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Recently, the media has pinned the phrase "a failure of imagination" on Donald Trump's presidency. That phrase applies to the actions (or inactions) of the Trump administration, but the real failure of imagination may lie with all of us who are subject to it.
The phrase expresses the challenge of grappling with the question of "what if?"-- gaming out the consequences of our actions and decisions. We make countless cause-and-effect calls on a daily basis, predicting outcomes based on past experiences and on our imaginative power to contemplate future scenarios.
Initially, it appears that this innate human ability is all but switched off with the Trump administration.
Decades of military scenarios predicted that attacking Iran would likely result in the Iranian regime closing the Strait of Hormuz, choking off a significant portion of the global oil and fertilizer supply. When we attacked anyway and that likelihood came to pass, the Trump administration demonstrated a costly failure of imagination.
The CDC and FDA exist to help protect public health and our national food supply. The Trump administration and DOGE decimated such agencies and now we're dealing with a 45-state cyclospora outbreak causing explosive diarrhea for thousands and the worst surge of measles in 35 years (which had been declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000). A MAHA -- Make America Healthy Again -- failure of imagination.
Through the "Big Beautiful Bill," the administration threw billions at ICE, an agency that 60% of Americans disapprove of, to deploy thousands of poorly trained, trigger-happy, unaccountable agents to American cities. The result: a secret police force that terrorizes and murders citizens. A lethal failure of imagination.
But we're also guilty of a failure of imagination when we underestimate what Trump and his administration are capable of. So imagine, if you will, that much of what appears to be devastating chaos on Trump's part may serve as a smokescreen orchestrated to obscure his real agenda.
When dealing with an acquisitive narcissist like Trump -- an agent of chaos with authoritarian aspirations and evident signs of cognitive decline -- effectively imagining his capacity to betray his oath, our allies, and the public trust feels like a heavy lift. But we have to try. The integrity of our elections, the rule of law, our standing in the world, and the legitimate issue of affordability all depend on it.
Here's the real challenge to our imaginations: What if the Trump administration's multi-front sabotage of our health and safety, legal guardrails, and international security is intentional? What if it's not actually a failure of imagination on their part -- a feature, not a bug?
Once we wrap our minds around that possibility, things come into terrifying focus. What if Trump has no interest in a free, healthy, prosperous electorate? Such a society would only hamper his authoritarian consolidation of power which benefits the top 1% like Elon Musk who control about 32% of the nation's wealth at the expense of the bottom 50% with just 2.5% of it. Such stark wealth inequality is only growing under Trump.
What if it's in their interest to keep the masses poor, sick, ignorant, and afraid, buried by erratic bureaucracy and competing for meager benefits when we could have abundance for all? What if we're not witnessing Trump's epic fail? What if it's strategic, epic grift?
In any case, if you still find your imagination strained to the breaking point, don't worry; we don't even have to imagine worst-case scenarios. Abundant examples are already playing out in real time. Imagine that.
Eric Jackson-Forsberg is a Jamestown resident.