RED DAWN

Among the young, confident, and casually cruel Trumpers who, after conquering Washington, have their sights set on the rest of America.

- BROCK COLYAR

IT'S MONDAY, JANUARY 20, the first night of Donald Trump's second presidency, and just a couple blocks from the Capitol Building that his now-pardoned MAGA army swarmed four years and 14 days ago, there is, as there has been for the past several nights in restaurants, hotel ballrooms, and lobbying offices, a party for people who have never been happier about the direction in which this country is heading. They are drinking, smoking, flirting, networking, but mostly congratulating one another on their big win.

This party is at Butterworth's, a new dimly lit bistro that has become a hot spot for the right in part because one of its investors is Raheem Kassam, once the editor-in-chief of the U.K. edition of Breitbart. On the menu are themed cocktails with names like American Carnage and the Second Term. In the middle of the room, in a hip-hugging emerald ball gown and a hefty string of pearls, is Tanya Posobiec, the wife of Jack Posobiec, a far-right activist and onetime Pizzagate pusher. She has just arrived from one of the president's three official inaugural balls and is telling me about how splendid her night has been. She even met Mike Tyson and Conor McGregor. She's surprised, she admits, that despite the horrible traffic, the below-freezing weather, and the general pandemonium, it's been a no-drama weekend. "I haven't heard anyone complain," she says, almost shrieking with glee. "It's such a positive vibe."

Outside on the sidewalk, two tuxedoed men smoking Marlboros are trying to remember what exactly the president said that morning. Are we entering a New Dawn? A New Era? Wait, was it Golden Era? Golden Dawn? They erupt into laughter. "It's a little bit Hitlerian," one concludes.