Antonio Navalón
It was a scene that could have inspired emperors such as Hadrian or Trajan. But, of them all, the only one who did not need to explain how to be a good emperor was Augustus. He ruled for 40 years, and, with a vision ahead of his time, he consolidated an empire and a legacy that transcended politics. Among his most fascinating indirect contributions is Livia, his wife. She was not only the mother of Tiberius and great-grandmother of Caligula; she was also the first recorded female stateswoman.
A strategist, counselor, and defender of imperial power, Livia embodied the role of a female political figure in a world dominated by men. Curiously, Augustus never wanted to be emperor, but the assassination of Julius Caesar—his great-uncle who named him his heir—created the conditions for the Empire to take shape with him at the helm.
History works like this: when a model seems to have run its course, someone willing to revive or reinvent it always emerges. Sometimes, this is done out of ambition; other times, it is because of external circumstances—children, love like Cleopatra, or unexpected twists of fate. What these moments bring with them is not always new blood but a renewed vision that drives the need to make—or remake—an empire.
On January 20th, Donald J. Trump returned to the White House. With a more restrained but equally disruptive tone, he assumed the presidency in a global context that seemed designed for him—a polarized world full of uncertainty and disorder. Months ago, many dismissed the possibility of his return. Personally, when I was asked a few months ago why Trump couldn’t win, I used all the arguments that represent a profound ignorance of the human condition. But perhaps I forgot something essential: Trump doesn’t follow the rules or behave predictably.
For any other politician, for someone who had not been a miraculous product of reality TV, his history would have been an insurmountable obstacle. An attempted coup, multiple legal scandals, and unprecedented national polarization would have been enough to end any aspirations.
But Trump is not just any politician. He has the mentality of an entertainment producer, a unique ability to manage time, and an almost infallible instinct for capturing the attention of the masses. He is not so much concerned with substance as with form; with that, he has mobilized millions. His return comes at a time when traditional politics, worn down by years of restraint, and the ideological radicalization of the “woke” agenda seemed to have left the United States without a clear direction.
Trump understood that it was time to reshuffle the board. And that is what he has been doing since the first day of his new term. He faced trials, accusations, and an almost unanimous moral condemnation during his campaign. He is the first convicted US president in history. And what happened? Nothing. Even when the special prosecutor, Jack Smith, proved his involvement in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, it had no major consequences other than a weak uncertainty about his future outside the bars. Moreover, by the way, on the first day of his presidency, he granted full pardons to the more than fifteen hundred people who were prosecuted for the 2021 coup attempt.
Trump always maintained that the investigations and evidence presented against him, related to his actions after the 2020 elections, were politicized attempts to damage his image and his electoral campaign. Those who fear nothing owe nothing, but those who do not know what they fear behave as if they owe nothing.
Donald Trump has mastered, like no other, the art of repeating a narrative until it becomes truth. He has perfected this lesson, and it is now part of his political DNA. Trump is not a perfect leader, which may be his greatest strength. He is an amplified reflection of our contradictions. He is a polarizing figure, but also evidence of something more profound: some leaders can deny reality to achieve their ambitions and get people to believe in and follow them despite this.
However, not everything about Trump is negative. His diagnosis of China is correct. The Chinese, historically more focused on defending themselves than expanding, took advantage of the crises in the United States — from the dot-com bubble to September 11 — to advance in strategic areas. And so, almost without violence, in the Chinese way, like the drop of water that pierces the brain, they occupied a territory that today puts them in a better position in many fields than the United States of America itself.
Focused on its financial and technological hegemony, the United States neglected its manufacturing industries. Trump identified this problem and made it his priority. His strategy is based on three pillars: confronting China – with strategies as bold and subtle as the call made before he assumed the presidency -recovering manufacturing as an economic engine, and awakening the country from its lethargy in which it has relied on immigrant labor.
For Trump, illegal immigrants are a threat to national security. However, this narrative ignores an obvious reality: many sectors of the US economy depend on them. I doubt there is a hotel, building, or major office in any large town or city in the United States that does not have illegal immigrants among its butlers or employees. Something else I think Trump seems to ignore is that a significant number of the nannies who look after the future of American children are also generally not legally established immigrants. When hiring them, I don’t know how many mothers actually ask their employees about their immigration status in the country. Finally, there are the cooks who also fall into this category of illegal migrants and who are scattered across countless kitchens throughout the United States.
In other words, this move would seem suicidal to anyone other than Donald Trump’s American empire. However, the United States is at its best and most triumphant moment. Its “golden age” is beginning. But make no mistake: It is the strongest empire on Earth not because of its strength but because of the extreme weakness of the others.
Trump’s return is more a warning sign to the rest of the world than a show of force: the empire strikes back. But beyond the immediate impact of his return, a big question remains to be answered: what horizon does Trump see for his departure? Beyond his slogan of “making America great again”, what legacy does he intend to leave his people as a fundamental contribution?
We are at the beginning of a new chapter in his term of office, but one thing is clear: if Trump is really willing to change the conditions of citizenship by birth, a door could be opened through which, in the future, someone not born on US soil could even want to and become president of the United States of America.
The empire strikes back. And, unlike George Lucas’s masterpiece, this is not fiction.
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