“His descent is in a sense our descent.” — Peter Wehner on Trump at 80
Donald Trump turned 80 two weeks ago. But Peter Wehner’s timely Atlantic piece, “The Apotheosis of Donald Trump,” isn’t much of a birthday present. Wehner even suggests that for all Trump’s madness, mayhem and malevolence, the orange octogenarian eludes Shakespearean tragedy. So no historic hall of infamy for Donald. He’s too sad for that.
Trump is a man, Wehner says, of borderless corruption — malicious, totally corrupt, without any visible redeeming qualities. But he isn’t King Lear. Trump lacks Lear’s complexity, Wehner says. Lear was a figure with whom you could have some empathy. Trump is not. He is, as Wehner notes, “a flatter figure in that sense” — but that doesn’t make him any less dangerous.
For the DC-based Wehner, what makes Trump more dangerous, as an octogenarian, is his decomposition. The signs are everywhere: the disinhibition intensifying, the impulsivity more easily triggered, the volatility producing a foreign policy that no ally can track or trust. His descent, Wehner warns, might be our descent. Peak Trump. The apotheosis of a pathetically malevolent madman. Just in time for the semiquincentennial, which Wehner will “celebrate” at Monticello.
Five Takeaways
• Trump at 80: The Apotheosis and the Decomposition. Visible mental and physical decomposition. Disinhibition more intense, impulsivity more easily triggered, volatility producing a foreign policy no ally can track. Trump 2.0 more dangerous than Trump 1.0. The question is not whether this ends well.
• Not King Lear: Man of Borderless Corruption. Wehner uses the Lear allusion but hesitates: Lear had complexity, empathy. Trump has no visible redeeming qualities. Malicious and corrupt from head to toe. A flatter figure. His descent is in a sense our descent.
• When It Happens Twice, That Breaks Trust. European allies could call Trump a parenthesis after 2016. After 2024, they cannot. Even if the next president is sane, there is no guarantee the one after will be. That uncertainty is a real inflection point.
• The Crack-Up of MAGA World. Trump’s approval among Republicans: down from the nineties to the seventies. Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene: all broken from the movement or turned on its leadership. The first serious cracks.
• Monticello for the 250th. Welcoming new immigrants at Jefferson’s house, six days before the 250th. A birthday not untainted by sadness but not without hope. What would Jefferson think of Trump? Probably not terribly favourable.
About the Guest
Peter Wehner is a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic and former senior adviser to Presidents Reagan, H.W. Bush, and W. Bush. His Atlantic piece “The Apotheosis of Donald Trump” was published June 14, 2026.
References
Peter Wehner, “The Apotheosis of Donald Trump,” The Atlantic, June 14, 2026: theatlantic.com/author/peter-wehner
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow
Chapters:
00:00:31 Trump at 80 and the apotheosis
00:02:07 Visible decomposition: more dangerous than before
00:04:54 King Lear: hesitation; a flatter figure
00:05:30 His descent is our descent
00:06:40 European mystification
00:08:10 When it happens twice, that breaks trust
00:11:16 The crack-up of MAGA world
00:44:02 Republican regrets
00:47:13 Monticello for the 250th