Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Jan 22, 2026

'They're not very good at revolution': Rick Wilson says Trump mob's incompetence accidentally saved democracy

'They're not very good at revolution': Rick Wilson says Trump mob's incompetence accidentally saved democracy

Rick Wilson tore apart President Donald Trump for encouraging an angry mob to take over the U.S. Capitol -- and bashed Capitol police for letting the "redneck Visigoths" into the building.
The Lincoln Project co-founder and former Republican strategist has been studying Trump and his cult for years, but Wilson admitted in a new Daily Beast column that the violent mob ransacking the halls of Congress shocked even a jaded observer such as himself.

"As an anthropologist of the shittiest human being on the planet, a scholar of all Trump's pathologies, a plumber in the vast deeps of his f*ckwit necromancy, I should be past shock, but even I was appalled by not only the order to march on the Capitol spitting from his blubbery lips but by the organized teams of rioters who then invaded the House and Senate," Wilson writes.

He was infuriated by video showing Capitol police appearing to open gates and doors for the unruly mob, and pose for selfies with them inside the building, but he said the sad and violent spectacle was the nadir of the Trump presidency.

"Once the Trump forces were in the building, the damage was done," Wilson writes. "Deaths, injuries, and chaos followed, with the seat of our national legislative branch reduced to just another set in Trump's destructive reality television show. Driven by a combination of conspiracy fantasies, Trump berserkergang, and hatred of the two parties, the MAGA mob played the role we've seen in a hundred coups and collapses in the Third World: the invading rebels seizing the airfield, the radio station, the Palace of Justice, the Capitol building."

The anger Trump has fueled is so incoherent and stochastic that the mob had no idea what to do once they took over the Capitol, and was instead just another display of their cult-like devotion to the defeated president.

"The invasion and seizure of the Capitol was a perfect extension of the nihilist trolling operation that's replaced the Republican Party," Wilson writes. "They weren't there to hold the territory. They weren't there to find evidence of fraud, or force reluctant legislators to listen to their catalog of grievances; they were there for the lulz. They were there because Trump sent them."

That lack of focus, in the end, is what saved the republic long enough to certify Joe Biden's election win.

"These are not patriots; they're anarchists," Wilson writes. "They're insurrectionists, not conservatives. They are shock troops from America's Saddam. Organized in a thousand Facebook groups and with a million bad ideas transmitted to their brains from Fox, OAN, Newsmax, and QAnon, we're fortunate as a nation in only one respect—they're not very good at revolution."
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Prince William to Make Official Visit to Saudi Arabia in February
Prince Harry Breaks Down in London Court, Says UK Tabloids Have Made Meghan Markle’s Life ‘Absolute Misery’
Malin + Goetz UK Business Enters Administration, All Stores Close
EU and UK Reject Trump’s Greenland-Linked Tariff Threats and Pledge Unified Response
UK Deepfake Crackdown Puts Intense Pressure on Musk’s Grok AI After Surge in Non-Consensual Explicit Images
Prince Harry Becomes Emotional in London Court, Invokes Memory of Princess Diana in Testimony Against UK Tabloids
UK Inflation Rises Unexpectedly but Interest Rate Cuts Still Seen as Likely
Starmer Steps Back from Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Amid Strained US–UK Relations
Prince Harry’s Lawyer Tells UK Court Daily Mail Was Complicit in Unlawful Privacy Invasions
UK Government Approves China’s ‘Mega Embassy’ in London Amid Debate Over Security and Diplomacy
Trump Cites UK’s Chagos Islands Sovereignty Shift as Justification for Pursuing Greenland Acquisition
UK Government Weighs Australia-Style Social Media Ban for Under-Sixteens Amid Rising Concern Over Online Harm
Trump Aides Say U.S. Has Discussed Offering Asylum to British Jews Amid Growing Antisemitism Concerns
UK Seeks Diplomatic De-escalation with Trump Over Greenland Tariff Threat
Prince Harry Returns to London as High Court Trial Begins Over Alleged Illegal Tabloid Snooping
High-Speed Train Collision in Southern Spain Kills at Least Twenty-One and Injures Scores
Meghan Markle May Return to the U.K. This Summer as Security Review Advances
Trump’s Greenland Tariff Threat Sparks EU Response and Risks Deep Transatlantic Rift
Prince Harry’s High Court Battle With Daily Mail Publisher Begins in London
Trump’s Tariff Escalation Presents Complex Challenges for the UK Economy
UK Prime Minister Starmer Rebukes Trump’s Greenland Tariff Strategy as Transatlantic Tensions Rise
Prince Harry’s Last Press Case in UK Court Signals Potential Turning Point in Media and Royal Relations
OpenAI to Begin Advertising in ChatGPT in Strategic Shift to New Revenue Model
GDP Growth Remains the Most Telling Barometer of Britain’s Economic Health
Prince William and Kate Middleton Stay Away as Prince Harry Visits London Amid Lingering Rift
Britain Braces for Colder Weather and Snow Risk as Temperatures Set to Plunge
Mass Protests Erupt as UK Nears Decision on China’s ‘Mega Embassy’ in London
Prince Harry to Return to UK to Testify in High-Profile Media Trial Against Associated Newspapers
Keir Starmer Rejects Trump’s Greenland Tariff Threat as ‘Completely Wrong’
Trump to hit Europe with 10% tariffs until Greenland deal is agreed
Prince Harry Returns to UK High Court as Final Privacy Trial Against Daily Mail Publisher Begins
Britain Confronts a Billion-Pound Wind Energy Paradox Amid Grid Constraints
The graduate 'jobpocalypse': Entry-level jobs are not shrinking. They are disappearing.
Cybercrime, Inc.: When Crime Becomes an Economy. How the World Accidentally Built a Twenty-Trillion-Dollar Criminal Economy
The Return of the Hands: Why the AI Age Is Rewriting the Meaning of “Real Work”
UK PM Kier Scammer Ridicules Tories With "Kamasutra"
Strategic Restraint, Credible Force, and the Discipline of Power
United Kingdom and Norway Endorse NATO’s ‘Arctic Sentry’ Mission Including Greenland
Woman Claiming to Be Freddie Mercury’s Secret Daughter Dies at Forty-Eight After Rare Cancer Battle
UK Launches First-Ever ‘Town of Culture’ Competition to Celebrate Local Stories and Boost Communities
Planned Sale of Shell and Exxon’s UK Gas Assets to Viaro Energy Collapses Amid Regulatory and Market Hurdles
UK Intensifies Arctic Security Engagement as Trump’s Greenland Rhetoric Fuels Allied Concern
Meghan Markle Could Return to the UK for the First Time in Nearly Four Years If Security Is Secured
Meghan Markle Likely to Return to UK Only if Harry Secures Official Security Cover
UAE Restricts Funding for Emiratis to Study in UK Amid Fears Over Muslim Brotherhood Influence
EU Seeks ‘Farage Clause’ in Brexit Reset Talks to Safeguard Long-Term Agreement Stability
Starmer’s Push to Rally Support for Action Against Elon Musk’s X Faces Setback as Canada Shuns Ban
UK Free School Meals Expansion Faces Political and Budgetary Delays
EU Seeks ‘Farage Clause’ in Brexit Reset Talks With Britain
Germany Hit by Major Airport Strikes Disrupting European Travel
×