Article by Mitica Docan – Published Monday, June 15, 2026, 11:03 / Updated Monday, June 15, 2026 11:04
Few countries in the world have tried to metabolize the legacy of Ancient Rome as hard as the United States of America. However, the distance from what Publius dreamed of in the Federalist Papers to jumping on motorcycles in front of the White House is an enormous one. And irreversible.
Tonight's event, with an Octagon erected on the White House lawn, showed in all its glory the accelerating decadence that has taken over the Trump administration.
The “greatest show on Earth”, as the president described it, was a bad taste party, sponsored by the crypto industry, which disfigured the government building and which “benefited” from the approval of only 16% of Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published two days ago.
250 years after the founding of the project called the United States of America, the country has entered a schizophrenic era. Built on the principle of moderation, of institutions that check each other, a mirror of what the Romanian Republic dreamed of, the USA was totally derailed by the ambition and determination of one man.
The Octagon in front of the White House, where the event took place, photo: Imago
Are You Not Entertained?
A FIFA-award-winning pacifist, Trump has militarized the streets and launched a terrifying, warrant-less, indiscriminate crackdown on immigrants, but also American citizens, hunted down by hoodlums as they go to work. He started a disastrous planned war in Iran, one of tariffs against China and one against the population, when he installed an eccentric like RFK Junior as Secretary of Health, a fearless man who admitted that he “pulled lines of cocaine off old caps, so I'm not afraid of germs.”
What Americans affectionately call the “founding fathers” envisioned an American federal system based on moderation. With a Senate meant to temper the excesses of the vulgar in the House of Representatives, with an independent Supreme Court, politically appointed but “liberated” by life tenure, and with a presidency on a leash, tempered by Congress, 18th century Americans thought they would achieve (and improve) those 5 centuries of freedom that the Roman Republic represented. Even the government buildings on the Potomac were built like the Tiber, respecting the proportions of Vitruvius.
The decay didn't start with Donald Trump. It was consumed for decades with the rise of an “imperial presidency” office that disregarded the powers of Congress and handed institutional liberties to one man. The indecency of Trump, in his second term, completely overturned the republic.
Rampant corruption, lack of principles and megalomania were visibly embodied in last night's gala. In a kind of strange irony, it was fitting that Donald Trump would celebrate a historic event by erecting an arena where blood, violence and gore would be applauded and endorsed by the administration.
At ringside, where you can feel the sweat and pain, the president and about 9 ministers watched over some “athletes” who accused Michelle Obama of “being a man”, and the commentators declared themselves so excited that “I feel like punching someone in the chest”.
MMA fighters, in the cage in front of the White House, watched by President Donald Trump, with a white cap, on the right of the image, photo: Imago
The unqualifiable has become very qualifiable for a year now. It is no accident that Trump sees Formula 1, the soccer World Cup, the NBA and other American football matches as image ramps. People like Vladimir Putin or various sheikhs accused of assassinations in the Middle East have done it successfully before him.
Nero in love with his own image, he needed a Colosseum. And he built it himself. Even if that meant he had to tear down everything around him.
