There is a wonderful constant in the universe of modern charlatans: whoever shouts the loudest about how gigantic and successful they are usually has the smallest numbers to show for it.

The latest example? The massive data leak at "Trump Mobile" (thanks to Golem for the laugh of the day). Alongside the usual, tragic leaking of customer data, the actual order numbers were also exposed. And surprise: the supposed telecommunications empire that was going to take the world by storm is, in reality, more like a glorified WhatsApp group.

It’s the classic playbook of vaporware enterprises. You suggest permanent dominance, infinite success, and a silent majority just waiting to buy your overpriced fan merchandise.

And we see exactly this pattern in politics.

Whether it’s Trump in the US, Le Pen in France, or our own blue squad, the AfD, here in Germany. They all live off the perfect illusion of scale. They are loud, they are obnoxious, and they act as if they represent the entire damn nation.

Trump has practically played the authoritarian playbook through to platinum by now. He has bred a force in ICE that shows terrifying parallels to historical secret police forces, and occasionally tried to plunge Iran into chaos with a sort of blitzkrieg mentality. All sold, of course, as the biggest, best, and most invincible strategic move of all time. "Tremendous," indeed.

Le Pen and the AfD are -thank God- operating on a demonstrably simpler level. They yell and agitate as long as they are sitting in the protected space of their own filter bubbles. But the moment you stand up to them in reality, confront them with actual facts or consequences, they usually collapse like a cheap camping tent in an autumn storm.

The truly depressing part, of course, is the number at the ballot box. It feels as if 30% of society has suddenly lost its mind entirely.

But let’s not be fooled. This 30% is not an organic, thought-out political movement. They are a direct product of engagement algorithms. If we were to pull the plug on Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok tomorrow and turn off the digital megaphone, this supposed "silent majority" would instantly shrink to its natural size: at most 2% of the population, angrily yelling at pigeons in the city park.

Trump Mobile is small. The AfD has no real answers. And Le Pen is just a well-coiffed empty shell.

Perhaps we should just stop being afraid of people who have to fake their own sales figures to appear relevant.