Author and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom says the political Left is missing the point about President Donald Trump’s second administration, warning that dismissing him as “an idiot” overlooks what she describes as a “brutally efficient” restructuring of American institutions.
In a wide-ranging conversation on The Hometown Holler podcast, the New York Times columnist unpacked what she calls “Trump 2.0”—a version of his presidency that, she says, has become more deliberate, more calculated, and far more effective than many anticipated.
“Trump 2.0 is one of the most brutally efficient things I have ever seen in my life, either with my eyes or that I have read in history,” Cottom said. “Fine, he’s an idiot. But then what does that make us?”
The Winston-Salem native, who rose to prominence through her incisive essays on race, power, and inequality, said she distinguishes between Trump’s first term—which she characterized as largely “culture wars”—and his current administration, which she argues is systematically dismantling the underpinnings of higher education.
“This time, we’ve got both the culture war stuff and the most efficient attack on what underpins the system that I ever could have imagined — going after accreditation, higher education financing, international students, and grant structures,” she explained. “Being able to dismantle higher education that efficiently — that’s not stupid. That’s a plan.”
A Shift From Personality to Power
Cottom’s remarks come amid growing debate about Project 2025, a sweeping conservative blueprint for reshaping the federal government.
While she did not confirm the statistic cited by the podcast host—that “50% of Project 2025 is already complete”—Cottom said the rapid changes visible across key institutions “seem about right.”
She urged listeners not to get caught up in Trump’s personality or intellect, arguing that such focus distracts from the structural and administrative efficiency of his team.
“Whether it’s his plan or Stephen Miller’s really is irrelevant,” she said. “The person with the power to execute it is executing. It doesn’t do any good to just say he’s an idiot. That’s self-flattering, and frankly, we haven’t earned the right to flatter ourselves.”
Cottom likened the distinction between Trump and his advisers to a general hiring an elite warrior.
“You hire the good samurai,” she said. “Does that make you that much different from the samurai?”
The Bigger Picture: Nostalgia, Belonging, and “Disaster Nationalism”
Beyond politics, Cottom also reflected on the rise of “disaster nationalism,” the romanticizing of past eras, and the struggle to build genuine belonging in a fragmented America. Drawing from her deep ties to Winston-Salem’s Black Panther legacy, she surmised that the future depends on ordinary people resisting cynicism and nostalgia in favor of active community building.
“The Left keeps trying to psychoanalyze Trump instead of analyzing power,” she said. “If we want to build belonging, we have to stop mistaking nostalgia for memory — and start doing the work.”
Her warning resonates at a time when universities, journalists, and civic institutions face mounting political and financial pressures under Trump’s second administration.
