It’s been a historic week in the United States as a man who was twice impeached, convicted on 34 felony counts, and incited an insurrection has now returned to the White House as Commander-in-Chief for the second time. Since Monday, Trump has issued a dizzying number of executive orders, compared himself to President William McKinley, and freed the same Jan. 6 rioters who tried to violently overthrow the government on his behalf just four years ago.
Who better to help us make sense of this unprecedented time and give it context than Heather Cox Richardson?
Richardson is a prolific Substack writer. Her newsletter Letters From An American has accumulated almost two million followers. Named one of USA Today’s Women of the Year, Richardson is also a professor of 19th-century American history at Boston College, and even interviewed Joe Biden in the White House.
In a wide-ranging interview for Mehdi Unfiltered, Richardson sits down with Mehdi to discuss Trump’s second presidency, the parallels with McKinley, and whether there has ever been someone like Elon Musk in US history. “These tech bros have control over very large digital platforms that determine many of the ways in which we live,” Richardson tells Mehdi. “They also determine our public speech, and that is truly frightening.”
Richardson also looks at how historians will evaluate Biden’s presidency, what Democrats could do in order to rebound from their recent loss, and how to keep hope alive.
“One of the things that I expect to see going forward is a much clearer articulation on the part of the Democratic Party of what they stand for and how they are going to implement that,” Richardson says. “And by the same token, the MAGA Republicans have articulated what they stand against.”
To hear more from Heather Cox Richardson and how the state of the US compares to key moments in history, watch the discussion above.
“I think the combination of the fact he is himself seemingly not at the top of his game and he’s delivering things that many people expected would not happen is going to mean he’s going to face a lot of unrest a lot more quickly than a new administration usually does.” – Heather Cox Richardson
If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear the two discuss whether Biden should have dropped out of the presidential race, the MAGA agenda, and whether Trump is an aberration of history.
Free subscribers can watch an 8-minute preview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber today to watch the full interview and let us know in the comments below who you would like to see on ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ next!
