Some prescience

note Aug 21, 2026

Reading an op-ed by David Runciman in an LRB from February 2025, and he's so spot-on on so many things. Like this, for example:

The new Department of Government Efficiency is intended to cut trillions of dollars from the federal budget. But it also putatively means placing the power to hire and fire in the hands of the world’s richest man. You do not need to have a massively bloated government in order to operate a spoils system, as 19th-century politicians understood. All you need is an unaccountable government. In many ways, it’s easier if the remit is narrower. Corruption thrives on the politics of personal relationships and private fiefdoms. Inevitably, Trump’s personal relationships will corrode quickly, as they did the first time around. He and Musk are unlikely to remain friends for long.