So now Trump sycophant Pete Hegseth is threatening to court martial Mark Kelly—Arizona senator, decorated Navy veteran, astronaut—for his part in reminding members of the military that they can refuse illegal orders. Hegseth and Trump have gone after the wrong guy, and they are only further demonstrating their hostility to our Constitution and their weak leadership.

Have a listen to my short video here—requiring just one minute and thirty seconds of your time. And, if you find it of value, please do share it with others. Like the not-to-be-intimidated Sen. Kelly, we need to stand up and speak out against the dangerous buffoonery of Trump and his sycophants.

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*Photo by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images.

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What a good day to be talking about defiance. This was the day that we learned that a federal judge threw out the cases against James Comey and Letitia James, asserting that Trump-appointed prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed (making clear who is the one who violated the law).

“I‘m grateful the court ended the case against me, which was a prosecution based on malevolence and incompetence,” former FBI Director James Comey said in a video response. “A message has to be sent that the President of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his enemies. Whatever your politics are, you have to see that as fundamentally un-American and a threat to the rule of law that keeps all of us free.”

Meanwhile, I had the chance to talk to the defiant Miles Taylor, the former Homeland Security chief of staff who penned an anonymous op-ed for The New York Times in 2018, which raised the alarm about the dangers of Trump and the efforts of people inside the administration seeking to “frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations” in order “to preserve our democratic institutions.” Not long after Trump retook the White House, he filed an executive order demanding an investigation of Taylor, falsely claiming that he released sensitive information and may have violated the Espionage Act.

This is scary stuff, enough to cause most of us to go deep bunker. But Taylor was not about to be intimidated. “My friends like to say that I’ve got an allergy or a clinical aversion to bullies—and I really do. I can’t stand it,” he told me, adding, “This guy’s the biggest bully that we’ve ever seen flesh and blood on this planet in our lives—and he deserves to be stood up to.”

Which isn’t to say that it’s been easy for Taylor to withstand the onslaught, both from Trump’s direct attacks and the myriad threats that have followed. “This has been the hardest year for my family, the hardest year in my life,” Taylor acknowledged, including the resulting “social fear” from people he knows who feared their association with him.

I hope you’ll give our conversation a listen, which I think is so important to hear that I’m making the recording immediately available to everyone. The notion that “courage is contagious” has become almost a cliché, but it’s hard to hear from Miles Taylor and not be inspired by his courage. That includes the good work that he’s doing leading the newly launched Defiance.org, created to defend Americans under attack from the Trump regime and serve as a kind of hub for Americans committed to resistance.

These are the kinds of conversations that I look forward to sharing more of with you—to inform and inspire you, yes—but also to keep in mind that we will get through this dark chapter if good people who care about our democracy stick together and remain clear what’s at stake.

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This afternoon the House is expected to vote overwhelmingly to demand the Department of Justice release all the Epstein files, a fact that led Donald Trump to reverse himself Sunday night and say he supports the release. Yesterday’s essay “Can America Avoid Moral Collapse?” underscored my belief that this is no reason to celebrate. As I noted, “Trump’s reversal is not a sign that he intends to come clean about his involvement with sex traffickers and child molesters Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell—not after he’s worked so aggressively to deny any role.” There is a long road ahead in our fight for the truth and the removal of this man from our nation’s highest office.

This was one of the key topics in my live conversation yesterday with Mary Trump, who—for anyone who doesn’t know—is a clinical psychologist, bestselling author and fearless critic and analyst of her uncle, Donald. This was an opportunity to get her reading of her uncle’s decision to reverse course on releasing the Epstein files (“Donald’s greatest terror is to be humiliated. He will move mountains in order to avoid that.”); whether this firestorm can be his undoing (“To be fair, why should he ever think he’ll be held accountable for anything? Because he hasn’t.”); and how this whole terrible chapter will end (“Donald is a nihilist…If he gets to that point, he will take down as many people as he possibly can. He’ll burn it all down.”).

Through it all, Mary, like me, is still looking ahead to a positive future. “We need people who are creative and imaginative and brave and are willing to do the kind of work we’ve never managed to do as a country,” she said.

