I lasted 11 days in the White House, which means I’ve spent more time in line at the Nassau County D.M.V. than I spent advising the president of the United States. When you get fired that fast, you learn to read a room, and the room I’m reading now is the American electorate, less than six weeks out from the midterms, standing in the checkout aisle at ShopRite, looking at a receipt like it’s a ransom note.
What I call the Money Point of View of History explains midterm elections better than any consultant with a PowerPoint. If you want to know why something happened, find out who got paid, who got stuck with the check, and how long it took them to notice. Three decisions led to the resentment that made Donald Trump possible, all of them money-related: waving China into the W.T.O., fighting two wars on a credit card while cutting taxes, and structuring the 2008 bailout so that Wall Street got the parachute and Main Street got the pavement. Both parties signed those checks. I was in the room for some of them, cheering.