We have a Justice Department which is now 100% the political pawn of the president,” warns Brookings senior fellow Jonathan Rauch. “He points, and they shoot.”

Point and shoot. Like an old Kodak camera. Not exactly assuring words, you might think, from a man who begins our conversation looking back at the first six months of 2026 by announcing that he’s significantly less alarmed than he was a year ago. Yes, Rauch acknowledges, Trump’s approval ratings have sunk, the courts have pushed back, Elon Musk’s DOGE rampage has petered out. And yet the pointing and the shooting goes on.

Rauch, who only months ago diagnosed eighteen “distinct and unmistakable signs” of an American fascism in a much touted Atlantic piece, now admits he may never crack the Trumpian code. Every time you nail it to the wall, he says, it morphs, creeps or sails away. Like an Iranian gunboat in Hormuz. Slippery stuff for the liberal Brookings analyst. Fascism one month, McKinley-style imperialism the next, then Gilded Age plutocracy — although without those ontologically undeniable Carnegie libraries. Meanwhile, America’s 250th birthday party fizzled into what Rauch calls a “damp squib,” its reflecting pool turning an opaque green rather than a clarifying blue. A muddy madness in DC.

Still, amidst all the opacity, Rauch remains a defiantly optimistic liberal. In contrast with yesterday’s guest, the reality hallucinating Turi Munthe, Rauch believes not only that there is an ontological reality, but that it’s good. Frank Fukuyama was right, Rauch insists. Liberalism is not only the only political system that creates wealth, produces knowledge and settles disputes, but also establishes an undeniable reality. Liberals just need to relearn how to clearly tell its story. Perhaps. Though storytelling is certainly simpler when nobody is waving a gun at you.

Five Takeaways

• Less Alarmed, Still Scared. Approval ratings down, courts pushing back, Musk off his rampage — but the Justice Department is now 100% the political pawn of the president. He points, and they shoot. And the lower his ratings fall, the more willing he becomes.

• I May Never Crack the Code. Eighteen signs of fascism in The Atlantic — yet the phenomenon keeps morphing: imperialism one month, plutocracy the next. Trump is such a disorganized improviser that Rauch concedes the code may never be cracked.

• Not the Gilded Age. The old tycoons built Carnegie libraries and Rockefeller universities. The new class is narcissistic and nihilistic — sounding, like Andreessen, as if they're parodying Ayn Rand. They aren't: they're quoting her.

• The Gloves-Off Court. Humphrey's Executor overturned after eighty years, the Voting Rights Act gutted, birthright citizenship surviving narrowly. The imperial presidency isn't new — the speed is.

• Fukuyama Was Right. There is only one system that produces knowledge, peace, freedom, and wealth — and liberals must relearn how to brag about it. The moral vacuum is real, but so is the craving to fill it.

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:

00:00:34 Introduction: an interregnum, seen from the center
00:01:39 Less alarmed than a year ago
00:02:32 Rubio as viceroy: back to the Monroe Doctrine?
00:04:03 The f word: does Rauch regret the fascism essay?
00:04:15 The slippery Trump phenomenon: I may never crack the code
00:05:25 The attention president
00:06:38 From reconciliation bills to social media
00:07:49 Platner, Schumer, and the left's litmus tests
00:08:45 Concerned, not alarmed: why the Democrats aren't the GOP
00:10:49 O'Reilly on Musk: capitalism Adam Smith would hate
00:11:41 The new inequality: narcissistic and nihilistic
00:13:31 Not the Gilded Age: no Carnegie libraries this time
00:15:39 We shouldn't pooh-pooh the left
00:17:08 No meat in the left-wing hamburger
00:18:34 The abundance agenda passes Congress
00:19:23 Has the Senate grown a pair?
00:20:13 Todd Blanche and the rule of law
00:22:19 The Supreme Court: the gloves are off
00:23:04 Humphrey's Executor overturned: eighty years of precedent
00:25:52 The imperial presidency, accelerated
00:28:03 The 250th: a damp squib and a green reflecting pool
00:29:59 Gibbon in the Times: is America rising or shrinking?
00:31:04 Astonishing tech, declining everything else
00:32:43 A moral vacuum — and a craving to fill it
00:35:53 A year of two halves?
00:37:07 He points, and they shoot
00:38:42 Liberals must learn to brag: Fukuyama was right
00:41:36 Thanks and goodbye