The New Age of Kings. Monarchies are dated, but kings are coming back. Our kings won’t wear crowns or royal titles. They won’t even be monarchs; kings they will be nonetheless. A conversation about power, a deep-dive into the rise of strong leaders, and why it was inevitable.

Let strong men create good times

"The very system that we installed to protect us from the corruptable nature of humans became corrupted itself. The only thing worse than a corrupted man is a corrupted system." 🎯

Wait until you see the inside 😮‍💨

Kind of ironic that on the same day the U.S. calls out the EU’s censorship and its unreliability as an ally, the EU proudly fines an American company for refusing to comply with its censorship demands.

Look what I found in my best friends Christmas tree in Holland🙌🏼 #thelittlehodler #Bitcoin

Why do we fear power?

Order is not the antithesis to freedom.

I hope you enjoyed the thread 😊

Note that this is an extremely simplified summary. The point is: you CAN arrest your way out of crime. But most who tried to copy the Bukele Model failed because they underestimated what it takes: an army, a capable leader and general, and the overwhelming trust of his people.

Within weeks, Bukele had won the War on Gangs. By the time the gangs realized he’d played them for a fool, they were long beaten. MS-13 and Barrio 18 have no structure left in El Salvador. The focus has shifted to crushing regroupings & prioritizing education to preserve peace.

The great challenge in the war wasn’t catching gang members, it was retaliation. Bukele faced the impossible task of simultaneously decimating their numbers before they could retaliate and making them deem themselves safe so they wouldn’t ACTUALLY retaliate. A game of deception.

One reason Bukele succeeded where others failed is a general’s philosophy: he only declared war once he knew he could start and end it in weeks. The state spent years identifying and locating 76,600 gang members. When the order came, they knew exactly who to look for, and where.

For the War on Gangs to work, it took: ➡️ A State of Exception to extend administrative detention from 72 hours to 15 days ➡️ A judicial reform to stop the premature release of terrorists ➡️ Funding 🔑 Control of Congress to approve the above Plus one much-overlooked detail…

9 months into Phase 4, MS-13 snapped and launched an attack, killing 84 people in El Salvador’s bloodiest weekend in history. It was a threat to Bukele to back off. They didn’t expect him to do the opposite. He deployed the full force of the state and launched the War on Gangs.

When soldiers entered gang territory, the gangs fled into the forests, only to return once the men left. In Phase 4, soldiers once more entered gang strongholds—but this time, they stayed. In hiding, the gangs were slowly starved out of supplies. Tensions reached a high point.

After a long struggle against a stalling Congress, Bukele upgraded the police & military with new guns, tactical helmets, bulletproof vests, radios, drones, helicopters, night-vision cameras, and police stations. El Salvador hired thousands of recruits to fortify the frontlines.

Ever since a 90’s law imposed by the UN had banned the arrest of minors, the gangs almost exclusively recruited kids. Bukele launched scholarships, skate parks, rap groups, graffiti classes & more for the youth. The gangs had appropriated these street arts; he wanted them back.

First, Bukele sent the army into big cities. Through the mere presence of soldiers, crime in the areas instantly stopped. But this was a temporary solution with no exit strategy. The soldiers couldn’t be everywhere all at once, and the gangs weren’t gone, but merely in hiding.

When Bukele became president, El Salvador counted 10 homicides a day. A month into the job, he launched the Territorial Control Plan. He soon realized he wasn’t just fighting a parallel criminal state, but also the very state itself, which was complicit in the gang violence.

It’s not as easy as “locking up the bad guys.” That’s part of it, but there’s also: - Removing corrupt judges - Reforming the judicial & prison system - Locating the enemy - Preventing retaliation - Etc. What you know of Bukele’s fight against crime is only 5% of its totality.