Former presidents aren’t supposed to pass judgment on their successors. But after sitting in the rain listening to Donald Trump’s inauguration speech, with its talk of “American carnage,” George W. Bush spoke for a good chunk of Americans with his timeless aside: “That was some weird s—.”

At the time, the weirdness seemed to come down to a breach of etiquette. The duty of presidents is to be solemn and uplifting at their inaugurations, not to channel the Revelation of St. John the Divine. But a year and a half on, we can see the weirdness as part of Trump’s strange gift for blunderbussing his way toward uncomfortable truths. America’s economy is thriving, but not for all Americans. Crime at a national level continues to fall. But gun violence in Chicago is higher than it has been in 20 years. Between 2000 and 2014, the rate of deaths from suicide in the United States rose from 1 in 9,500 to 1 in 7,700. And specifically among white Americans, over the same period the rate of deaths from suicide and drug and alcohol overdoses combined rose from 1 in 4,400 to 1 in 1,800.