Don’t Let Trump’s Mental Decline Distract You From What’s Being Built

Trump’s condition is not the story. The consolidation of power is.

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Dear friends

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on Substack lately focusing on Trump’s evident cognitive decline. It makes sense — clips are circulating that show him slurring words, losing his train of thought, and appearing even more confused than usual. And it's galling that the media was so quick to tear apart President Biden, when he was — and remains — infinitely more competent than Trump has ever appeared to be.

But while focusing on the lack of media coverage of Trump’s cognitive decline can feel urgent, if we stay fixated there, we risk missing the much bigger picture.

This isn’t just about whether one man is fit for office. The deeper issue is that Trump’s authoritarian project does not rely on his personal lucidity. It never has.

It’s a machine now. A coalition. A movement with money, lawyers, tech billionaires, Christian dominionists, militant loyalists, and a constitutional playbook that’s already in motion. Trump’s cognitive state might change the tone, but not the trajectory.

The real danger is not that Trump might be mentally unfit, but that he doesn’t have to be. Because others are ready to carry out the programme. In fact, others already are.

While Trump may be the figurehead, the rallying symbol — the real machinery of authoritarian power is being driven by a network of actors who are organised, well-funded, and ideologically aligned. They include:

• Legal architects like the Heritage Foundation — the team behind Project 2025 — who drafted the detailed plans for a governing contract dismantling the federal civil service, purging disloyal officials, and concentrating power in the executive branch. Six months in, we’re already seeing the transformation of how power flows through the federal system.

• State-level operatives in the Convention of States movement, quietly working to trigger an Article V convention that could rewrite the Constitution entirely —bypassing Congress, bypassing the courts, and removing longstanding rights and checks on power.

• Tech oligarchs and surveillance capitalists, from Musk to Thiel, who are reshaping the digital landscape to serve authoritarian interests. They're not just building platforms; they’re building infrastructure that tracks, controls, and predicts human behaviour.

• Theocratic power blocs, especially within Christian nationalist networks, who see Trump not as a saviour but as a battering ram, someone who can destroy the barriers between church and state and help bring about a government rooted in religious law.

• Military and police loyalists, groomed through years of cultural grievance, who stand ready to enforce this new order, and who may increasingly believe they’re serving a higher cause than the Constitution.

All of these actors have their own reasons for backing Trump, and none of them depend on his clarity of mind to act. If anything, a weakened figurehead only makes it easier for them to advance their agendas behind the scenes.

This isn’t about Trump the man anymore. It’s about the structure that's been built around him — and how far it’s already moved without most people noticing.

By zeroing in on Trump’s decline, we risk reinforcing the illusion that if he were somehow removed from office, the threat would be over. It wouldn’t be. The people behind Project 2025, the Convention of States, the judicial stacking, and the tech alignment — they're not going anywhere. And Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance, was chosen precisely because he is their man.

Vance isn’t a wildcard like Trump. He’s disciplined, calculating, and ideologically committed to the same ends — only with fewer distractions and more intellectual clarity. And crucially, he’s deeply connected to the very networks driving this authoritarian transformation.

He has long-standing ties to Peter Thiel, who bankrolled both his Senate run and his rise as a national political figure. Thiel is one of the central tech oligarchs building infrastructure for authoritarian governance — funding surveillance ventures like Palantir, backing AI projects designed for predictive policing, and publicly calling for the rollback of democratic norms. Vance is part of that same ideological ecosystem: anti-democratic, pro-corporate, and eager to consolidate control.

Vance has also publicly supported the Convention of States movement, praising the idea of using an Article V convention to impose term limits and fiscal restraints. But those proposals are just the entry point. The deeper goal, echoed by CoS insiders, is to rewrite the Constitution in ways that weaken federal protections and empower red-state rule. Vance doesn’t just understand this strategy — he legitimises it.

And while Trump has always relied on the support of Christian nationalists without fully sharing their theology, Vance is comfortable in that space. He speaks their language. He’s aligned with the theocratic power blocs that want to reframe American law around conservative Christianity. His policy vision fits neatly with Project 2025’s aims to dismantle the Department of Education, ban federal support for LGBTQ+ rights, and impose religious control over public institutions.

Vance is also a vocal supporter of Project 2025 itself. He’s praised the Heritage Foundation’s playbook and openly endorsed the idea of using the executive branch as a weapon against the “deep state.” Unlike Trump, who often acted impulsively, Vance would wield that weapon strategically.

