Sacred Defense
2017 - 2020: Donald Trump / Mike Pence (Republican Party) [1]
2016 Def: Hillary Clinton / Tim Kaine (Democratic Party)
2020: Mike Pence / vacant (Republican Party) [2]
2020 - 2021: Nancy Pelosi / Andrew Cuomo (Democratic Party) [3]
2021 - 2029: Andrew Cuomo / Kamala Harris (Democratic Party) [4]
2020 Def: Ted Cruz / Brian Kemp (Republican Party), Donald Trump / Jim Gilchrist (Independent)
2024 Def: Tom Cotton / Tim Fox (Republican Party); Tulsi Gabbard / Cynthia McKinney (Green Party)
2029 - : vacant / Josh Hawley (Republican Party) [5]
2028: Tucker Carlson / Josh Hawley (Republican Party), Kamala Harris / Pete Buttigieg (Democratic Party), Evan McMullin / various (Independent)
[1] - Trump's presidency both began and ended with a bang. He won the 2016 election with the skin of his teeth, his first year saw civil unrest which hadn't been seen in decades, his party failed in repealing Obamacare, and the 2018 midterms saw big gains for the Democratic Party. However, future historians would note that his presidency began to end when the US withdrew from the Iran Deal in May 2018. From then until January 2020, tensions between the US and Iran would gradually increase, from Iran supposedly sinking oil tankers to the Houthis in Yemen striking at Saudi Arabia's oil reserves to the attack on American embassies in Baghdad and Beirut in retaliation for America's airstrikes on Kata'ib Hizbollah on New Year's Eve, 2019.
On January 2nd, 2020, in retaliation for the Baghdad and Beirut embassy attacks, the US launched a series of airstrikes in Iraq and Lebanon, killing PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Badr Organization Secretary General Hadi al-Ameri, Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, "Special Groups" leader Qais Khazali, and IRGC commander Abdul Reza Shahlai, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and Mohammad Radd, head of Hezbollah's political wing. The killing of the "Seven Martyrs" (as they would be known in Iran) were the cause of great outrage in Iran and pro-Iran elements in the Levant. After a week of mourning and threats, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis struck back at the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, by launching a series of missile strikes at US military bases, Israeli governmental buildings, and Saudi oil fields. The strikes killed 30 Americans, 80 Saudis, and 10 Israelis. It was war.
The war ended up being a lot quicker than anyone expected, but ended in a way nobody wanted. After a few months of a war of attrition (which included a partition of Iraq, the collapse of Kuwait, and an Israeli invasion of Lebanon), both America and Iran would face a common threat - the Coronavirus. The Coronavirus pandemic began in China, where it killed a thousand people, and then spread to Iran in February. With much of Iran's resources focused on fighting America, it spread like wildfire in Iran, killing hundreds by March 15th. It was March 15th when America saw that its Coronavirus problem was also getting out of hands. Prior to the 15th, Trump spent days arguing with his staff over whether or not America should declare a national emergency under wartime. After days of deliberation, Trump conceded, and in a national address would declare the Coronavirus pandemic to be a national emergency.
Trump's prior dismantling of the CDC would make the problem hard to solve, and many states began to issue stay at home orders in order to lessen the spread. This would harm the war effort as staying at home meant that many Americans would not go to the recruitment office. Trump would find it hard to first combat a pandemic and win a war. Iran and Iraq would both offer ceasefire agreements, but it was rejected out of hand.
By April, Trump found himself exhausted and stressed. News from the front was not good, as the US found it hard to push forward in Iran. There were also reports of the Coronavirus infecting US soldiers. The Coronavirus would kill more Americans than 9/11, and America would have the highest number of reported cases (it was said that Iran had the most, but it wasn't reported). Soon, there would be some in the Trump administration advocating for a ceasefire and for an eventual withdrawal from both Iran and Iraq. Trump found himself isolated - there were many who supported him, but he began to think that many were just doing so for their own gain. Trump soon began to lose sight of what the goal of the war was: to place compliant governments in both Iran and Iraq. However, Trump began to believe his propaganda, and began to feel that they are evil and had to be destroyed
And so, on April 11th, 2020, the order was given out. 5 Minuteman-III ICBMs were to be launched: at Baghdad, at Tehran, at Qom, at Shiraz, and at Isfahan.
For many in the US military, the nuclear attacks were the last straw. Shortly afterwards, another order was given, and that was to arrest Trump. Trump was going through a form of mental breakdown shortly before giving the order to launch nuclear missiles, a breakdown he was still going under. It was clear that he shouldn't be allowed to be in office a moment longer. Secret Service agents detained Trump, and the US Marine Garrison in Washington would move in to arrest him.