I wanted to share this conversation with everyone today, as we watch the House vote, reflect on the path forward for our country and consider how we can be helpful in driving change. I hope you’ll give it a listen.

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Thanks to everyone who joined my conversation with Mary L Trump yesterday, who I greatly admire for her honesty, fearlessness and insight. This was an opportunity to get her reading of her uncle’s decision to reverse course on releasing the Epstein files (“Donald’s greatest terror is to be humiliated. He will move mountains in order to avoid that.”); whether this firestorm can be his undoing (“To be fair, why should he ever think he’ll be held accountable for anything? Because he hasn’t.”); and how this whole terrible chapter will end (“Donald is a nihilist…If he gets to that point, he will take down as many people as he possibly can. He’ll burn it all down.”).

Through it all, Mary, like me, is still looking ahead to a positive future. “We need people who are creative and imaginative and brave and are willing to do the kind of work we’ve never managed to do as a country,” she said.

I hope you’ll give our conversation a listen.

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In this quick two-minute video, I share my thoughts on the increasingly panicked Donald Trump as more details emerge about the contents of the Epstein files and Trump’s involvement with the convicted sex trafficker and child molester Jeffrey Epstein. As I conclude here, “The truth of the Epstein files needs to come out—and the country needs to finally confront the sickening reality of a criminally corrupt White House occupant with a history of sexual assault and adjudicated rape.”

I hope you’ll give this latest video a listen—and share it with others.

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This On-Target video by Mark Jacob and me focuses on new revelations about Donald Trump and his sex predator friends Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. This New York Times article (gift link) provides some of the latest details and background of the unfolding story.

A 2011 email from Epstein tells Maxwell that Trump “spent hours at my house” with one of Epstein’s underage victims. It’s also been reported that the Trump regime is not only giving Maxwell favors in prison, including custom meals and a therapy puppy, but Maxwell is preparing to formally ask for her prison sentence to be commuted.

The truth surrounding Trump’s involvement will be increasingly hard to hide, now that Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva has finally been sworn in by House Speaker and Trump sycophant Mike Johnson. She represents the 218th signature for the discharge petition to force the House to vote on releasing the full Epstein files. “Justice cannot wait another day,” Grijalva said in her first speech today.

I hope you’ll give a listen to my conversation with Mark, who authors the excellent Stop the Presses newsletter.

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Happy to share the recording from this pre-election conversation with my friends at Lincoln Square. While these recordings are shared with paid subscribers, I wanted to give everyone access tonight to this discussion.

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This On-Target video by Mark Jacob and me examines how some legacy media are seeking to please Donald Trump by soft-pedaling their response to his reckless destruction of the White House’s East Wing to make way for his Mar-a-Lago-style billionaires’ ballroom.

The Status newsletter reported that CNN boss Mark Thompson had a White House meeting and then urged his staff to ease up on the story. (CNN denied it.) The Washington Post, meanwhile, praised Trump’s aggressive unilateral action because “the traditional review process” would take too long. (Post owner Jeff Bezos is helping pay for the ballroom.) So much for consultations and input by actual experts who respect American history.

Jacob is author of the compelling Stop the Presses newsletter. Check it out if you haven’t already.

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In Japan today, standing before our troops on the USS George Washington, the deranged Donald Trump threatened to deploy more than the National Guard in American cities. This is my brief video comment on what he had to say—and why his threat represents a further transgression against our Constitution.

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This is the latest short video in my ongoing series. As I note here, Donald Trump is a clown wearing a fake crown. Except he’s not funny. He’s never been funny…And it remains up to us to prove that a president’s power still depends on the Constitution and the will of the people, not a fake crown.

I hope you’ll take a minute and a half (1:34 to be exact) to watch this video and share it with others. We all need to continue to voice our dissent to this corrupt and criminal regime.

Becoming a paid subscriber to America, America—for $50 a year or just $5 a month—helps sustain our work, keeps nearly all the content free for everyone and gives you full access to our dynamic community conversations. It also represents your commitment to fearless and independent journalism. That’s never been more critical.

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