My primary historical interest is in pre-Civil War America, which period I taught at the elementary level for just over 40 years. But while I’m not as familiar with the first two decades of the twentieth century (with the exception of our involvement in WWI) as with the years before 1865, I’m still inclined to see Trumpmuskovia not so much as a return to some aspects of that gilded period as more like two billionaire dilettantes running amok through their shiny new toy - the US Government - with a pair of really big machetes.

It’s certainly true that Big Business ruled (with the invaluable aid of a very business friendly Supreme Court), and the Robber Barons cavorted, and New York gilded itself, but I’m not sure I see any one of the presidents of that era as so thoroughly disdainful of the Constitution as Trump has proven to be. And I doubt Musk has much of a sense that such a document even exists. What I see happening is the convergence and ‘maturation’ of two of Trump’s more notorious utterances - “I’m a very stable genius”, and “I alone can fix it”.

But throwing out the baby with the bathwater is a seldom if ever a formula for the permanent improvement of any situation.