This Gen Z theory perfectly explains how Trump’s disastrous second term will end

We all know there’s not a lot of good news happening right now. But if we can’t partake of the good, we can at least revel in the bad. Let’s not forget that schadenfreude is quite real, and according to one TikToker, we can expect Trump’s ill-conceived second term to end in total disgrace. How do we know this? Well, by looking at the past. But not the too-recent past. As creator @nikitadumptruck—aka Bimbo University—explains it, we have to reach back into our collective memory and take a tip from the 2004 election to find out what’s going to happen.

@nikitadumptruck

Some rays of optimism as we head into the 2nd term! 2004 and 2024 are different but contain many similarities. history is not always an open book test but its definitely a lil cheat sheet!

♬ original sound – 💗 Bimbo University 💗

Let’s rewind for just a sec: remember 2004? It was a pretty bleak time for those of us who lived through it. After the horror show of the 2000 election, Democrats were ready for Bush to be gone. But sadly, John Kerry simply couldn’t match Bush’s reputation as a “guy you could have a beer with,” which for some reason was important to people. Things looked bleak when Bush was reelected, but in a mere two years, public opinion drastically flipped. As Nikita explains, Bush’s complete fumbling of the Hurricane Katrina response—as well the loss of support for the Iraq War and distaste for Bush’s attempt to privatize certain aspects of Social Security—meant that by the 2006 midterms, Democrats were back on top. By 2008, everyone was ready for a change. Most importantly, everyone was deathly sick of Bush’s crappy handling of just about everything.

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As Nikita points out, 2004 and 2024 are not the same by any means, but there are some interesting parallels that aren’t lost on us. Gay rights were also a point of contention in 2004, an era when the Christian Right was likewise waging war on the idea of the gay family. And guess what other rights were under attack? Muslim folks, who were still facing racist discrimination after the fallout from 9/11. And we can’t forget how women were viewed in 2004, the era of super low-rise jeans and wall-to-wall slut-shaming. “Mass deportations are going to mess up a lot of peoples’ lives,” Nikita correctly predicts. “Most Americans believe in the right to abortion and marriage rights,” she contines. “So if he messes with that, that’s not going to go well.”

So yes—we don’t know for sure how the next four years will go, and it’s hard not to be terrified of the immediate future. But as creators like Nikita point out, we do have the past as an example. It’s not a lot, but it’s something.

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