ProPublica reported that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson lives in the home of a far-right evangelical who lobbies for his extremist views.
How is this different from being roommates with a lobbyist for Big Pharma or the Tobacco Industry?
It’s not, but it may be more dangerous because this pastor is one of those wing nuts who knows nothing about the Founding Fsthers or the Constitutuion.
ProPublica reports:
In 2021, Steve Berger, an evangelical pastor who has attacked the separation of church and state as “a delusional lie” and called multinational institutions “demonic,” set off on an ambitious project. His stated goal: minister to members of Congress so that what “they learn is then translated into policy.” His base of operations would be a six-bedroom, $3.7 million townhouse blocks from the U.S. Capitol.
Recently, the pastor scored a remarkable coup for a political influence project that has until now managed to avoid public scrutiny. He got a new roommate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been staying at the home since around the beginning of this year, according to interviews and videos obtained by ProPublica.
The house is owned by a major Republican donor and Tennessee car magnate who has joined Berger in advocating for and against multiple bills before Congress.
Over the past four years, Berger and his wife, Sarah Berger, have dedicated themselves to what they call their D.C. “ministry center.” In addition to Johnson, who is an evangelical conservative, the pastor has built close relationships with several other influential conservative politicians. Dan Bishop, now nominated for a powerful post in the Trump White House, seems to have also lived in the home last year while he was still a congressman, according to three people.
A spokesperson for Johnson said that the speaker “pays fair market value in monthly rent for the portion of the Washington, D.C. townhome that he occupies.” He did not answer a question about how much Johnson is paying. House ethics rules allow members of Congress to live anywhere, as long as they are paying fair-market rent.
The spokesperson added that Johnson “has never once spoken to Mr. Berger about any piece of legislation or any matter of public policy.” Berger and Bishop did not respond to requests for comment.
If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
It’s dizzying to watch the changing views of Jeff Bezos since he bought the Washington Post. First, he pledged not to interfere in the editorial content of his prize bauble. Last fall, he yanked an editorial endorsing Kamala Harris. Now he has new instructions for editorialists and opinion writers: we support personal liberties and free markets.
The thing about American newspaper opinion sections is this: Their owners get final say. If the man who signs the checks — it’s almost always a man — really really really wants to see his cocker spaniel run City Hall, you’ll probably see “Our Choice: Fluffernutter for Mayor” stripped atop the editorial page. For generations — from Murdoch to Loeb, Hearstto Pulitzer, Daniels to Greeley — this has been one of the overriding perks of media ownership. If Jeff Bezos wanted to turn The Washington Post’s opinion section over to an AI-powered version of Alexa, he’d be within his rights to. So his announcement this morning — that Post Opinions would henceforth reorient “in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets” — is, in a sense, merely restating the traditional droit du seigneur given over to capital.
But the scale of the hypocrisy on display here is eye-watering.
But Bezos’s assertion of power is downright laughable compared to the rhetoric he was using just four months ago when trying to justify his killing of the Harris endorsement. Remember his muddled, oligarch-splaining op-ed? His core argument back then was that the worst thing a newspaper’s opinion section could do is appear to be taking one side politically.
Bezos, October 28, 2024: We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.
Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.
Endorsing a candidate for president is bad because it can create the perception of bias — that the newspaper is institutionally tilted to one side or another.
So the solution is…to have the owner spend months shipping millions off to Trump HQ and then declare that certain opinions not in favor on the political right will now be verboten in the Post’s pages?
Bezos, February 26, 2025: We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
Back in October, Bezos was saddened by even the concept that his personal interests might influence the Post’s content.
Bezos, October 28, 2024: When it comes to the appearance of conflict, I am not an ideal owner of The Post.Every day, somewhere, some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other philanthropies and companies I own or invest in is meeting with government officials. I once wrote that The Post is a “complexifier” for me. It is, but it turns out I’m also a complexifier for The Post.
You can see my wealth and business interests as a bulwark against intimidation, or you can see them as a web of conflicting interests. Only my own principles can tip the balance from one to the other. I assure you that my views here are, in fact, principled, and I believe my track record as owner of The Post since 2013 backs this up. You are of course free to make your own determination, but I challenge you to find one instance in those 11 years where I have prevailed upon anyone at The Post in favor of my own interests. It hasn’t happened.
