“[America] is breaking down,” declared Donald Trump in a recent Truth Social post, responding to the outbreak of terrorism and violence that embroiled the nation in the first two days of the new year. Had victory not been secured on November 5^th, the likelihood of the country surviving much beyond January 20^th, given present dismal trends, would have been minuscule. In a little over two weeks from now, America will undergo the forty-sixth transition in the republic’s history. Just two years shy of its semi-quincentennial (250^th birthday), the republic is still very much a fledgling one, a toddler if not an infant, in the grand scheme of Western history. However, of late, it has been undergoing some mighty growing pains – and came harrowingly close to a bout of sudden infant death syndrome, miraculously resuscitated last-minute by an insurgent, Donald Trump, who embarked on the most incredible and consequential comeback stories in the history of American politics, culminating in him becoming the forty-seventh president.

The start of the new year has been a sobering reminder of the challenges America faces and all the work to be done from the largely self-inflicted problems the country has suffered over the past four years. The most immediate and urgent crisis at hand may be ascribed plainly to incompetent leadership. The justice system has been weaponized against political dissidents – i.e., anyone who would dare criticize the powers-that-be and offer a course correction for the utterly insane policies endorsed by the regnant political class over the last four years. This includes, among other things, how Washington has recklessly burned money on political prosecutions of January 6^th defendants, whom the President-elect has aptly labeled “political hostages.” They are hostages of a trainwreck administration forced into office originally by a coup d’etat (and lest we forget, every coup is illegitimate), precipitating President Trump’s unceremonious ouster some four years ago. Thereafter, they plunged America into the darkest four-year period for justice in modern history, sending out the wolves to hunt down Donald Trump, his allies, and his supporters, in what history will likely adjudge the greatest witch-hunt ever commenced in the modern era.

Another element of the tragedy of these witch-hunts and violations of the social compact by taking the unprecedented step to persecute political opponents generally was also that it denied precious time, energy, and resources to protecting Americans. Instead of being equipped with the latest in technology, personnel, and equipment, law enforcement everywhere was squeezed out of such resources. In law enforcement, the story of the last four years has been that competent officers, from the top brass down to the rank-and-file – from the FBI to ICE – were forced into early retirement by the thousands; some were not vaccinated, others failed to meet newly instated affirmative action quotas, enacted in the post-Floyd era, which selected for race over merit; still, others were scapegoated for police brutality and using a “disproportionate” amount of force, chilling officers from carrying out their most essential duties. Their replacements, DEI candidates of the type on display in New Orleans in the aftermath of the New Year terror attack, quickly turned into a case study of systematic incompetence and the deadly, society-wide ramifications of placing otherwise unqualified individuals in positions of power across society. And really, that has been the key lesson after the recent onslaught of terrorism seen over the first 48 hours of the new year.

From New York, which observed a breakout of Palestinian protests on the first day of the new year, many of whom are thought to be illegals, or at least non-citizens, to the terrorist threats and other acts of violence reported – including a cyber truck-bombing at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas – from Queens to Washington to South Carolina, America is currently in the throes of a freefall spiral of crime and violence that is directly attributable to the outgoing administration. The effects of incompetence and deliberate sabotage are readily on display daily. At every opportunity, the Biden regime seemingly makes a concerted effort to make America and its institutions – above all, law enforcement – weaker, jeopardizing the lives of millions in the process.

To take one example, Biden just recently announced an additional $2.5 billion on the Ukrainian cause, which has deteriorated to the point of being unwinnable for the Ukraine side – and has been that way for a while now. This is basically the metaphorical spitting in the face of his countrymen on the way out. Obviously, that money should be going directly to fortifying America’s southern border – with critical infrastructure, troops presence, and military-grade equipment. Similarly, the justice department’s budget, which allots billions to the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, to prosecute January 6^th defendants, many of whose trials or hearings have been fast-tracked since the election to ensure a swift prosecution before January 20^th, is yet another example of how Biden has been colossally wasting and misusing resources. A scandalous amount of money is being spent to directly harm American citizens through bogus criminal proceedings and misplaced policy goals. The amount of “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the system is so brazen, so barefaced, as to only be logically imputable as an act of malice or a conspiracy by the government against the American people. If not that, then it is a mystery for no regime could possibly be this incompetent — even though incompetence colors so much of what Biden has done.

