The President Who Monetizes the Presidency
On the constitutional hazards of executive enterprise, and what happens when the chief magistrate's office is valued by the yield.
- Corruption & patronage
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
Civics Unhinged — A chronicle of American absurdity, written with a straight face and a sharp pen. Civics Unhinged — satire for those who still give a damn. — Page 2
At What Point Does Surprise Cease to Be a Surprise?
On the Curious Habit of Being Surprised by the Predictable
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
The Price of the Performance State
As inflation rises, war costs mount, and trillion-dollar defense spectacles dominate the political stage, Trump’s second presidency reveals something larger than fiscal irresponsibility. Public money is increasingly being transformed into political theater, where national grandeur matters more than civic sustainability, and citizens are treated less as stakeholders than as the audience for an endless performance.
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Loyalty economy
George Washington's Letter to the American Presidency
When Authority Is Mistaken for Possession
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Sovereignty
The World’s Greatest Expert
When Certainty Collides with Responsibility
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Foreign policy
Gold Leaf Governance
Trump's gilded renovations aren't a matter of taste. They're a disclosure about how he understands power, ownership, and permanence.
- Trump's second term
- Corruption & patronage
- Trump-era governance
The Loyalty Economy
How Trump Turned Trade Policy into a System of Favor
- Trump's second term
- Trade & tariffs
- Corruption & patronage
The Projection Gap
Trump governs by projection. The gap between what he claims and what he achieves is finally widening—at home and abroad.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
Duty, Honor, Country: Concepts Too Complex for Donald Trump to Grasp
A soldier who lived beside Arlington on what sacrifice actually means—and why a man who called the fallen "suckers" was never going to grasp it.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
Different Actions, Same Story
How Modern Political Analysis Flattens Difference
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
About Civics Unhinged
Civics Unhinged is the new home for my long-form satire and political commentary — a place where essays can breathe without algorithms or paywalls. I write about the civic unraveling of our time: the absurdities of power, the decay of seriousness, and the endurance of humor as a last civic virtue. Dunnegin is a former senior federal official, policy analyst, and longtime political consultant who has advised members of Congress, federal agency heads, and corporate leaders. He has spent decades...
About Civics Unhinged
The Real Heirs of the Republic
Heritage, Myth, and the Power We Inherit
- Democratic norms
- Sovereignty
- Civics unhinged
World Stage, MAGA Script: Willfulness as Governance
How impulse displaced architecture in American statecraft [This essay is Part 1 of a two-part series on Trump’s foreign policy method and its global consequences. Part 2, Coercion Without Credibility Publishes March 3.]
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Civics unhinged
History’s Exit Interview: Notes from the End of Progress
Somewhere between the ruins of Enlightenment optimism and the latest GOP fundraiser, History called it quits.
- Democratic norms
- Trump-era governance
- Civics unhinged
When Courts Rule but Power Doesn't Listen
Why Judicial Power Now Turns on Compliance, Not Rulings
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
The Domestic Terrorist in the Oval Office
Trump and the Politics of Permissioned Violence
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
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A chronicle of American absurdity, written with a straight face and a sharp pen. Civics Unhinged — satire for those who still give a damn.
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