But of course — when one of the wealthiest humans in the history of the species decides to block critiques of “free markets” from one of the nation’s most important news outlets, it has nothing to do with any of his interests. Completely unrelated.
Bezos, February 26, 2025: I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity…
I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.
A few months ago, Bezos was confident that the Post had to differentiate itself from the swarm of misleading online content by being staunchly independent of any ideological agenda:
Bezos, October 28, 2024: Many people are turning to off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unverified news sources, which can quickly spread misinformation and deepen divisions…
While I do not and will not push my personal interest, I will also not allow this paper to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance — overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs — not without a fight. It’s too important. The stakes are too high. Now more than ever the world needs a credible, trusted, independent voice, and where better for that voice to originate than the capital city of the most important country in the world?
But today, the existence of all that internet muck is positioned as a perfect excuse to abandon all desire for a broad-based opinion section.
Bezos, February 26, 2025: There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.
So, to recap: A newspaper can’t be seen as taking a side. Until it’s essential that it be seen as taking a side. Bezos would never use his own ideological beliefs to restrict the Post’s work. Until he decides he must use his own ideological beliefs to restrict the Post’s work.
As was the case in the fall, the problem with these swings is less their content than their naked service to one man’s agenda. A newspaper is free to endorse or not endorse whoever it wants. An owner is free to shape his opinion section to his will. But the realpolitik context of those decisions clashes wildly with Bezos’s lecturing tone and freshman-level political analysis. I doubt today’s announcement will generate another 250,000 subscription cancellations, if only because there are so many fewer subscribers left to cancel. But the impact will be felt. Only three months ago, the Post was prepping a plan to “win back” wayward subscribers by focusing on the paper’s star reporters and columnists — people like Ashley Parker, Eugene Robinson, and Dana Milbank. Parker’s already jumped ship; how are opinion voices like Milbank and Robinson supposed to fit into the new no-critiquing-the-genius-of-unrestrained-markets regime?
In Sarasota, supporters of public schools are pushing back against Trump’s plan to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.
Residents, students lobby school board amid Department of Education uncertainty
By Heather Bushman, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The biggest story from this week’s Sarasota County School Board meeting didn’t comefrom the agenda, or even from inside the board chambers: All eyes were on Washington and how the board will respond to turmoil over national education policy.
About 40 Sarasota County students and residents rallied outside the School Board chambers before Tuesday’s meeting to question the potential elimination of the U.S. Department of Education by the Trump Administration and what it could mean for local schools. The group, which packed the meeting chambers, voiced concern for a potential loss of funding to public schools and asked the board for clarity on the possible local impacts.
Local advocates said they worried any reduction in federal funding could put disabled and underprivileged students at risk, with threats to Title I allocations and other programs permeating the national conversation. Attendees of the pre-meeting rally, which was organized by local education advocacy group Support Our Schools, waved signs and echoed chants asking the board to put “students before politics” and to ensure “government for all every day.”
Zander Moricz, a Pine View School alumnus and founder of the SEE Alliance, said the School Board needs to ensure local programs remain funded if the national department dissolves.“There is no plan to make sure that those resources are maintained and that those impacted students have the support structure that they need,” Moricz said. “We need to ask, ‘What is the plan? How are you going to make one? What are you going to do about it?’”
The ultimate effect of potential Department of Education cuts on Sarasota County Schools is unclear. Funding marked specifically for special programs could be distributed as general block grants to be used at the states’ discretion, which would mean each state receives a lump sum and can decide how to distribute it.
Also in question are 504 plans, which are unfunded mandates that require accommodations for students with disabilities. Florida is among 17 states that joined a lawsuit seeking to find section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act — the section that outlines the 504 plans — unconstitutional.
Sarasota County Schools received more than $71.8 million in total federal funding this school year, according to its adopted 2024-25 budget. Parts of that allocation include $11.4 million in Title I funds and $12.3 million in Individuals with Disabilities (IDEA) funds, which account for a combined almost 40% of the district’s $60 million in special revenue grants.
Sixteen Sarasota County schools are listed as Title I schools, and Support Our Schools calculated that the IDEA funds translate into 170 special education teachers across the county.
About 15 speakers implored board members to provide guidance on how they’ll keep these plans and funds in place. Sebastian Martinez, a Sarasota County Schools alum, said he understands national Department of Education proceedings are out of the district purview, but he urged them to prepare for potential impacts at the local level.
