> whole circus kicked off in late January
This whole circus kicked off in November, 2024.
Actually, arguably, it kicked off June 6, 2015.
Actually, scratch that… it kicked off June 14, 1946.
Nope, then again, 18 July, 1925.
Come to think of it, April 20th, 1889.
I tell a lie… part way through 1611?
Or, actually, probably around (with a enormously big “-ish”) 70AD, when people started taking the figurative “Father” references literally?
The normal "hard SF" counter-strategy would be for America's rivals to take maximum advantage of our ill-advised policies.
Though doing that would require competent rivals. Which may be considerably more common in SF than in the real world.