Power

March 1, 2024 was referred to as “the day the music died.” All radio stations and television channels stopped playing regular programming and switched to Nuclear News around the clock. We had entered a second cold war in the US, only this time it was turned into worldwide entertainment. Donald Trump had been re-elected. Of course, this angered Kim Jong-un, who declared there would be no talk of a button or whose worked better. He stared directly into Trump’s eyes at a lunch he had invited him to while his translator explained North Korea would not be made to look like a fool again. They were leaders of powerful nations and needed to act like it. Donald Trump, with the whole world watching, leaned in and whispered, “I rigged an election to lead the greatest nation on Earth for a second term. I’ll do whatever the hell I want.” He hadn’t realized he was being recorded.

The next few weeks in the United States were filled with nationwide riots. While President Trump played golf on the world’s most prestigious courses, the country he was supposed to lead was in shambles. His approval rating fell below ten percent. He was soon after impeached, but was quoted saying, “I’ll add it to the list of the others.” He refused to leave office upon returning to the US. As more and more of his administration and even his own wife left, the president’s mental state began to decline rapidly. He demanded unrealistic expectations of everyone around them, expecting them to play into his corruption. Nothing could get worse, until it did.

On May 6, 2024, Donald Trump uploaded a single photo on Twitter. It was a heart shaped locket encased in a glass box. There was no context and no caption. The only hint at what it was, was a single tag: @Kim Jong-un. It took about an hour before a cyber sleuth identified the necklace as having belonged to Kim Jong-un’s maternal grandmother. The president had stolen it from their home. Enraged, North Korea sent a message to the white house that they would give two weeks to return the necklace. On May 20, 2024, at 6:00 in the evening Eastern Time, North Korea would take drastic action if there was no response from the US. Kim Jong-un uploaded his own photo of a long, narrow hallway. At the very end of the hallway there was nothing but a podium. Atop the podium in a display case was a single red button.

Donald Trump was taken by his few remaining loyal followers to a secret location. The citizens of the United States begged through every channel possible that the necklace be returned. They wrote on social media and sent emails to North Korea begging Kim Jong-un to take mercy and telling him that the president had gone crazy. He had hidden like a coward in a safe place while his country prayed they would not face the consequences for his selfish and extreme actions. Two days later President Trump uploaded another photo. This time, the photo was of a large office containing a chair, a podium, and a red button. It seemed to be taken from a view that was just a few steps closer than where the North Korean Supreme Leader had taken his. A shadow skewed part of the photo, as if a heart shaped object had been placed directly against the camera before the photo was taken.

The next few weeks were an embarrassing display of two of the world’s most infamous leaders taking and uploading photos to Twitter, each just a few steps closer than the day before, until they had both reached the podium. On May 20, 2024, to everyone’s surprise, Kim Jong-un received a package containing the heart shaped locket. North Korea called off their planned military strikes.

At 6:00 P.M. US Eastern Time, President Trump called a virtual press conference from an undisclosed location. Panic ensued as everyone realized he was recording from a cell phone with doors being pounded on just outside. Tennessee (from “Pearl Harbor”) by Hauser could be heard playing loudly. He was in the office he had been photographing for the last few days. Instead of his expected speech, Donald Trump smiled, approached the podium, and pressed the red button.