u/ImpossibleHistory111

As someone who actually lived through the Snap and the five years after, I genuinely wonder how people today would view Trump’s presidency if Thanos never showed up.

Because let’s be honest, the second half the planet turned to dust, normal politics stopped mattering to most regular people.

I remember in 2017–2018 everyone was constantly arguing online and on TV about politics, the Avengers, the Sokovia Accords, enhanced individuals, alien threats, the economy, immigration, all of it.

Then the Snap happened.

After that? Nobody cared anymore. People were too busy trying to figure out if their families were alive, how governments were still functioning, why entire apartment buildings were empty, how supply chains and hospitals were collapsing, and whether the Avengers could ever fix any of it.

I honestly think Trump’s presidency got historically consumed by the Blip itself. Most people my age don’t even talk about his actual policies anymore. They just remember yeah he was president when half the universe disappeared.

But if the Blip never happened, what do you think his legacy would realistically be? Would people mainly remember the political polarization? the pre-Blip economy? growing anti-enhanced sentiment? his relationship with the Avengers? or the escalating fears after New York and Sokovia?

Because from the perspective of someone who survived those five years, it genuinely feels like history split in half after 2018.

Everything before the Snap feels like another lifetime.

Original or Endgame helmet

This is believed to be the last surviving dashcam frame recovered from NYPD Emergency Service Unit Truck 1251, timestamped 16:37:11 on May 4, 2012 roughly eleven minutes before the portal above Stark Tower was finally closed during The Battle of New York.

Truck 1251 had originally been responding to a reported gas explosion in Hell’s Kitchen before ESU units were rerouted into Midtown under mass-casualty terrorism protocol as dispatch became overwhelmed with reports of aircraft strikes, collapsing buildings, and civilian casualties.

By the time Officers Daniel Moretti (34) and Luis Herrera (31) reached East 42nd Street, NYPD communications had mostly devolved into fragmented emergency traffic.

In the frame you can see civilians fleeing through stalled traffic, a Chitauri Leviathan Flyover moving between the surrounding towers, Stark Tower’s portal beam over Park Avenue, and Herrera exiting the passenger side to assist pedestrians.

According to the 2014 New York Reconstruction Commission report, debris from the Leviathan’s impact with nearby structures collapsed onto 42nd Street seconds after this image was captured, crushing the cab of Truck 1251. Herrera was thrown clear and survived with severe injuries.

Officer Moretti was killed instantly behind the wheel. His body was recovered on May 7 during joint NYPD/Damage Control excavation operations.

Department memorial notes indicate Moretti had requested partial leave that afternoon to attend his daughter’s elementary school choir recital scheduled for 7:00 PM. The request was denied due to manpower shortages.

He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in August 2012.