To better fight global terrorism, the Treasury Department joined the new International Bank Database, which allowed the government access to all domestic bank records, as well as any overseas transactions greater than $5,000.

The hits kept coming. Almost every day the new administration announced a new initiative. Jenny began referring to it as “the daily disaster.” Health and Human Services began providing five-minute-long “Morning Announcements” to every American school. This was a national version of the opening announcements most schools broadcast over their PA systems, reminding them about everything from club and athletic schedules to upcoming vacations. “Morning Announcements” was strictly voluntary. At eight A.M. each morning students could join their peers from around the country online to hear a celebrity provide information the government believed it was important they know. In addition to showing the Clip of the Day, generally something heartwarming or guaranteed to make students laugh, it reminded them about upcoming events, urged them to stay away from drugs, provided a three-sentence history lesson, and only occasionally slipped in some political content.

Few of these actions attracted significant complaints. They were rolled out over a period of time, often without an official announcement “for security reasons.” And if there were protests or legal challenges, they were dealt with quickly—and always legally. When the ACLU attempted to enjoin the government from activating its National Surveillance Camera Center, which connected all public surveillance cameras (and interior cameras from any entity that volunteered to join, which eventually included major retailers, most stadiums and arenas, even homeowners), the FISA courts ruled secretly that this system was an invaluable and entirely legal resource for law enforcement.

While there was some minor grumbling, the most controversial action taken by the Wrightman administration was granting presidential immunity from prosecution to Donald Trump, ending years of legal wrangling. Legally the power of the president extended only to federal cases, but several states had indicted Trump, his oldest son, Trump Junior, and his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka and Jared Kushner, for crimes that included tax evasion, money laundering, bank fraud, misappropriation of funds, and perjury. In total, the disgraced former president was facing more than seventy-five criminal charges that together would have put him behind bars for several hundred years. Channeling Gerald Ford, who had pardoned Richard Nixon upon ascending to the presidency, Wrightman said that while prosecuting Trump might make many people feel good, it would do nothing but distract us from the serious problems the nation was facing. Attorney General Richard Langsam issued the first presidential immunity. It was of dubious legal value, but Wrightman made an impassioned speech to explain his decision. While the cable stations that would have carried the trials were unhappy about it, complaining about lost commercial revenue, most people agreed it was the right decision. Trump paid significant fines and was allowed to retreat to Palm Beach, where he remained a recluse at Mar-a-Lago.

Every one of these new programs was supported and reinforced on all the popular social media platforms. Reign Man Munchmeyer supposedly employed as many as five hundred young men and women, working out of a converted airplane hangar at CIA headquarters at Langley, to apply and improve upon the lessons we had learned from Russian hackers in the 2016 elections. The existence of a social propaganda unit obviously was a major story, so I tried to track it down. I cultivated a couple of promising sources, but I was never able to get anyone to go on record, which meant my story would get the dreaded O rather than a desirable F or N. I was told, for example, that the kids in Hanger P had successfully defused a scheduled National Day of Rage by promoting fictitious marches that were to take place on different days in numerous places. But I couldn’t nail it down. I didn’t stop trying. As far as I know, it’s still sitting in that pile of “working stories” on my desk. Wherever that desk is today.