Rick Steves: How Egypt after Arab Spring and the U.S. might be alike

Rick Steves is a well-known American travel writer and has produced travel television programs for years. Well known in his community for his liberal and humanitarian politics.

Assuming their election win gave them a mandate to reinvent the government according to their hard-line conservative vision, they turned Egyptian society upside down with a revolutionary fervor. They had no idea how to smartly wield power, but they were armed with a Project 2025-style blueprint (Egypt’s 2012 “Renaissance Project”) as they fed the finer points of the Egyptian deep state into a DOGE-like wood chipper. Within a year, Egyptians realized that running a country is more complicated than bumper sticker complaints and angry flag-waving, and the people rose up. After a bloody counterrevolution, Morsi ended up in jail, where he stayed until his death.

Traveling in Egypt during Morsi’s brief but chaotic presidency, the frustrations of being governed by an extreme party that was overreaching in the name of reform were as clear to me as the bread lines at the government bakeries. In fact, whenever previously reliable government-provided services (which the Morsi administration had “fixed” … but actually broken) malfunctioned, people would use their president’s name as a curse. So, instead of “Oh, shit,” they’d simply exclaim, “Morsi.”

Yes, in 2013, the universal way Egyptians would complain about something not working was to slam their fists on the table and shout their president’s name. “Morsi!” A light bulb flickers out with the power … “Morsi!” The garbage truck never arrives … “Morsi!” The internet fails … “Morsi!” A sewer overflows … “Morsi!” The Egyptian currency depreciates in value … “Morsi!” You get bombed by a pigeon? Even then … “Morsi!”

A decade later, here in America, our voters were pissed off at the price of eggs and riled up about the possibility of trans people in their bathrooms — and we, too, have elected a radical and destructive new government that ignores past norms and constitutional limits to implement a so-called “mandate.” To justify firing the dedicated public servants and nonpartisan experts whose rarely heralded hard work keeps things running smoothly and safely, the Trump White House has demonized America’s institutions as the “deep state.” And, as the impacts of that become clear, I predict that we will start suffering our own “Morsi” moments.