[2] - Luckily for Pence, he was not in the White House at the time, and even luckier, many in the military were willing to have him be president on the condition that he does not pardon Trump. Pence was sworn in on April 12th, 2020, and was to become the president of a confused and shocked country. Pence would begin the withdrawal of American soldiers from Iran and Iraq, and declare the end of the Iran War. Withdrawal from Afghanistan was to be sped up as well. With much of Iran's leadership gone, Iran collapsed into anarchy, and . The Sadrists would take over Iraq, with Basra instead of Baghdad as the capital.
Pence felt uneasy over the condition the military gave him over not pardoning Trump, and felt that it meant that the military is getting too powerful. As such, on May 1st he decided to pardon Trump, in spite of the fact that all of his advisors were telling him not to. The pardoning of Trump caused a big controversy, and drastically hurt Pence's approval ratings. It seemed clear that Pence would lose in a landslide, but it didn't even come to that as Pence would be assassinated by an Iranian immigrant two days after the pardoning, for his complicity in the Iran War and the April 11th nuclear strikes.
[3] - Pelosi tried to do the best she could in the eight months of her presidency. Her response to the coronavirus pandemic was better than Trump's, and the number of cases began to decrease by July, and the stay at home orders began to be rescinded. The withdrawal from Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan was completed as well, but the US still maintained a role in the Saudi-Yemen War and the Israel-Lebanon War. Biden's death in July had led to his delegates being uncommitted, and there was a move to nominate Pelosi, but she took herself out of the nominating process before it could get somewhere. Her Vice President, Andrew Cuomo, was the one most Biden's delegates ended up supporting. Seeing as how Cuomo did not run in the primaries at all, this was seen a stolen convention, but the weakness of the Republican Party post-Trump (and the fact that Trump was running as an independent after failing to retake the nomination) meant that the Democrats still had the upper hand in the election. Her presidency is mainly seen as the transition period from the Trump era to the post-Trump era.
[4] - Andrew Cuomo ran in 2020, urging a return to normalcy. But the forces of history cannot be stopped, and that would prove itself throughout his presidency. The first two years in office would see some changes being made - a public option being implemented, a shift away from the Middle East, and by 2022 the Coronavirus Pandemic was officially over, with over a 2.5 million dead worldwide (the US pandemic was considered over by Spring 2021).
The 2022 Midterms would see a shift in the Democratic Party as much of the older congressmen and women would find themselves be primaried by younger, leftist challengers. Open primaries in Democratic-leaning seats would see the same phenomenon. Though the overall seat change would make it seem like the midterms were unimportant (Republicans gaining 20 seats, just 25 less of controlling the House), the number of DSA members in congress grew from three to twenty, a growth which would be seen in the 2024 and 2026 House and Senate elections as well.
Though Cuomo tried to begin a shift away from the Middle East, America would be forced to return. Cuomo had decreased American support for Saudi Arabia, which had led to MBS becoming unpopular amongst the rest of the Saudi government. A coup in 2023 had led to MBS's death, but most of the coup plotters didn't have a plan after that. Because of this, Saudi Arabia collapsed within two months after the coup. The Middle East, which was dealing with Iran's collapse, the partition of Iraq, the Israel-Lebanon War, now had to deal with Saudi Arabia's collapse. The collapse of Saudi Arabia had ripple effects across the Middle East as much of the Gulf States relied on a stable KSA to survive, and when the KSA collapsed, so did they. Egypt, Jordan, and the Mashriq Republic (Sunni Arab Iraq, which was partitioned during the Iran War) relied on Saudi handouts, and all of their economies collapse.
ISIS, which had been lurking in the shadows since their defeat in Baghouz in 2019, came back with a vengeance after the collapse of the KSA. ISIS had followed a policy of infiltrating the armies of Muslim countries, starting from 2021, and this was most successful in the Mashriq Republic. The collapse of Mashriq's economy had led to a pro-ISIS coup taking place, where they declared the borders of Mashriq to be under jursidiction of ISIS. There were some who came out to rebel, but faced a brutal crackdown. ISIS began to expand south to the former Saudi Arabia and west to the collapsing Jordan and to Syria. They would also begin to take towns in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. It was 2014 all over again.
The US would begin a series of airstrikes in ISIS territory starting from December 2023. Many Republicans began to say that this was not enough, and war was the only solution. Tom Cotton was one of those Republicans, which was why he was nominated in 2024. However, most Americans, Democrats, independents, and even many Republicans did not want boots on the ground, which was why Cotton lost in spite of Gabbard acting as a spoiler in some states.
