personal branding; and a new coarseness in public discourse.

More than 20 years later, it’s the ’90s all over again. O. J. Simpson will soon be released from prison. A reboot of “Twin Peaks” has been appointment TV. And only a year ago two consummate ’90s hangovers (and in one case a comb-over) — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — faced off for the presidency in the culture wars’ ultimate elimination round.

Sure, the pundits have been more in 1970s mode lately, likening Team Trump to the Nixon White House during Watergate. But the 1990s have never seemed more relevant. Bill Clinton’s presidential victory in 1992 not only set the stage for Hillary Clinton’s defeat but also led to Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Republican revolution, which gave the party’s boomers a majority in the House and initiated an angry, obstructionist, anti-establishment movement that, abetted by the far-right fringe, would later fuel Mr. Trump’s ascent.