The gods of irony, if they haven’t already checked out of this cosmic mental asylum in a fit of terminal boredom, must have enjoyed a rare moment of genuine laughter Tuesday evening. There is something almost poetically symmetrical about Air Force One—that flying, gold-plated monument to American exceptionalism and taxpayer-funded extravagance—deciding to suffer a 'minor electrical issue' just as it was ferrying Donald Trump toward the high-altitude circle-jerk known as the World Economic Forum in Davos. It appears that even the inanimate machinery of the American state is beginning to experience the same existential fatigue that plagues anyone with a functioning frontal lobe.

Let us deconstruct the scene with the clinical detachment it deserves. An hour into the flight, as the VC-25A cruised toward Switzerland so the President could lecture globalists about the virtues of populism while wearing a suit that costs more than a mid-western bungalow, the lights in the press cabin flickered and died. For a brief, glorious moment, the members of the traveling press corps were plunged into a darkness that perfectly matched their collective insight. According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the decision to pull a U-turn over the Atlantic and retreat to Joint Base Andrews was made out of an 'abundance of caution.' In the lexicon of political spin, 'abundance of caution' is the phrase we use when the alternative is admitting that our billion-dollar technology is held together by hope, duct tape, and the sheer force of its own ego.

The irony is thick enough to choke a gargoyle. Here we have a man who portrays himself as the ultimate disruptor, the high-voltage outsider who is supposed to jump-start the heart of a dying nation, and yet he can’t even get through a transatlantic flight without the cabin lights throwing a tantrum. It is a fitting metaphor for the current state of the American empire: a loud, expensive, and increasingly erratic vehicle that looks impressive from the outside but is internally struggling with basic wiring. One can only imagine the scene in the cabin—the sudden dimming of the bulbs, the brief silence of the air conditioning, and the realization that even the Commander-in-Chief is ultimately at the mercy of a faulty fuse or a confused alternator.

On the one side, we have the Right, who will undoubtedly view this as a metaphor for the 'deep state' sabotage of a great man’s mission to the Alps. They will see shadows and conspiracies in every flickering LED, ignoring the fact that the plane in question is a modified 747-200B, an airframe so ancient it probably still has an 8-track player in the galley. On the other side, the Left will revel in the schadenfreude, cackling at the perceived 'weakness' of a grounded president while conveniently forgetting that their own preferred candidates are equally prone to metaphorical (and literal) mechanical failures. Both sides are, as usual, missing the point. This isn't about sabotage or karma; it’s about the inevitable decay of a system that spends billions on the optics of power while the actual infrastructure—be it electrical or intellectual—slowly rots from within.

And what of Davos? That pristine Swiss enclave where the world's most insufferable people gather to solve the problems they themselves created. The spectacle of Trump heading to Davos is already a masterclass in absurdity. It is a meeting of the elite to discuss 'equity' while sipping champagne that was delivered by a private jet fleet that produces more carbon in a weekend than a small African nation does in a year. The fact that the flight was aborted is perhaps the most honest thing to happen to the World Economic Forum in decades. By turning back, the plane achieved more for the global environment and the preservation of human sanity than the entire conference likely will.

In the end, the aircraft landed safely back at Joint Base Andrews. The President will likely find another way to get to his mountain retreat, the wires will be replaced, and the press will return to their brightly lit cabins to resume their work of transcribing the utter nonsense that passes for public discourse. But we should not let this moment pass without reflecting on the sheer fragility of the spectacle. We live in an era where the most powerful leaders on earth are one blown circuit away from a humiliating retreat. It is a reminder that for all the bluster, the rallies, the globalist agendas, and the populist counter-attacks, we are all just passengers on a very old, very expensive plane that is increasingly prone to turning around and going nowhere. It’s a circular journey into the dark, and apparently, someone forgot to check the battery.