“Uh-oh,” Lucille said. She was so rattled that she had actually sprung for drinks for the whole table. This was, I realized, the first direct benefit I’d received from the Wrightman administration.

After the boilerplate God blesses, and as the first strains of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s a cappella version of “America the Beautiful” rose softly in the background, President Wrightman turned and stared meaningfully into the fire as the camera slowly faded out.

A legal directive was issued to all law enforcement agencies by Attorney General Langsam several minutes later, while the talking heads were still marveling over Wrightman’s “courageous effort to unite the country.” It read:

Under our constitutional obligation to promote and ensure the general welfare, we are hereby requiring that all public assemblies involving or likely to bring together a substantial number of people who have not applied for and received a permit be temporarily suspended. While this administration will fiercely defend the fundamental First Amendment right of every American to gather peacefully to petition the government, under the existing circumstances these so-called pop-up rallies constitute a clear and present danger to the public safety. We do not want to repeat the errors made during the BLM protests. To enable law enforcement to continue to protect the lives and property of the American people, we request you take action to prevent such large or uncontrollable gatherings. We strongly urge you to do so without the use of force, but should such actions become necessary, the Justice Department will provide appropriate legal support.

The response was immediate and predictable. Led by the American Civil Liberties Union, numerous organizations protested this directive. The ACLU filed a legal challenge, causing Louisiana senator John Kennedy to refer to it as “the pro-riot organization.”

The administration was considerably less forgiving, suggesting that any “person, institution, or organization who opposed defending American lives at this crucial moment in our nation’s history is providing aid and comfort to the enemy.”

A massive social media campaign supporting the president erupted instantly. Almost as if it had been planned, prepared, and ready to launch as soon as he finished his speech. There’s nothing wrong with that, I guess; in some form every president—indeed, every politician—makes an effort to shape public opinion. One man’s propaganda is another man’s Fox News. A significant difference between this situation and the escalating violence of the BLM protests was that while Trump had already lost the trust of a majority of Americans, Wrightman remained popular and people still supported him. It worked; this strategy was as effective as it was heavy-handed: I’ll bet you knew that at some point in this book I was going to dig up that appropriate H. L. Mencken quote, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

Twitter reported a record-shattering 10 million tweets and retweets had been sent within a day, the majority of them from accounts including #IsupportAmerica, #stopterroristrallies, #Istandwiththepresident; even the old saw #Americaloveitorleaveit. Videos showing riots intercut with funerals of Americans killed in the initial attacks, as well as American flags being burned, were posted on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Hundreds of patriotic-themed boards popped up on Pinterest.