We all were sitting somewhere Jan. 20, contemplating our uncertain futures and caught in a moment of stillness. 

Do I watch? 

Do I take it with a grain of salt and swallow a hard pill? 

To half the country, the second act of the Trump administration feels like a coronation. To the other half, it’s a waking nightmare and a sequel more terrifying than the first. The question looms: How do we brace ourselves for what’s next? 

President Donald Trump knows the art of commanding a room and, by extension, the nation. Any attention, good or bad, is attention to him nonetheless. He grabs everyone’s focus with some sentences carefully crafted to electrify and divide. 

Like a comedian who thrives on the laughter from an audience, he leans into the crowd’s reactions to guarantee headlines from every newspaper in the country. 

Trump has never needed to be ‘good’ to stay relevant. He has already spent a lifetime playing to the cameras and has turned the presidency into his latest and most ambitious production. 

Whether or not you cast your ballot for him, America got exactly what it was anticipating.

The right wing got the self-proclaimed guardian they craved the past four years, and the left wing got the embodiment of discord. 

Dread, worry, despair. 

Elation, surprise, wonder. 

The second act tells the story of a nation that has split down the middle, but one thing is clear: Trump’s “Golden Age of America” begins now.