Since the great disaster of 2016 a number of my close friends have asked me what a Trump Administration will look like. I am a meddling clairvoyant but enough in American History exists to show us the way. In this case a route that is full of sexism, corruption, incompetence, and disaster. If the person of Warren Harding bears little resemblance to Donald Trump...you can be sure that the path of the two men is very similar.

The average American does not know much about Warren Harding. A second tier President residing far outside the pantheon of American Hero’s, Harding exists in the pages of books frequented only by academics, nerds and political junkies. Born in 1865 to a middle class family, Harding built a life for himself in academics, media and then finally politics. He was elected to the Ohio State Senate after receiving support from powerful allies climbing the ranks to become Lt. Governor and then U.S. Senator in 1914. In 1920 Harding entered a huge field of candidates vying for the Republican Nomination. At the contested 1920 GOP Convention, Harding was nominated on the 10th ballot as a compromise candidate. In the fall election, Harding won an easy victory taking advantage of popular anger over WWI and U.S. support of the British during the Irish Revolution.

The entire political career of Warren Harding had been subsidized by powerful political interests and corporate influence. A quintessential ‘yes man', Harding had little ability to govern and no central ethical philosophy that governed his actions. Once elected Harding staffed his administration with incompetent careerists and shills that were just listed out for him on a cocktail notepad. At the behest of his donors Harding illegally used Law Enforcement agencies to crack down on political opponents including: liberals, Jewish intellectuals, unions and so called Communists. Much effort was also made to enforce the Mann Act (White Slave Act), a terribly racists law designed to prevent race-mixing and voting. Scandals dominated the Harding Administration with several top advisors resigning over allegations of bribery and eventually the Tea Pot Dome Scandal. Harding died in 1923 and his term was finished by his Vice President Calvin Coolidge.

Warren Harding was completely unprepared to be President of the United States. His presidency should be understood as one that moved the United States away from freedom and toward fascism. Nearly every one of his policies were designed by subalterns to redirect the maw of American ethic toward a corrupt, authoritarian, class specific, and racially divided society that benefited both corporate power and the WASP elite. Harding was not conservative nor liberal but instead a kind of Statist Corporatist who rolled over for the forces that supported him. Taking advantage of popular anger and popular negative stereotypes, Harding and his advisors were able to pass policy that did the exact opposite of what the people wanted. This is exactly what Trump’s White House will look like...if not worse.

Trump is really just a much more outrageous Harding. Like Harding, Trump has lived a perpetually subsidized existence with no governing philosophy. Like Harding, Trump took advantage of popular anger that he didn't really care about but knew how to manipulate. Like Harding, Trump will have a casual disregard for Law and Order. Most of like Harding, Trump will turn the apparatus of government over to loyalists and corrupt staffers.

Unlike some I do not predict the complete political apocalypse to come. I think we have only a 10% chance that Trump will appoint himself Dictator and probably only 15% chance he gets a second term . But we have elected a dictatorial child to lead a governing coalition of merciless careerists that are completely disconnected from reality….so don't get too excited.