“As an individual School Board, I’m not asking you to fight the feds,” Martinez said. “I’m asking you to be proactive.”
Speakers asked the board to pass a resolution affirming it will maintain its current fundingto programs even if the federal funds are allocated as a block grant. Several referenced board member Bridget Ziegler’s resolution to reject Title IX protections against gender identity discrimination brought forth by the Biden Administration last May and pushed the board to take a similar stance against federal policy — albeit this time from the other side of the aisle.
Ziegler said federal cuts will focus on cutting costs at the federal level, not on reducing program funding. Though she said she’s not certain what will happen, Ziegler cited the $80 billion in operational costs that the federal government would save if the department dissolved and said she supports deregulating the department in the name of efficiency.
“Those are the monies that will actually be reduced, not the dollars geared toward those specified families and students,” Ziegler said. “It’s creating an unfair narrative that’s causing a lot of heartburn.”
Board member Tom Edwards assured the audience that the school district will do its due diligence in funding its programs. He noted the board had moved past budget difficulties before and said they would continue to stay on top of its budget.
“I promise you that we’re going to survive this,” Edwards said. “All I can do is the very best I can do.”
Other Sarasota County School Board business
In agenda-related business, the board unanimously voted to renew the charters of Island Village Montessori School and Sarasota Military Academy, whose current contracts expire in June, for 15 years. Island Village currently has 527 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and Sarasota Military Academy currently has 997 students in sixth through 12th grade.
The board also approved Dreamers Academy’s request to expand their enrollment to middle school students, adding sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students to their current kindergarten through fifth-grade enrollment. Dreamers Academy has 519 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and with the approval of its amended contract, it willenroll middle school students beginning with sixth-graders later this year and adding seventh- and eighth-graders in 2026 and 2027.
All three charters gave presentations to the board at a Jan. 7 workshop.
Contact Herald-Tribune Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
A judge appointed by Trump in 2019 ruled in support of Trump’s decision to terminate most of the civil servants who work for USAID. The evisceration of USAID will hurt American farmers, who sell billions of dollars of grain and other food to USAID for distribution in poor countries. Meanwhile, the cessation of food and medicine will cause many deaths in needy countries. As some say, when it comes to Trump, the cruelty is the point.
A federal US judge on Friday denied a request from two labor unions that sought to block President Donald Trump’s administration from placing thousands of US Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave and recalling many stationed abroad.
Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Columbia acknowledged concerns about widespread terminations but concluded that USAID was “still standing” and thus any harm could be addressed through financial compensation rather than court intervention.
He also noted that federal laws provide domestic USAID employees, or their union representatives, the right to challenge administrative leave decisions, suggesting that the district court likely lacks jurisdiction over the unions’ claims. Judge Nichols further determined that the Trump administration had presented a reasonable justification for its actions, finding that they were “essential to its policy goals.”
He stated:
Weighing plaintiffs’ assertions on these questions against the government’s is like comparing apples to oranges. Where one side claims that USAID’s operations are essential to human flourishing and the other side claims they are presently at odds with it, it simply is not possible for the Court to conclude, as a matter of law or equity, that the public interest favors or disfavors an injunction.
The ruling marks a reversal from Judge Nichols’ earlier decision that temporarily halted the administration’s actions and even reinstated some sidelined employees. Judge Nichols acknowledged that the unions’ constitutional and Administrative Procedure Act challenges to USAID’s dismantling could gain traction over time, but he stated that for now he could only decide on the employment-related claims.
Paul Cobaugh is a military veteran who spent many years in intelligence operations, decoding propaganda. This post is straight talk from a patriot and a vet. His blog is “Truth Against Threats.”
TAT readers,
This is a quick update. For the next week or so, I have an erratic schedule that will keep me from the longer essays, but will intermittently bring you shorter, very succinct thoughts regarding our ongoing coup by a now, fully fascist Republican Party. There is simply no longer a Conservative Party. Today’s GOP has an exclusively MAGA agenda and has either stood by and cowardly watched the ongoing coup, or offered tacit support.
