Sometimes the future offers alternatives that are unspeakably different.

In World War Two, Germany nearly conquered Europe, but didn’t. In 1945, as the only nuclear power on Earth, the USA might have conquered the world, but didn’t.  Aren’t we lucky that it was Truman, and not Trump, who headed the United States at that time? Because, if a President had set America on that path, it would have changed everything. But Trump today is more like Hitler in 1941: capable of leading his country into disaster and ruin, but powerless to achieve the magnificence he dreams of.

I first published this little meander through history in 2020, just seven weeks before Trump lost the US presidential election to Joe Biden. It appeared then that Americans had chosen a return to sanity, but a few weeks later, Trump and his deluded supporters attempted their insurrection. The madness continues: Trump is still the leading Republican candidate for President, and a hefty proportion of American voters believe in the fictional reality that he presents.

To read this article in full, click here, and find out more about the Battle of Britain, Churchill’s Operation Unthinkable and other ancient history from the twentieth century.