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.
The news every day is hard to stomach. It was bad enough that the Republicans appointed Kash Patel to lead the FBI, despite his documented history as a Trump flunkie, a conspiracy theorist, and a liar. Republicans who served in the first Trump term were aghast at his selection. Republican Senators choked but confirmed him.
Trump selected as the #2 at the FBI a guy who is even worse than Kash Patel: Dan Bongino.
Bongino started his career in the New York City Police Department, then joined the Secret Service. He left the Secret Service and morphed into an extremist. He ran for office three times and lost three times. He found his niche as a far-rightwing podcaster. He used his wildly popular podcast to stir hatred and fear. He, like Patel, is a conspiracy theorist.
He fervently believes that Trump won the 2020 election but was cheated by the Democrats. He ranted against vaccines and masks during the pandemic. He has said that the FBI is corrupt and should be cleaned out (Patel previously said that if he ever led the FBI, he would close its headquarters and turn it into a museum of the Deep State).
The deputy director serves as the FBI’s second-in-command and is traditionally a career agent responsible for the bureau’s day-to-day law enforcement operations. The position does not require Senate confirmation. But Bongino, like Patel, has never served in the FBI, raising questions about their experience level when the U.S. is facing escalating national security threats…
The two are inheriting an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Bongino served on the presidential details for then-Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, before becoming a popular right-wing figure. He became one of the leading personalities in the Make America Great Again political movement to spread false information about the 2020 election, which Trump and allies have continued to maintain was marred by widespread fraud even though such claims have been widely rejected as false by judges and former Trump attorney general William Barr.
Bongino, like many new leaders across the Trump Administration including Patel, represents a radical departure from convention for his role. The FBI deputy director, which does not require Senate confirmation, is traditionally an active agent with significant operational expertise and experience—something Patel reportedly agreed to maintain before selecting Bongino.
Bongino, a 50-year-old former Secret Service agent turned conservative-media commentator, is instead most well known for his outspoken support for Trump and his frequent spreading of misinformation, including about the FBI…
Bongino’s popularity and brash style earned him a contract in 2018 with NRATV, the National Rifle Association’s short-lived online video channel. “My entire life right now is about owning the libs,” Bongino famously said during a segment in October 2018.
Over the years, Trump took notice of Bongino, frequently posting on social media about his comments. “Did you see what Bongino said?” Trump reportedly told a confidant after seeing Bongino as a contributor on Fox News in 2018, according to the Daily Beast. “He’s so right, he’s just so right about it all. You have to see it.”
In other words, Trump can be certain that he will not be investigated by the FBI. He owns it. Any agent who participated in the investigation of his ties to Putin or his theft of highly classified documents is likely to be ousted.
Trump controls the FBI, the Justice Departnent, the intelligence agencies, and the military.
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.
James Taylor, the notable folk singer, posted the following lyric on BlueSky:
THOUGHTS ON UKRAINE
Were we wrong about Zelensky, the hero of Ukraine?
Were we wrong to feel the brotherhood of freedom in their struggle to resist the unprovoked attack upon their young nation?
When they fought the bully Putin to a standstill with righteous resistance.
When they stood up to the tyrant and stoically paid the price in patriots’ blood, were we not thrilled at their courage?
How do we now turn away? To stand by, mute and cowed, as the men who would be king: Putin, Trump and Musk, huddle in their fortress and decide the fate of nations, shutting out the people they betray?
Is this what has become of the cradle of liberty, … and the home of the brave..? That we slide the hidden dagger in the back of those who were our champions? While our allies in the defeat of Hitler and Stalin witness our betrayal
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.
At a White House meeting with Trump, he picked a fight with Janet Mills, the governor of Maine. He asked if she was present, then berated her because Maine allows transgender women to compete in women’s sports. Governor Mills stood up for Maine’s laws and didn’t back down. Trump threatened to cut off all federal funding to Maine. Mills said, in a direct challenge to Trump, “we will see you in court.”
Republicans used to be the party that believed in local control and in diminishing federal control over state and local decisions. No more. Trump is obsessed with the transgender issue. He signed an executive order banning their participation in women’s sports. In other orders, he has tried to erase any civil rights for transgender men or women, any access to medical care for them, and to define them out of existence.
I am not sure where I stand on the question of whether transgender women should participate in women’s sports; after all, biologically, men are typically stronger and faster than women. I am not sure it is fair to have biological men and women competing in races that require physical strength.
But of this I am sure: transgender men and women should be allowed to live their lives without harassment by government. Their decisions are theirs alone. They should get the medical care they seek from qualified professionals. They should use whichever bathroom they want. People don’t become transgender so they can go to a different bathroom. Women’s bathrooms all have closed stalls. Are men worried that a transgender man might see them pointing their penises at a urinal? Really?
Government should butt out of people’s personal decisions. Government should stay out of our bedrooms and out of our doctor’s offices. The decisions we make about our lives that don’t hurt anyone else should not be controlled by government. As Governor Tim Walz memorably said, “Mind your own damn business.”
President Trump had a testy exchangewith Maine Governor Janet Mills on Friday over his threat to withhold federal funding from the state unless it bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
“You better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding,” Trump told the Maine Democratat a White House event.
Mills told Trump the state’s policy is “complying with state and federal laws” and hinted at a potential legal battle over Trump’s order.
“We’re going to follow the law, sir,” she said.
“We’ll see you in court,” she added.
“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that — that should be a real easy one,” Trump said. “Enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
The confrontationcame a day after Trump told a group of governors that he “heard men are still playing in Maine” and threatened to withhold funding under the terms of an executive order he signed earlier this month.
“So we’re not going to give them any federal funding. None, whatsoever, until they clean that up,” Trump said Thursdayat the Republican Governor’s Association meeting in Washington, D.C.
Several lawsuits have been filed against Trump’s transgender policies, with more challenges expected.
The Maine Principals’ Association allows transgender student athletes to choose between competing on a team based on their sex at birth or one that matches their gender identity. Despite Trump’s order, the group said it will continue to allow transgender female athletes to compete.
Mills, who was elected in 2019, said in a statement that Maine“will not be intimidated” by Trump’s threats, adding the state will “take all appropriate and necessary legal action.”
“If the president attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine schoolchildren of the benefit of federal funding, my administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” Mills said.
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 