Barbarian hordes of criminal invaders have been known to bring down great empires throughout history. This sort of problem brought down Rome. It brought down Mesopotamia. It has derailed – and is poised to destroy – the United States of America, which is inundated with a foreign contagion of a scale that is without precedent in the history of modern civilization. The demographic changes occurring so rapidly here are sufficient to break the cultural and social fabric of any nation. The fact that so many of these illegals have ravaged the interior with drugs, or cartels trafficking in sex slavery or fentanyl, is many steps beyond the pale. Our national infrastructure, from critical roads and waterways to school buildings to hospitals to repurposed hotels, is in rapid disrepair, collapsing under the debilitating weight of an entirely avoidable border catastrophe. The invasion has been orchestrated to menace the American populace out of retributive spite but also provides a convenient distraction from the vindictive prosecutors who engage in relentless lawfare, making smithereens of what vestiges of the Constitution and its sacred guarantees – designed to protect our life, liberty, and property – remain in this desiccated, latter-day republic.

The American people have put up with far more tyranny than would have ever been thinkable by the Founding Generation, who declared an all-out Revolution on the British Crown for a relatively small, by modern standards, tax on tea. In many ways, the crises affecting this nation, the Founders’ posterity, are so multivariate – so existentially large – that they seem impossible to reverse. And with the megaphone of legacy or quasi-state media, Americans have been psychologically co-opted and browbeaten to desensitization, if not submission, to these stark and sobering realities. But Americans must wake up and understand that the afflictions now unwinding their national heritage and identity are anything but normal – this is untrodden territory, which can be undone because the enemy is largely of our own making. While it is true that the Biden regime has likely flooded the country with ISIS “sleeper cells” and all sorts of foreign espionage and subversion, the reality is that these scourges did not sneak into the homeland unsuspected like a Trojan horse. Nay, they were invited in, with open arms, by our leadership!

It remains incredible to fathom that a political class would conspire to undermine its own nation – but alas no other explanation better distills our present situation. Happily, the American people rejected this suicidal trajectory, in the loudest way possible, over and above the cheating, by sending President Trump, once more, to the Oval Office. His return in a matter of weeks will usher in a dramatic sea change in our country’s politics and history. But though hopeful and eager we are in anticipation of that long-awaited and fought for outcome, this year has already shown us how a disgruntled enemy can do so much damage kicking and screaming on their way out. The temper tantrum of Biden, Obama, and co., the always-illegitimate regime now having convulsions in their final days in office, have in their last fit of fury unleashed a paroxysm of terror upon the nation. This will have the effect of further sowing instability and chaos for the next administration to clean up. Judging by their actions, they clearly would like to disrupt the events in Washington, DC, a situation that calls for maximum security – managed by competent leadership. The final analysis offers a portent of the kind of parasitical system that can set in if Americans fall asleep at the wheel, and long abandon their collective responsibility and birthright to preserve liberty.

What the future holds is uncertain. Though we may have narrowly dodged a bullet this time around, unless we do the real work needed to shore up this country’s sovereignty, its security, and the administration of justice over the next four years, the terror will return, much as it did in these wilderness years with Donald Trump out of office and do so with a vengeance. As it stands, the Biden administration still can do a lot of damage in the ensuing weeks, a series of events that cannot be forgotten – and must be remembered, as the reins of power are transferred and where the public will have every right to demand accountability for the iniquities of these last four years.

Paul Ingrassia, a graduate of Fordham University and Cornell Law School, is an Attorney; Communications Director of the NCLU; a two-time Claremont Fellow, and is on the Board of Advisors of the NYYR Club and the Italian American Civil Rights League. He writes a widely read Substack that is regularly posted on Truth Social by President Trump. Follow Paul on X @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, Instagram, and Rumble.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.