As usual recent days have had no shortage of appalling news: the Supreme Court’s eviscerating of the Voting Rights Act; federal indictments of former FBI director James Comey, and the Southern Poverty Law Center; Trump’s rejection of Iran’s proposal to end its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz; an apparent attempted attack on administration officials during the White House Correspondents Dinner, leading paradoxically to increased calls to build Trump’s ballroom at the White House.

Earlier this month brought some rare but significant and impactful news, however, as Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban was ousted after sixteen years in power. Orban was defeated by Peter Magyar, a former member of Orban’s Fidesz party who left in 2024 after exposing a pardon scandal involving Magyar’s ex-wife. In an interview with The Conversation website, Fletcher School’s John Shattuck compared the election of someone named Peter Magyar in Hungary to electing someone in the US named “Joe America,” as Peter is one of the top 12 first names in Hungary and Magyar is Hungarian for “Hungary.”

Throughout history various societies have held the belief that the health of the nation was a reflection of the health of the ruler. In this article we review some historical references to the "body politic," examine recent evidence concerning Trump's health, then look at fractures appearing in the congressional Republican conferences and MAGA, and speculate on implications for the political future.

It'd be a shame if something happened to it...

 

The visible deterioration of Donald Trump’s cognitive ability on the campaign trail, including babbling, disinhibition, and canceling media appearances  has intensified focus on vice presidential candidate and Washington newcomer J.D. Vance. Vance has less political experience than any vice presidential candidate in the last nearly 60 years, has held one elected office for just twenty-some months as of this writing, and none of the 34 bills he personally sponsored became law. Media-and-politics website mediaite.com labeled Vance the Marjorie Taylor Greene of the Senate, “stomping and shouting but getting nothing done.” In his article “Why Trump Chose J.D. Vance,” Time magazine’s Eric Cortelessa suggests that Vance was chosen as “a leading light of the right-wing populist movement spawned by Trump’s rise….” This is at best a nuanced characterization as Vance has an extensive record of critical comments and remarks about Trump, dating back to at least 2016.

In June Vance participated in a Trump fundraiser at the home of David Sacks, who with fellow investors Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk, among others, founded PayPal and went on to form other tech firms. Vance met Thiel in 2011 when Thiel spoke at Yale Law School where Vance was a student. Vance subsequently described Thiel’s talk somewhat obtusely as “the most significant moment of my time.” In 2015 Vance became a partner at venture capital firm Mithril Capital, which Thiel had co-founded. Mithril is the fictional precious metal in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, described as harder than steel and more beautiful than silver. As documented by Disconnect.blog’s Paris Marx, Thiel has named at least nine companies after people, places, and things from Tolkien’s world.

Tolkien’s Middle Earth apparently holds an almost mystical appeal to many Silicon Valley denizens....