No one really knew what to make of former President Donald Trump when he came down the escalator in 2015 and leveled the platitudinous predictability of campaign season (and eventually Western civilization).

And despite his omnipresence in the media for the past seven years, no one really knows what to make of him now. It is a truly outrageous fact that, despite Trump’s singular capacity to make everyone insane and miserable with his magnificently grotesque personality, he is the favorite in 2024 to become the first person to win non-consecutive terms as president since Grover Cleveland.

REPUBLICAN PRIMARY: BIG TENT OR BIG TOP?

So what gives, exactly? Is Trump the freedom-loving, four-dimensional chess player of MAGA lore? An evil mastermind in the line of Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini? Or just a lucky, spray-tanned schmuck with small hands and an oversize necktie that screams male insecurity? Each of these popular explanations for Trump’s sustained political dominance offers a convenient spin for the partisans that tell them, and each seems to carry at least a kernel of truth.

But the better explanation is that Trump remains the best reflection of America's culture in these miserable times. If America could look itself in the mirror, it would see a boxy, blonde comb-over slightly elevated from a burnt orange brow and a scowl that parodies the no-nonsense heroes of centuries past who actually once made America great. But Trump is nearly all nonsense. And so is the country that fueled his rise: right, center, and left.

Like Trump, the whole of America is addicted to outrage, vengeance, and frivolity. We are addicted to social media, which was designed to exploit our addiction to negative emotions. Our tech overlords know that we are more likely to interact with material that causes outgroup animosity. And so they feed it to us. They purposefully push our outrage button in order to spur engagement and increase revenue. And no one embodies manufactured outrage more than Trump, whether it is the kind directed toward him by foes or through him by allies.

With Trump as its chief conduit, the outrage has been building to a point that maxes out our capacity for productive discourse — we regularly speak in apocalyptic terms because those are the only terms we have left.

Since Trump’s election in 2016, the Left’s use of the term "existential threat" has become so commonplace that it has lost all meaning. One could easily imagine Vice President Kamala Harris stepping up to a lectern and describing cow farts as an "existential threat" with a straight face. According to the Democrats and their media lackeys, the "end of democracy" is perpetually at hand.

Never to be outdone in irresponsible hyperbole, Trump has framed his White House run in the following terms: " 2024 is the final battle , it’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again."

This juvenile, pseudo-reality-for-idiots is exactly what sells in American culture today. Trump serves it up generously. His supporters flock to his rallies to get their outgroup outrage fix. Their particular brand of outrage has a touch of glee, which isn’t the victory they think it is. His detractors in the legacy media exploit the outrage he engenders in their audience by plastering his face across every broadcast, no matter how insignificant his actual role in a given news cycle. Trump’s pouty mug equals mega-ratings for dying liberal networks. They can’t quit him, and they don’t want to. He’s their only remaining lifeline.

Trump’s obsession with clicks, views, and ratings makes him the quintessential 21st-century American. He is the ultimate influencer. He is us, and we are him. And unless he is suddenly swept off the national stage by some higher force (which, if the Justice Department has its way following Thursday night's news of his indictment on seven federal charges, is suddenly very possible), he will continue to represent us.

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Peter Laffin is a contributor at the Washington Examiner and the founder of Crush the College Essay. His work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, the Catholic Thing, the National Catholic Register, and the American Spectator.