Online trolls, thin-skinned bullies and immature edgelords are insufferable enough when they’re relegated to merely clogging our social media feeds. Unfortunately, they now run our government as well.

Mike Judge’s Idiocracy never seemed so prophetic. 

With inflatable mascots taking to the streets on Oct. 18 to air their grievances over the current administration’s governing philosophy, it was only a matter of time before President Donald Trump responded with something less than a diplomatic appeal to unity and calm. 

And sure enough, by sharing an AI-generated video of him donning a crown and showering protesters with raw sewage for having blasphemously disagreed with his worldview, he didn’t disappoint. 

Just as predictably, supposed “conservatives” who pretend to be nostalgic for a more unified and simpler America saw nothing wrong with the commander in chief joshing about monarchically drenching fellow citizens in excrement. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)  even said Trump is “probably the most effective person who has ever used social media for (getting attention).” He’s probably right — an American president openly broadcasting his contempt for roughly half the nation is certainly noteworthy. 

As CNN’s Jake Tapper points out, Trump isn’t alone among politicians when it comes to demonstrating disdain for dissenting voices. However, when other politicians have disparaged Americans who hold divergent views, it has largely been the result of gaffes, accidents or poorly employed hyperbole rather than intentionally provocative attempts to incite anger. 

For example, when Hillary Clinton offhandedly called Trump supporters “deplorables” or Joe Biden suggested they were “garbage,” neither were likely trying to antagonize half the nation’s voters into anger. 

For Trump, however, soliciting outrage is the entire point. Sure, that might be attention-grabbing, but it’s also a pretty unhealthy way for the leader of 350 million Americans to communicate in our modern era of discontent and partisan divide. 

Now, to be fair to a man who routinely trolls about shredding the Constitution and running for a third term, Trump is probably more a symptom of our current absurdity than the sole driver of it. As Andrew Breitbart used to say, “politics is downstream from culture” — and considering where our culture has been in recent decades, it shouldn’t be surprising that a reality-TV outrage artist eventually made a name for himself in the American political system. 

However, his divisive and contemptuous mocking of millions of fellow Americans isn’t problematic merely because it’s unbecoming of a true statesman, it’s problematic because it also seems to be his governing philosophy.

For example, recent commercials from the Department of Homeland Security aimed at encouraging self-deportation feel more like election-season campaign ads by bragging about “President Trump's strong leadership.” 

“Strong leadership” isn’t exactly the sort of neutral language you might normally expect from a government agency trying to impartially solicit compliance with the law, but this isn’t just any government — it’s Trump’s government. And he expects it to operate as a loyal promoter of his MAGA vision, even if that means doing away with any pretense of partisan neutrality. 

Take the “informational video” Harry Reid International Airport recently refused to run, in which Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem directly blames Democrats for the current government shutdown. Official government websites, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, even included similar language on their webpages, blaming “the Radical Left” for not keeping the government open. 

Of course, because bad behavior tends to be contagious in politics, some blue states were quick to use their own government websites to spread equally partisan messaging about the shutdown. And that’s certainly part of what makes Trump’s party-first approach to government so dangerous: It won’t be confined solely to his administration. Instead, if not checked by his own side, it will spread among power brokers of all political persuasions.

The natural consequence of such blatant political bias in official government communiqués will be a further erosion of trust in governmental institutions among an increasingly skeptical and politically weary American public. And, unfortunately, trust is a necessary component for “law and order” in any meaningful sense of the phrase. 

After all, why would immigrants believe Noem’s promise of a cash stipend and a “chance to come back legally” while Immigration and Customs Enforcement is showing up at immigration courts to round up immigrants who are actively trying to correct their legal status? With Trump’s State Department revoking visas over the social media posts of legal noncitizens, why would any immigrant believe they truly have a “chance to come back” once they self-deport if the administration already finds them politically objectionable? 

Trump’s incessant tendency to troll and prod at his perceived enemies is more than just an uncomfortable partisan tone — it signals that Trump’s government is only interested in working for those voters he considers to be sufficiently loyal. 

And, thus far in his second term, his actions have largely matched that impression. 

One of Trump’s first actions, for example, was to give sweeping pardons to convicted Jan. 6 participants — including those who assaulted police officers, vandalized government property or otherwise broke laws in their ill-fated attempt to overthrow the democratic process after the 2020 election. At least some of those who were pardoned have already gone on to commit other crimes, with one being convicted of “working with a militia to attack the FBI” and another arrested for issuing actionable threats against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). 

During the current government shutdown, Trump has made it blatantly clear that political favoritism is the entire point of his governing philosophy, openly bragging that he will take the opportunity to permanently defund “Democrat programs” and federal projects in blue states. 

Then again, what do we expect? Many of those who govern us currently gained prominence as outrage artists, clickbait publicists and nonstop partisan campaigners — perpetually online personalities more interested in “owning the libs” and retweeting unhinged partisan memes than actually governing. When such behavior happens to win elections, we shouldn’t be surprised when it becomes the basis for running the nation, regardless of what policies are actually promoted. 

As it turns out, America’s descent into idiocracy is a choice. And, apparently, the current administration is convinced voters chose it by a “landslide” last November. 

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and founder of Schaus Creative LLC — an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist, and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him on Twitter @schausmichael or on Substack @creativediscourse.