Trump has cut the technocratic Gordian Knot — and elites hate it

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Detroit Economic Club at the MotorCity Casino Hotel, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Detroit. AP

“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.”

That’s a quote often attributed (perhaps incorrectly) to Vladimir Lenin — but whoever said it first, it’s certainly true of the last week or so.

Just look at the headlines. 

In Iran, the mullahs who have ruled since 1979 are collapsing in the face of widespread popular revolt. 

For nearly all of the 47 years since Jimmy Carter allowed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to take power in the fallacious belief that it would somehow advance the cause of human rights, Iran has been a major rival to the United States in the region and around the world.

The theocracy has been a source of headaches and humiliation as various administrations tried to manage the problem with techniques ranging from cakes baked in the shape of a key (Reagan) to palletloads of cash (Obama). 

Now even Democratic Party politicians are condemning the mullahs’ regime, which tells you how they think it’s going to turn out.  

In Venezuela, dictator Nicolás Maduro was removed from power, and from his country, by US special forces deployed by President Donald Trump.

The stealthy American lightning raid that snatched him from Venezuela’s largest military base blew past advanced Chinese and Russian air defenses and incapacitated hundreds of troops guarding Maduro with high-tech sonic weapons that left them vomiting and bleeding from the ears. 

Probably the most intricate and successful military raid in history, and without the loss of a single American life.

Here at home, leftists are trying to resurrect the Black Lives Matter strategy against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement — even  though black Americans are conspicuous by their absence this time around. 

Now, it’s mostly middle-aged white women eager to taunt, threaten and obstruct lawful enforcement raids targeting criminal illegal aliens. 

But the big news is that the raids are happening at all. 

We were told for decades that we couldn’t do anything about illegal immigration — at least not without a big pork-filled, amnesty-laden “bipartisan” bill. 

But now the border is basically closed, and those in the country illegally are being shipped out.

Crime in Washington, DC, Memphis, Tenn., and other cities was out of control. Trump sent in the National Guard to fix it. 

Sometimes the mere threat of sending the Guard was enough to get local authorities to fix crime problems for themselves — something they could have done all along, but mysteriously didn’t.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reported this week that up to 10% of the federal budget is lost to fraud annually.  

The total fraud tally is probably greater than that — Elon Musk has estimated over a trillion dollars a year, and what we’ve seen just in Minneapolis suggests he may be on track. 

Everyone has known for years that the federal budget was out of control and riddled with waste, but even the most pessimistic estimates weren’t pessimistic enough. Yet nothing was done.

Now that’s changing, too, as Bessent launches new initiatives to shut the fraud down.

In legend, the Gordian Knot was a rope fashioned into a knot of immense complexity. Whoever untied it would supposedly rule Asia, but no one could. 

Until Alexander the Great — who declared, “It makes no difference how it is loosed,” and cut it with his sword. 

To this day, “cutting the Gordian Knot” describes a simple, forceful approach to solving overly complex problems.

As political scientist Wilfred Reilly recently posted, “Ending crime and unwanted migration was always as simple as it seemed to you and your buddies at the bar or on the track. A great, great deal of mid-wit noise was made to disguise this.”

America’s institutional elite has spent decades making simple problems complex. 

But the Gordian Knot can be cut. 

Trouble with Iran? Try ousting the mullahs, not negotiating with them. (They’re better at haggling than we are). 

Trouble with illegal aliens pouring into the country? Close the border down. 

Trouble with the illegitimate dictator of Venezuela? Depose him. 

Trouble with financial fraud? Arrest the fraudsters and shut off the money taps.

The people who made these knotty problems knotty did too well “managing” or “addressing” them to ever actually solve them. 

Doing so would shut down the whole feedlot.

Trump just cut the knot. 

That’s a terrible blow to the managerial class. 

If the public realizes you can actually solve problems, there will be more pressure to do that — rather than just manage them endlessly.

That’s unforgivable. No wonder Trump is the villain in their eyes.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee and founder of the InstaPundit.com blog.