If Trump were sidelined or incapacitated, Vance wouldn’t slow the machine down. He’d make it run more smoothly.

So yes, it’s reasonable to be concerned about Trump’s cognitive capacity. But if we want to get ahead of what's coming, we need to focus not on “Is Trump senile?” but on:

Who benefits from our fixation on Trump’s decline—while the real levers of power shift in silence?

The people driving the transformation of American governance want us to see Trump as the problem, because if we you think he’s the threat, we won’t notice the system being built to survive — and thrive — without him.

How far has the Project 2025 agenda already advanced — and who’s positioned to finish the job if Trump falters?

According to Project 2025 Tracker, Project 2025 has 340 goals, 104 of which have already been completed. That’s 28% of the entire agenda already implemented in the first six months of Trump’s second term. These are not small shifts. These are foundational rewrites of how government works.

Project 2025 Tracker makes one thing clear: the machine is functioning as it was designed to. And that means Trump no longer needs to be the engine. If he were to falter — due to health, legal collapse, or public pressure —the system wouldn’t break. It would recalibrate around JD Vance

What happens when the spectacle ends, and we’re left facing a younger, more ideologically focused executor — JD Vance?

When the spectacle ends — when Trump is no longer the centre of attention — we’ll be left facing a different kind of leader. Someone younger, more disciplined, and fully aligned with the system that’s already reshaping American governance.

JD Vance doesn’t need to play to the crowd. He doesn’t govern by impulse or distraction. He shares the same goals as the architects of Project 2025, but brings a lawyer’s precision and a strategist’s patience. His connections to Peter Thiel and the tech-aligned authoritarian right are longstanding and deliberate. He would not be improvising — he would be executing.

If Trump were removed or stepped aside, the system would not unravel. It would become more efficient. More focused.

The people and infrastructure now driving federal transformation — from the Heritage Foundation to state-level Convention of States operatives — would remain exactly where they are. The difference is that under Vance, the noise would quieten, and the pace would quicken.

We would no longer be reacting to daily chaos. We would be watching the plan move forward, point by point, often without resistance. That’s the real shift.

The danger will not pass if Trump exits — it will become more focused. More strategic. And harder to dismiss as theatre.

What would it mean to resist a regime that no longer needs Trump to function — and may operate more effectively without him?

It would mean adjusting both our mindset and our strategy.

Resisting a regime that no longer depends on Trump means we will no longer be able to count on his volatility to expose its weaknesses. We couldn't rely on chaos to stall implementation or provoke backlash.

The machinery is already in place, the agenda underway. And under a more disciplined leader like JD Vance, it would likely operate with fewer distractions and greater precision.

Resistance, then, would becomes less about reacting to outrage and more about understanding systems — how they’re being repurposed, who’s benefiting, and where the leverage points are. It would mean watching the executive orders, the personnel changes, the regulatory shifts. Reading the footnotes. Tracking the local implementation. Naming what’s happening plainly, even when the headlines don't.

It would also mean investing in relationships that don’t fracture under pressure. Strengthening local knowledge. Finding ways to interrupt, delay, or outlast policies designed to isolate and disempower. And preparing for the long arc — not just a cycle of scandal and reaction, but sustained transformation, with real-world consequences for how people live and what they’re allowed to say, do, or become.

This is the foundation of my approach to resistance. I don’t look for spectacle but for structure, and I’d encourage you to begin building the same habit. The sooner we adapt to this perspective, the better prepared we’ll be when the shift comes. Because it will come.

In short, we need to understand that we're resisting a system, not a man.

And that kind of resistance requires clarity, endurance, and the refusal to look away — especially when, on the surface everything will appear to become calmer.

What lies ahead won’t always announce itself as crisis. It may present itself as the order, as reform, even as restoration. But if we’re paying attention — not to the noise, but to the structure — we’ll see it for what it is.

There is still time for us to adapt, still time to reorient. But it starts with letting go of the idea that Trump is the problem, or that removing him will resolve what America is facing. It won’t. The system taking shape around him is built to endure.

And if we want to resist it effectively, we’ll need to start where we are —with clear eyes, steady focus, and a long view.

So I invite you to stay with this. Not the noise, but the deeper pattern. The structure. The shifts that aren’t always visible at first glance.

Pay attention to what holds, strengthen what matters, and if you haven’t already begun building your own way of seeing through this — start now. I’ll be here, walking that path with you.

— Lori

© Lori Corbet Mann, 2025

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