When I scrolled through the news this morning, an article reported a social media post featuring the stern face of Donald Trump with the caption, “Did you remain loyal?” I assumed it was a fake, another attempt to cast the Trump Administration as “a 1984,” as in George Orwell’s novel. The post was supposedly the work of the Department of Homeland Security.
I promptly went to X, formerly Twitter, to see if the post was, indeed, the work of DHS. It was. I was shocked but shouldn’t have been. The word “traitor” is used these days loosely by Trump and his Administration. If the President’s own misuse of the word were taken seriously, we are surrounded by traitors, ranging from former Representative Marjorie Taylor Green to multiple current Democratic candidates for Congress and other offices.
As I pondered DHS’s post, I wondered, what are they trying to say? And why did they post it? DHS social media posts often show undocumented immigrants who have been deported and report crimes committed by “illegals.” The theme is “Stay out, you are not wanted here.” But this “loyalty post” is something else. It reads like a warning to me and others regularly criticizing the Trump administration.
In recent years, our loyalty has been tested. Most of us love America, or what we conceive American to have been in the past or should be in the future. We are loyal to our country. But until the presidencies of Donald Trump, most of us never said, “I love America, but not the President.” Today I hear that all the time.
I call the events of January 6, 2021, an insurrection, and I credit Donald Trump for provoking it. It was an attempt to end the America I grew up with—one with a procedural democracy that worked most of the time. As I looked at the rest of the world and learned about the Axis during World War II, my pride in America grew. But on January 6th, I wondered if the gig was up. Here was a sitting President of the United States who hoped that the mob he brought to Washington would block the certification of Joe Biden’s election to the presidency, even if that involved killing legislators and even his own Vice President.
It would be comforting if January 6 were a one-time aberration, a Trump-sized bad day in which, unable to accept his loss at the polls, the President challenged reality and lost again. But unfortunately, the abandonment of loyalty to the Constitution demonstrated by Trump on January 6 has been repeated dozens—hundreds-of time since.
Thus, when I look at the DHS social media post, I realize it could be directed at Trump. It isn’t, of course, but if given the opportunity to ask Trump a single question, asking him if he remained loyal would be a good one to ask.
Trump has embraced the principle that laws are meant to be broken, meaning that statues and even the Constitution are meaningless to him because the only part of the Constitution he governs under is the concept that Article II gives him supreme power. That is why the many red flags popping up everywhere suggesting he will attempt to subvert the 2026 mid-term elections are so worrying.
So, let me say that I don’t think Trump has remained loyal. I also wonder if he has ever been loyal to anybody or anything other than himself.
But what about those of us who write and speak about what we see as the failures and misdeeds of Trump, his administration, and his political party? Are we loyal? Better stated, can you be loyal to America and regularly bash its leadership?
Yes, of course. America got started 250 years ago by patriots rejecting their then leaders, including a crazy king (back then it was George III).
As I researched the DHS social media post, I found a comment on it that quoted Theodore Roosevent. The quote is more worth reading than anything else I have read today:
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about anyone else.”
The Theodore Roosevelt Center puts the quote in context:
“Roosevelt spoke these words in Kansas City on May 7, 1918, no doubt in part to justify his extreme criticisms of President Woodrow Wilson, whom he excoriated for moral flabbiness, for high sounding words unmatched by action, and for not preparing the people of the United States for entry into World War I.”
Well said, Teddy Roosevelt.
Let’s salute the patriots who condemn policies, actions, and words of the Trump administration that are wrong, immoral, uncivil, or plain stupid.
May God bless America and our Constitution.
7 Responses
I love America, but not the President. He deserves no respect and not love.
Well said Mr. Dean. We have a little over 2 months to go before the midterms. We can only hope that some sanity will be restored to the federal government as a result of that election. Meanwhile we have the latest nonsense from the regime: Lake America. It’s like Al Fromm said in today’s installment of Fromm and Fuller: the inmates are running the asylum. Agreed- love the country- let’s hope for better times to come.
Thank you for your kind words. Al From is right–the inmates are running the asylum.
Let’s hope America survives “The Trum Era,” which hopefully will prove to be an aberration in our history–a period all of us will hope to forget happened.
Speaking of treason, why has it never been explained to the American people why 147 members of Congress were allowed to attempt a subversion of the peaceful transfer of power back in 2020, or that the serving President could incite a riot at the capital that we all saw with our own eyes and not be held accountable?
Excellent question. I think we might get an answer once the Republicans are out of power.
Thanks for raising what may prove to be one of the most important questions in American history.
We often call our attention to Trump’s treasonable actions as #45 and now as #47. As #45″, Trump orchestrated the January 6, 2021 attempt to overthrow the Electoral College results by inciting a violent mob on the US Capitol building. It was all there on TV. We heard Trump’s words challenging the armed mob to riot.
Fortunately, that effort failed and America dodged the fascist bullet. Yet 3.5 years later, the Republican Party re-nominated Trump for president. It was at that point that I that all those people were inviting another national nightmare upon this country. Trump’s pathetically false claims of election fraud failed 60+ times in various courts, yet Republicans still believed this pathological liar.
With that overt attempt by Trump to subvert our democracy, it should certainly have been clear to any patriotic American that his man was a clear and present danger to our country. Yet the Republican Party remains all in on supporting this vile, degenerate Epstein crony still act like this charlatan was sent by God to save America.
The entire Republican Party apparatus, national, state and local, has become a radicalized club where loyalty to Trump seems to be their top priority. To believe unquestioningly in Trump’s daily lies, his trade wars, pardoning violent criminals, profiting financially from insider trading, slashing Medicare and Medicaid programs that millions of them depend upon. The entire Republican congress is essentially help captive even as state level party organizations double down on this colossal fraud.
Mark Twain once observed that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” The accusations of “disloyalty” and “treason” leveled against those who opposed presidential policies have occurred before in our history, and Maryland’s experience during the Civil War offers important lessons.
During the Civil War, newspapers carried daily reports of citizens being arrested for “disloyalty.” A closer examination reveals that the charge could encompass almost any act or expression that failed to support the President or the war effort. With the suspension of habeas corpus, many of those arrested were denied the ability to challenge their imprisonment. The arrests eventually included women wearing ribbons of the “wrong” color, ministers who preached for peace or questioned the war, judges who challenged the constitutionality of suspended civil liberties, mayors and council members, newspaper editors, and political candidates. In Talbot County, the entire Democratic ticket for the 1863 election was arrested by the federal provost marshal.
The federal military also intervened directly in Maryland’s elections under the stated purpose of ensuring they remained “free and fair.” In Baltimore, federal authorities arrested Democratic voters as they attempted to cast their ballots during the 1861 election, dramatically suppressing the Democratic vote ensuring only “acceptable” candidates would govern. During the 1863 election, federal soldiers formed a gauntlet leading to the polls, while color-coded ballots were used to distinguish voters. An investigation by the Maryland Senate found massive voter suppression where many voters carrying the “wrong” ballot beaten or turned away.
At the same time, federal information campaigns flourished while newspapers and editors operated under the threat of arrest or closure for publishing material deemed disloyal or critical of government policy.
The lesson from this history is not about one political party or one president. It is about the danger of allowing political loyalty to outweigh constitutional principles. History shows how easily people can justify extraordinary measures when they believe those measures are being used against political opponents or others with whom they disagree.
The most important lesson is also the simplest: our constitutional liberties are not strengthened by denying them to others. If we allow the rights of those we dislike to be taken away because we disagree with their views, we weaken the protections that ultimately belong to all of us. Our own liberties will never be more secure than the liberties we are willing to defend for others.