Banjamin Wallace-Wells: “It is a propitious time for a little bit of populism. The intrusion of Musk into politics and of the A.I. hyperscalers, via data centers, into otherwise out-of-the-way American towns has made the issues of concentrated wealth and power especially poignant this year.”“Even more significantly, Donald Trump’s pursuit of policies that have exacerbated the central political problem of rising prices—the tariffs, the Iran war—combined with his financial entanglements and shadowy deals, has made him newly vulnerable to charges of using his public office for personal gain or, more simply, of being out of touch with Americans’ daily struggles.”