In spite of the airstrikes against ISIS, it continued to expand. Egypt would become a failed state by 2025, leading to ISIS expanding itself there as well. It captured Riyadh, and would try to expand itself to Mecca and Medina, but was stopped by a UN peacekeeping force consisting of entirely Muslim countries. ISIS knew what capturing Mecca and Medina would mean propaganda-wise, and pushed on, making those two cities battlegrounds. ISIS's rise would only be contested on the ground by Russia, which saw ISIS's expansion into Syria as dangerous to the friendly Assad regime. The Russian intervention in the Levant was seen as a model by many Republicans, but Cuomo dug his heels in and still chose not to put boots on the ground. Indeed, it did not take long for Russia to struggle with an intervention this large. The ISIS of the 2020s was not the same ISIS of the 2010s.
Climate Change's uglier effects would begin around Cuomo's second term as well. This was seen in South Asia, which had been going through a water crisis since 2024. India decided to breach the Indus Water Treaty in order to provide water for its northern half, angering Pakistan. Pakistan attacked Indian Kashmir and Indian Punjab in an attempt to prevent India from successfully cutting water from Pakistan, which in turn had led to an Indian retaliation. Pakistan's leadership, realizing it was on the losing end, knew that Pakistan would collapse without the Indus River's water, and decided that if they would go down, so would India. New Delhi, Kolkata, Bombay, and Ahmedabad were all nuked by Pakistan, and in retaliation, India nuked Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi.
The Indo-Pak Nuclear War had led to the world's economy going down, along with a refugee crisis and hundreds of millions dead. It was the worst humanitarian crisis since the Holocaust. The Taliban government in Afghanistan collapsed without Pakistani support, providing an avenue for ISIS to expand. The Naxalites in India saw a chance to rebound with the Indian government's collapse, and would gain the support of China and Nepal. China, realizing the importance of an ally in India, would intervene in 2028 on the side of the Naxalites.
The nuclear war in South Asia, along with ISIS's rise, had led to a refugee crisis which in turn had led to anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise once more, just like in 2015-2016. Cuomo urged US governors to open their doors to refugees, but many wouldn't budge. Seeing as how it was the end of Cuomo's presidency and how he didn't have much political capital left, he didn't try to make a big issue out of it.
Cuomo is remembered as a mediocre president, which is strange, considering how much happened under his presidency. But it makes sense - though he did not do anything bad like launch an unnecessary war and end it with nukes, he failed to stop ISIS and mediate the conflict in Kashmir.
[5] - After years of being a Fox News host, Tucker Carlson's show ended in 2026. He was populist, anti-interventionist, and engaged in just enough anti-semitic and anti-immigrant dogwhistles, which weren't bad enough to have him be booted off the air, but loud enough to where he became the darling of the far-right. He became a Republican candidate in 2028 and quickly became the frontrunner, and became the presumptive nominee faster than Trump did in 2016. He was neck-and-neck with Vice President Harris, and when election day came...
...nobody won. It was an electoral tie, 269-269. The Republicans won in the Senate, but the House had them command a small lead of only three seats.
Ever since Trump's victory in 2016, there had been a rise in popularity of both far-right and far-left groups. This had continued under Pence, Pelosi, and Cuomo, and the confusion over the 2028 election was enough to make the former (which had been supporting Carlson all the way) to attack racial and religious minorities, who they proclaimed stole the election from Carlson. Attacks on minorities had led to far-left groups taking on the mantle of protecting them, which had led to an increase in violence between the two. To make things worse, two Utah electors and one Idaho elector, and two Missouri electors put their vote in, not for Carlson who had won the two states but instead for Utah Governor Evan McMullin. McMullin, who had opposed Tucker Carlson throughout the campaign decided that he would run in the House contigent election.
When the new Congress was sworn in, the contingent election began. The Republican Senate made Josh Hawley Vice President, but the House delegations were split between Carlson, Harris, and McMullin. The Contingent Vote was deadlocked, as many of the delegations either had ties or three way splits, preventing any candidate from reaching 26 delegations. This continued until the 20th, making Hawley acting president. It does not seem like America will have a president for the next few months. Threats of assassinating congressmen are, so far, relegated to the internet, but the chances of someone acting on those threats is high.
With ISIS controlling much of the Levant and the Gulf, India divided between a Hindutva death state, Chinese-aligned Maoists, and warlords who don't care about any ideology, along with far-right parties winning in Europe, Russian soldiers in the Middle East, America going through a political crisis, and with catastrophic Climate Change appearing inevitable the world does not have much to look forward to as the 2020s begin to end. One can hope that the 2040s or the 2050s may see some kind of renewal, but it all depends on what happens in the 2030s.
But if the last few years are any indication, we would be lucky if we end the 2030s without civilization collapsing.