Trump may declare victory in Iran. The harder question is what America actually won. If the result is a more unstable Gulf, a more resilient Iranian regime, and a weaker sense of U.S. strategic credibility, then this was not a demonstration of strength. It was spectacle mistaken for strategy.

The American order did not fail because it was obsolete. It failed because Congress chose not to defend it. By refusing to constrain an executive acting in ways corrosive to long term national interest, the Republican Congress has made itself directly responsible for the unraveling of America’s economic, military, and cultural primacy.

Trump governs not as an institution builder but as a developer. Attention is the asset. Disruption is the strategy. Process is a nuisance. Consequences are someone else’s problem. This approach creates spectacle and speed, but it does not create stability. Developers flip properties. They do not steward communities.

If we want a different experience of government, we do not need a miracle. We need to feed the thing we keep insisting is already dead.