Trump’s statements claiming that, “nothing is illegal when saving your country,” which he began claiming, when our court system started throwing legitimate legal roadblocks into his and DOGE’s coup machinery. My friends and fellow citizens, Trump’s chaos is intentional and is a diversion from his intended goal, to place all relevant power under the auspices of the Oval Office. Yes, for those that have been reading TAT for a while now, know that this is exactly the 180-day Transition Playbook from Project 2025.Why won’t the media call it a coup?
As indicated in my ongoing explanations about the coup, time is critical now, if we are to stop or slow this coup’s steamrolling of our constitutional republic. This is Trump’s second attempt, with January 6th, 2021 being his first try. Apparently, our hand-picked SCOTUS decided to forgive and forget that attempt and gave him a second opportunity. Now, we have no Congress, no SCOTUS and an Executive Branch, bursting at the seams with the tyrannical power that our founding fathers decided to limit with a system of “checks and balances.” Today’s GOP, has devolved that system incrementally now for years. 2025, is the year that it came all together for them and resulting in the only major challenge to our republic, other than the Civil War.
Deep inside all Americans that respect and honor our constitution and true American values, lies a gene of resistance. It appears whenever tyranny raises its ugly head and threatens democracy, ours or the world’s. Trump, Putin and Musk, don’t understand patriotic Americans dedication to our actual values and guaranteed constitutional rights. They will find out soon enough if they persist. As I always say, this is not about party, this is quite plainly, about being a true patriot. Real Americans do not worship God, guns and Trump as American values. Real Americans don’t respect or tolerate what I call the Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse, Autocracy, Oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and Political Violence.
True principled conservatives have now already left the party or vote against it. Those who voted for Trump, have been brainwashed and no longer have the ability to see truth. Stop trying to convince them. When I write, I write for honest citizens, never a party. This is America for heaven’s sake, not Russia, China, Iran or otherwise. We all get a say and freedom to think as we wish, worship or not, and we all have a citizen’s obligation, to defend our nation and its real values.
I aim to continue writing the truth about this coup and its leaders and followers. All of you that are exploding my follower statistics are doing the same. It is what we do as Americans. I’m beyond proud of all of you and am humbly honored, to be among such patriots.
Trump’s poll ratings are dropping . The public doesn’t like what they see. #ChainsawElon is not popular. His glee at firing people turns most people off, except Trump’s faithful. Does Trump care about polls? We know he does. If his numbers continue to fall, some Republicans might find a spine.
Elon’s latest overreach caused a backlash. He sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal workers, directing them to list five things they did last week or submit their resignations. Many Trump Cabinet members told their workers not to respond.
Trump and Musk have turned the corner—in a bad way. There is a great scene in the motion picture Broadcast News where Holly Hunter tells Albert Brooks that she has “crossed a line” because she is starting to “repel people I am trying to attract.”
At town hall meetings across the nation, Republican representatives are learning the hard way that Trump and Musk are not the anti-hero crusaders they imagine themselves to be. See NYTimes, Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash. (Behind a paywall; out of gift subscriptions; please post a shared link if you can.) Instead, Trump and Musk personify the “mean-boss” bullies who are born into privilege and spend their time offending and alienating people without a clue they are doing so.
Musk’s weekend email demanding that government workers prepare five “bullets” of their accomplishments in the prior week or face termination was about as “un-self-aware” as it gets. Most people in America hate Elon Musk so badly that he is accomplishing something that Trump’s eight-year run of criminality,
insurrection, and racism could not do: Musk is causing people to turn on Trump. Political gravity is real, and Elon Musk is a gravitational wave of karma that is finally pulling Trump back to political accountability.
I am surprised how often readers respond to my references to Trump’s negative poll numbers by saying, “Trump doesn’t care about polls.”
Assuming that’s true (and I don’t believe it is), that’s not my point. Trump has been able to force the GOP into mass capitulation because his favorability ratings remain stubbornly flat despite his crime sprees, civil findings of sexual abuse, revelations of extramarital relationships while married to the current First Lady, and open courting of white supremacists.
If Trump’s favorability declines, it means two things: (a) Trump is losing support among Independents (and Republicans lose) and (b) Republicans at the margin in Congress can take the risk of voting for the best interests of their constituents rather than the idiotic, self-destructive, revenge-driven agenda of Trump. It matters that people are beginning to see Elon Musk as the evil billionaire hellbent on controlling the world who is portrayed as the instantly unlikable bad guy in every science fiction and spy-thriller movie. Musk is easy to hate. As hundreds of thousands of federal workers fear for their financial security, Musk wielded a bejeweled chainsaw on stage at the CPAC convention while MAGA acolytes laughed at the now-unemployed working-class Americans who are lying awake at night wondering how they will pay their mortgages.
It doesn’t get any crueler or more clueless than that. Read the room, Elon.
None of this suggests that Trump or Musk will stop their offensive, hateful abuse of the American people. But it does suggest that we can build a firewall in Congress to join the courts in slowing down Trump’s revenge tour. And it should certainly give Democrats confidence that they can craft winning messages and coalitions in 2026 and 2028.
Musk’s email was so unpopular it ran into resistance within Trumpworld. Heads of various federal agencies, in including the FBI, Department of Defense, State Department, intelligence community, and judiciary told employees to ignore the email. See generally, The Hill, Agencies push back on Musk email, including FBI, Pentagon, State, Intel.
Two of the largest unions representing federal workers also advised employees to ignore the email and sent a response to the Office of Personnel Management stating that the request was “plainly unlawful.”
By overstepping in such a mean and petty way, Musk may have sparked a backlash that overturning the Constitution could not achieve.
Something astonishing happened at the United Nations today. Ukraine sponsored a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago. The General Assembly overwhelmingly voted for the resolution.
The resolution was opposed, however, by Russia, North Korea, Iran, the United States, and 24 other Russian allies.
The United States voted with Russia, North Korea, Iran and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries Monday against a U.N. resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for the return of Ukrainian territory. The resolution, sponsored by representatives from Kyiv, passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly.
The U.S. delegation also abstained from voting on its own competing resolution that simply called for an end to the war, after European-sponsored amendments inserting new anti-Russian language in the resolution were approved in the 193-member body by a wide margin. The amended U.S. resolution also passed.
Did the American people vote last November to abandon our allies and to create a new partnership with Russia, North Korea, and Iran?
In other news:
Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico. He says it is henceforward “the Gulf of America.” Frankly, this is the sort of meaningless BS that he manufactures to please his base. It doesn’t lower the price of eggs. It’s pointless. when Trump is gone, the Gulf of Mexico will be the undisputed Gulf of Mexico.
The Associated Press has continued to call the Gulf of Mexico by its rightful name.
So Trump had to punish the AP. Its reporters have been barred from White House press conferences and from flying with Trump on Air Force 1 with the press pool.
Judge Trevor McFadden told the court there were several reasons he denied the temporary restraining order. He noted there was a difference in the issues of this case and case law presented by both parties.
He also questioned the amount of irreparable harm the AP would suffer as the news outlet can get access to the same information whether or not they’re in the room where it happened, he argued.
Right. They can always watch the press conference on television. They just can’t ask questions or ride with the press pool on Air Force 1.
Judge McFadden was appointed by President Trump in 2017.
Anand Giridharadas has a plan. Read this and listen in if you can.
At his blog THE INK, Anand writes:
How do you stick it to the world’s richest man? Labor journalist Hamilton Nolan has a practical plan to defund Elon Musk by sinking the value of Tesla.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 25,at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, we’ll be talking with Nolan about how everyday people can put real pressure on Musk and help to roll back his anti-worker, anti-American, and downright anti-human agenda. Please join us.
Hamilton Nolan has been an indispensable voice reporting on the labor movement and his newsletter, How Things Work, is a must-read for anyone interested in the issues at the intersection of labor, politics, and power — and these days, that should be just about everyone. In his writing for In These Times, The Guardian, Gawker — where he was a leader in the unionization drive — and in his new book, The Hammer, Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor, Nolan has chronicled organized labor’s struggle to redefine and rebuild in the 21st century and continues to explore how solidarity offers solutions to inequality, where America’s electoral politics have fallen short.
To join us and watch, download the Substack app(click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you’ll get an alert that we’re live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.
It’s a time for courage. A time for outrage. Who dares to speak out against the “great and mighty” King Donald? (Where is Toto when we need someone to pull away the curtain?)
Not the Republicans in Congress. Not Republican governors. Not Amazon. Not Mark Zuckerberg. Not ABC. CBS? We will see.
Donald Trump has erased any doubt that he’s a dictator.
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” he posted on X.
It’s perfectly clear that he intends to let no law, court or even the Constitution restrain him. And certainly not Congress, which he treats as a confederacy of dunces.
Trump’s quote, ostensibly first uttered by Napoleon, also brought to mind the remark attributed to an earlier tyrant, King Louis XIV: “L’État, c’est moi” — I am the state.
Louis was an absolute monarch. The United States was to have no kings, nor anyone acting like one. Our founding document, the Constitution, made that clear.
That didn’t stop Trump from declaring “Long live the King,” with a crown superimposed atop his head on a Time magazine knockoff, for supposedly stopping New York City’s congestion pricing plan.
Far from saving our country, Trump is on a path to destroying it.
He and his billionaire hatchet man, Elon Musk, devoid of any accountability, are sabotaging every function and agency of government to an extent unseen in our history. It’s senseless, savage, sadistic, self-serving and subversive.
Following the Kremlin
Listen carefully. You might hear Vladimir Putin applauding. Nothing Putin could do alone could so weaken us at home and abroad, or so undermine the NATO alliance that has kept first the Soviet Union, and now Russia, in check.
This week, Trump fed the suspicion that he’s the Kremlin’s puppet, echoing Putin’s lie that Ukraine started his war of aggression. Trump actually called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator.” A psychologist might call that projection.
Musk and Vice President JD Vance have also followed precisely the Kremlin’s line by lauding the rise of far-right parties in western Europe and demanding that the governments there make nice toward them.
The pillaging of our government persists — a coup against Congress, courts and the Constitution.
Consult Congress? Never
Congress did not consent to slashing the air traffic control system as if the loss of 67 lives near the White House on Jan. 29 did not prove the need for more personnel.
Congress would not consent to decimating and idling agencies responsible to restore communities ravaged by fire and flood, to cripple those needed to defend the nation against a bird flu pandemic, or to allow Musk to see your tax returns.
Congress would not consent to destroying the U.S. Agency for International Development and cutting off its lifesaving aid to children around the world.
Congress has not been asked about annexing Canada, threatening to break the Senate-ratified Panama Canal treaty, or claiming sovereignty over Gaza and ethnically cleansing it of some 2 million Palestinians, which would be a war crime.
Congress has not voted to bleach the government and the nation’s universities and public schools of anything suggesting multiracial and gender equity. Trump arbitrarily threatens to withhold funds from any that don’t bow to his white power agenda.
Congress has not voted to deny federal funds, as Trump is threatening, to cities and counties that don’t implement his racist deportations. Nor has it voted to destroy the civil service.
Congress has not voted to surrender to Trump the independence of the Federal Trade Commission or other agencies, nor to neuter their authority over Musk’s vast conflicts of interest.
Trump’s grasp to control everything extends even to the arts, to sacking the Kennedy Center leadership and making himself its president. It’s what dictators do.
Terrifying much of Europe
For all of its ingenious attributes, the Constitution is dangerously silent in one respect. It gives the president nearly a free hand in foreign affairs, subject only to Senate approval of treaties.
Every other president has made it his common-sense duty to consult Congress before leading the nation in dangerous directions. But Trump has already sold out Ukraine to Putin without consulting Ukraine, NATO or Congress.
Ever since World War II, which cost more than 400,000 American lives, it has been bipartisan U.S. policy to protect our nation by supporting democracy in Europe and opposing dictatorships there. No longer.
Congress has not been consulted on any of this because Trump considers it a nuisance. Louis XIV corralled troublemakers at the Palace of Versailles.
Trump keeps Congress in a political straitjacket, striking fear into Republican members of the precarious majority by threatening to “primary” them from the right. So Congress capitulates. It’s brutally effective.
Saving his country? Under Trump 2.0, America has never been in greater danger.
Today marks the third anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Putin said he had no plans to invade. Putin said the 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border were engaged in “training exercises.” There had not been a ground war in Europe since 1945. The U.N. Charter banned the invasion of one sovereign nation by another. Would he or wouldn’t he? It was inconceivable. But he did. Putin ordered his troops to cross the border, fully expecting that Ukraine would fall in three days. It didn’t.
And here we are. Three years later. Ukraine is still standing. The Russians have bombed the country mercilessly: schools, apartment buildings, hospitals, power stations, cultural centers. Ukraine has suffered terrible damage. Yet they have fought the far larger, more powerful Russian army to a standstill.
