F
. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that "there are no second acts in American lives." He did not mean that there are no second chances, but that Americans lack the patience (or sophistication) to dwell on the character development narratives that typically comprise Act II in a work of drama. They would prefer to jump straight to the typical material of the third Act: confrontation and a denouement, whether triumphant or humbling in nature.
The second year of US President Donald Trump's second term in office is no exception to Fitzgerald's maxim, delivering a barrage of Third Act energy. In the first month of 2026, the Trump administration abducted the president of Venezuela, threatened to seize Greenland (practically dissolving NATO in the process) and proposed to replace the United Nations with his newly inaugurated "Board of Peace."
Trump's Act I was everything that led to this point. It is perhaps best encapsulated by his run as the star and host of the reality TV show The Apprentice. The show featured young Americans completing a variety of tasks supposedly designed to reveal their business acumen. Trump played the role of an infallible boss, empowered to render final judgment ("you're fired") on the show's telegenic contestants from a stage set resembling an office.
