Trump or not, US meltdown could be inevitable

Intro:

The idea that we can predict the collapse of societies is hotly contested — but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it.

When the former US president Donald Trump was found liable of the sexual abuse of journalist E Jean Carroll last month, some observers might have hoped this would make him less appealing to American voters. Not so. If you look at a Quinnipiac poll released in late May, Trump now has the backing of 56 per cent of Republicans for the 2024 race, over twice that of his nearest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis.