Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Choose Democracy, Democracy under attack, Donald Trump, Local vigilance

So hard to stay hopeful – good words for 2026

Dear BenIndy friends – The following came to me in an email. Like so many of you, I’ve started deleting many or most of these good resistance pitches without even reading them. Most are looking for money – and even when not, almost all are depressing. This one isn’t. It’s a good analysis with a few excellent suggestions. (You might recall that Choose Democracy is the organization we promoted in Benicia back in 2020 as we helped organize against a Trump/MAGA coup.) Read on…
– Roger Straw, The Benicia Independent

Breaking Norms to Look Strong

Friend,

Happy New Year. And it’s clearly going to be quite the ride.

I drafted a New Year’s message that started, “Trump is the weakest he has been since getting in office. Weak dictators are dangerous and will lash out as their friends co-sign atrocious norm-busting actions to appear strong and in charge. We’re likely to see escalated violence even as his support drains away.”

We are seeing this with Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

A President unilaterally ordering bombing in Venezuela and the forcible kidnapping of a sitting head of state is clearly illegal under both international law and the U.S. Constitution, as noted by the UN. It’s not coming from a place of strength, coherence, rationality, kindness, anti-drugs, or human rights…

Yes, this is about oil. Yes, Stephen Miller wants to demonize Latin Americans. Yes, Marco Rubio wants to break Cuba’s economy and is using Venezuela as a stepping stone for that. Yes, all of this is a distraction that less than 1% of the Epstein files have been released, the fifth anniversary of January 6th, and economic turmoil.

But Trump is not a strategist or playing any long game. He wants power and control. This is his sense of naked, raw power.

The rest of us are left processing reasons and rationales, scratching our heads trying to assess the meaning and end goals. Elites, billionaires, and his corrupt gang are going to exploit this moment.

But for Trump it’s just about being the biggest bully on the playground. He’s running the authoritarian’s favorite move: creating a caricatured villain to take on–and hoping the country will see him as a savior.

Trump wants the world to believe he cannot be restrained by anyone. That strength emanates from people fearing that he will break any norm. That’s why there was no declaration of war, no imminent self-defense claim, and no authorization from Congress as required by the War Powers Resolution. The norm-breaking is the point. Legal scholars are clear this crosses a bright red line. This is not law enforcement; it is an illegal war crime.

For Trump, this is the same underlying story we’ve seen: hoping that his friends will see him as strong and that his opponents will grow fearful.

Our test through 2026 is to help people unhook from this story. Those who tell us that the President cannot be stopped are giving him what he wants: a story of unrivaled, unstoppable power.

But 2025 proved his limitations. Courts stymied and slowed many maneuvers. Trump lost control over the national guard in many cities (by the Supreme Court, no less). He couldn’t censor Jimmy Kimmel. He couldn’t control the Epstein story. And whenever he began to lose, he would change the subject.

So in 2026 he will continue to make horrible, violent, murderous moves — not all of which we will be able to stop in the immediate. Our job in 2026 is to continue withdrawing people’s support for those policies, not only in words but in deeds.

The Pillars of Support

We’ve been teaching over the last year that authoritarians take advantage of institutions’ unwillingness to push back. Trump doesn’t execute laws, give judicial rulings, write headlines, build roads, invade countries, kidnap residents, tear down the West Wing. He orders others to do it — and if they refuse to comply, an authoritarian’s power to give orders becomes useless.

That’s what happened when Trump ordered Indiana State Republicans to gerrymander the state. Hoosiers across the political spectrum said no — in town halls, in calls, in protests, in direct actions. Even after Trump escalated with personal threats and people acting on his behalf engaged in acts of violence, Indiana politicians said no — they would not accede and they would not comply.

Or another example right now: Minneapolis faces threats of 2,000 federal agents descending on their city in what appears to be a Chicago-style waged campaign of raids and terror targeting Black, Brown and immigrant communities. Residents of Minneapolis have shown much grit in escorting kids, confronting federal agents directly, and pooling funds to support residents who fear for their safety and are unable to work. But they did more than focus on Trump and federal agents — they expanded their targets to include hotels who are putting ICE up. The campaign may have already notched its first win: “Minnesota Hilton cancels ICE agents’ hotel reservations,” blares the headlines from The Guardian. (The situation now remains uncertain, with the national chain insisting it’s “resolved” this dispute.)

