Ideas

The Age of American Caesarism

The legal right spent decades empowering the presidency. Now it must reckon with the system it helped create.

First published in The Atlantic on April 27, 2026.

by Gregg Nunziata, The Atlantic
April 30, 2026 | reading time: 9 Min.

Julius Caesar styled himself as a servant of the republic, claiming to speak for the people even as he disregarded laws and norms to govern by caprice. The Roman republic did not survive him.

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