It’s not uncommon for people who spend large amounts of time following the news during the Trump era to describe feeling exhausted.
To cite one example among thousands from the past ten or so years, Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau responded ironically this past weekend to Donald Trump’s latest Iran threat (open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or we’ll blow up all of your power plants) by producing a mashup of the contradictory messages we’ve gotten from the president in just the past couple of days: “He’s winding down the war and looking for an off-ramp but will blow up all their power plants unless they open the Strait which we don’t need and will open itself anyway which is why he might send ground troops to the country he already blew off the map.”
See? Exhausting.
But that’s not the primary feeling that’s been plaguing me lately. The emotions I struggle with over and over again while trying to process the rapid-fire chaos of the second Trump administration are anger and sadness, blended in novel ways from hour to hour and day to day. If you find yourself struggling with similar feelings, I urge you to read on. You may find some modicum of solace in our shared ire and sorrow.
