Nostalgia as Trojan Horse: Trump's Future and the 'Present-Continuous'

Christian Caliandro argues that Donald Trump's political imagery relies on nostalgia—for the 1980s, the West, prosperity, empire, and even an old-fashioned, reliable future. This 'nostalgia for the future' is modeled by Elon Musk, who presents the future as a pre-packaged, ready-made time that falls upon us, stripped of uncertainty. Caliandro traces the shift in temporal perception to the late 2000s–early 2010s, citing Britney Spears shaving her head as a symbolic moment when time stopped moving forward and began circling in a 'present-continuous.' In this amniotic, viscous time, politics and culture become ahistorical. He cites Liz Pelly's Harper's Magazine investigation revealing Spotify's use of 'ghost artists'—fictional musicians created to avoid paying royalties—as a symptom of this condition. Caliandro asserts that nostalgia is a Trojan horse that burns bridges, poisons wells, defends the status quo, and annihilates the notion of the new and the avant-garde. The 'present-continuous' offers every scene, idea, and work virtually, but upon reaching them, finds nothing inside.