IT HAS BEEN nearly a decade since Donald Trump announced his first run for president in 2015. It is sometimes hard to recall the details of each of his own campaigns, and those he presided over. They all smush together—a constellation of red MAGA hats and promises to save America. But look hard and a pattern emerges. The central tenet of Trumpism, the throughline between 2016 and 2024 and the foundation for his political cult, is that Democrats are to blame for “American carnage”, and he alone can fix it.