Chaos Enthusiast Thrives On Chaos, Historian Confirms

Published on: Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:16:37 GMT
Original Story: Jill Lepore: ‘Trump thrives on chaos and crisis’ – EL PAÍS English

Groundbreaking Discovery: Fire is Hot, Chaos is Chaotic

Ah, Jill Lepore. A Harvard historian, a staff writer for the New Yorker, and someone who I assume has a very organized bookshelf that isn’t held together by spite and IKEA hex bolts. She recently sat down with EL PAÍS to drop some “truth bombs” that are about as explosive as a wet firecracker in a puddle of corporate despair. Her big takeaway? Donald Trump thrives on chaos and crisis. Wow. Truly, Jill, thank you. Next, I hope she tackles the historical significance of why my “unlimited PTO” is actually a psychological trap designed to make me work during my own appendectomy.

For those of us Elder Millennials who have spent the last two decades watching “once-in-a-generation” catastrophes happen every fiscal quarter, Lepore’s analysis feels less like an academic revelation and more like a post-game recap of a game we’ve been forced to play since 2016. She argues that Trump doesn’t just stumble into crises; he manufactures them because he’s the only one who knows how to navigate the wreckage. It’s like that one toxic project manager we’ve all had—the one who “accidentally” deletes the shared drive just so they can be the hero who finds the backup, all while making everyone else stay until 9:00 PM on a Friday.

Lepore points out that Trump treats history like a buffet where you only pick the items that don’t require chewing. He’s not interested in the nuance of the past; he’s interested in the “vibe” of a crisis. This is “Truth vs. Reality” in its final, most annoying form. We live in a world where the reality is a collapsing middle class and a housing market that requires a blood sacrifice, but the “truth” being sold is a high-octane drama filled with villains, heroes, and a lot of capitalized tweets. It’s a narrative structure designed to keep us scrolling while our actual lives gather dust.

As a burnout survivor currently staring at a spreadsheet that represents three weeks of my life I’ll never get back, I find Lepore’s academic concern almost quaint. She’s worried about the “dismantling of institutions.” Jill, honey, the institutions already sent my 401k to a farm upstate years ago. We’ve been living in the “chaos” for so long that a calm day actually feels suspicious. If there isn’t a national emergency or a Twitter-fueled meltdown by lunch, I assume I’ve been laid off and my email has been disconnected.

Ultimately, Lepore is right, in that annoying way that people with tenure are always right. Trump utilizes the crisis narrative to ensure no one can look away. It’s the ultimate attention economy play. But for the rest of us, the ones just trying to afford eggs and remember what a hobby feels like, the chaos isn’t a strategy—it’s just the background noise of a world that desperately needs to be put in “Do Not Disturb” mode for about a decade. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a “mandatory fun” Zoom call to attend where I will pretend that everything is fine while the world burns in high definition.

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