The Intellectual Situation The Editors Among the ur-warmongers Amin Bagheri, Folded Blinding Light . 2025, Graphite on cotton with string, 23 x 17". Courtesy of the artist and Ab-Anbar Gallery. “American carnage,” “Fire and fury,” “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters” — Donald Trump’s most memorable lines linger because of the novelty of their unadornment. They declare, in the starkest of terms, the gleeful embrace of violence that lies beneath his usual bluster. The message Trump posted to Truth Social on April 7, weeks into the US’s new war with Iran, was an ominous addition to the canon: A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?…