Russia demolished the beautiful city of Mariupol. But Ukraine still stands.
Trump appears ready, even eager, to sell Ukraine out. He has repeatedly belittled Ukraine’s leader, Zelensky. Musk insults Zelensky constantly in Twitter. They seem to be ready to betray Ukraine and to restore Putin to a role on the world stage, despite his corruption and brutality.
WHEN HISTORY LOOKS BACK ON this war, on this moment, on these three years of bloodshed and sacrifice, one name will shine above all others.
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy….
We need to talk about this man, because no one truly knows what could have happened if he hadn’t been there to lead.
This is a man who could have left. A man who was expected to leave.
The world was really expecting he would run. Western leaders whispered about setting up a Ukrainian government-in-exile abroad, like the invaded countries did so many times in history. They thought it was the “smart” move, the “practical” move. Many embassies in Kyiv packed up and left, destroying sensitive equipment before crossing the border, never expecting to return.
But Zelenskyy refused.
He looked at the Russian tanks rolling toward Kyiv. He heard the American offer to evacuate him. And he said the words that would define him forever: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
That moment changed everything.
The citizens of this country, inspired by the president’s defiance, fought harder than anyone imagined. Millions of civillians, many of them who never have operated a rifle before, joined the soldiers and went to the frontlines. The world saw this man standing tall in the middle of pure chaos, and because he stood, everyone else did too.
And Ukraine won the Battle of Kyiv. Almost three years ago now. It was our first big victory of the war. Not only the first victory, but also the first sign that this war would not going to be what Putin had planned. And Zelenskyy has never stopped fighting after that. Ever since, Zelenskyy regularly visits the frontlines to meet with warriors.
We are talking about a man of action, not words.
“If the deal is that we just give up our territories, and that’s the idea behind it, then it’s a very primitive idea. I don’t need a fantastic idea, I need a real idea, because people’s lives are at stake.”
These are not the words of a man looking for an easy way out. These are the words of a leader who understands the cost of surrender. Because it’s more than obvious at this point of time and history this war is not about land. It is about people. It is about justice. It is about the right of a nation to exist.
Our president understands this in a way that many so-called leaders do not.
And then, on the other side of the world, there is Donald Trump.
If Zelenskyy represents the best of humanity, the resilience to stand against evil, Trump represents its worst. Not just incompetence, not just corruption, but an absolute void where morality should be. There is no honor among his ambitions, no higher cause in his conquests. He is a man who poisons everything he touches. Who sees loyalty as something to exploit, who views his own country not as something to protect, but as something to own.
While Ukraine battles on the frontlines for freedom, the West in general but America in particular, face its own war: truth against lies, justice against corruption, courage against cowardice. The stakes are no different. Here, Putin wants to crush us. There, Trump wants to tear America apart from the inside.
If you want to know what leadership looks like, look to Ukraine. Look to the man who walks through trenches and visits soldiers on the frontlines. Look to a president who refuses to abandon his people, who has risked everything. Not for power, not for wealth, but for the simple belief that his country is worth fighting for.
That is leadership. That is courage. That is what we should demand in our own leaders.
But Zelenskyy’s leadership is not just in battle, not just in strategy. It is in his voice. He has spoken to every major government, every parliament, every organization that matters in this fight. He has stood before the U.S. Congress and told them why this war matters not just for Ukraine, but for the future of democracy itself.
And the world listened. Because when he speaks, he does not just represent himself.
He represents the soldiers holding the trenches. He represents the families sleeping in subway stations. He represents the mothers, the fathers, the children, every Ukrainian who refuses to be erased.
One day, this war will end. Ukraine will be in peace again, united, prosperous. This day, Zelenskyy will no longer have to fight. And when that day comes, may he sit peacefully in one of our beautiful beaches of the Black Sea, in a free Crimea, after an uninterrupted night of sleep, and watch his country rise from the ashes.
Because he did not give up. Because he stood when others would have fallen. Because he led when the world needed him most.
Because through the hardest three years in Ukraine’s history, no one would be doing a better job than him.
Thank you for everything, Volodymyr.
We resist because we are Ukrainians.
And every day of these three years, you remind us what that truly means.
Diane Ravitch's blog 