The point is we’ve been sapping Trump’s support over the last year — and we have to continue growing that. It helps to not just focus on Trump — but on those pillars of support, too. Here are some of those pillars with respect to Venezuela:

Congress

If you’re looking for immediate actions, colleague Ash-Lee Henderon offered a direct one: contacting your leaders in Congress. The Constitution is explicit: Congress decides questions of war. If it abdicates now, it sets a precedent that will be used again — and again.

A bill is moving this week to stop further action in Venezuela — so the timing is right now. Her suggestion:

  • If you’ve got 10 minutes: contact your two U.S. Senators
  • If you’ve got 20 minutes: contact your two Senators + your House Representative
  • If you’ve got 30 minutes: add Senate Foreign Relations Committee leadership or members you have ties to.

Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121. You can find direct info for congress people at https://5calls.org/issue/trump-venezuela-extrajudicial-murder/.

Military personnel

In a just society, many people involved in planning and executing an illegal war would face accountability. Senator Mark Kelly and others famously made a video reminding service members of their oath to disobey unlawful orders. Section of Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice is clear — servicemembers must not follow orders that are “manifestly unlawful.”

Veterans have been organizing. In this moment, Common Defense continues to mobilize veterans and military families to defend the Constitution and oppose forever wars: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/defend-the-constitution-end-forever-wars

Oil companies

No one benefits more from Trump’s actions in Venezuela than oil companies. These are hard targets — and unavoidable ones. War after war has been fueled by the same corporations that poison our air, destroy communities, and accelerate climate collapse.

Venezuela’s oil — the largest reserves in the world — has been a geopolitical prize — and a recurring justification for pressure, sanctions, covert action, and now open force.

After many decades in which U.S. and European companies dominated extraction, Venezuela formally nationalized its oil industry in 1976. This followed earlier reforms in the 1960s that steadily increased Venezuelan control and royalties. The move was broadly popular inside the country and made Venezuela a central player in OPEC.

At the moment, Chevron is the only remaining US oil company operating in Venezuela. They have over 400 locations across the US, from gas stations to refineries to corporate offices. These are prime locations for future actions as they stand to benefit quickest.

Other companies, like Exxon, are eyeing ways to get their hands on Venezuelan oil — but like much of this rapidly unfolding situation, taking oil from Venezuela is not straightforward.

We expect to see more soon — a 1-day wildcat consumer strike has been called for January 8th. The ask is easy enough: no buying oil or gas on January 8th. https://bit.ly/StrikeThePump. More targeted actions will follow!

International solidarity

The U.S. cannot do this alone. Pressure from other countries matters. One concrete demand: countries should refuse to buy stolen Venezuelan oil.

Canada, Mexico, and the Netherlands are some of the largest buyers of US oil. They share some responsibility for the US engagement in another imperialist venture. A boycott — or even the threat of one — could pressure both governments and oil companies, especially as firms already express concern about entering Venezuela.

Mainstream media

The media is playing a role sanitizing the kidnapping of a head of state. Words like “capture” — used in almost all US press — understate the gravity of abducting a country’s leader. They have not accurately named the US’s piracy in stealing oil shipments.

Largely, the press remains quick to quote Trump and slow to fact-check his lies. No, this is not about drugs — Venezuela does not smuggle fentanyl into the US. No, the US is not “reclaiming stolen oil” — this is a factually deficient framing that ignores history.

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones writes, “So many in media are ill-equipped to interview officials about what’s happening because they begin with the presumption of legitimacy and don’t know enough about history or U.S. foreign policy to foment intelligent pushback and hold officials accountable. The questions begin with WILL regime change be successful, not how is it legal or ethical to orchestrate a coup and who are we to decide when leadership must go and who are we to believe we have rights to a sovereign nation’s resources.”

(You can follow real journalists like her and Marsia Kabas.)

All these — and other pillars — are upholding the authoritarian regime. They keep it normalized, legitimized, flush with resources and protection. 2026 is about continuing to strip that back.

I want to affirm again this analysis: Trump is the weakest he has been since getting in office. Weak dictators are dangerous and will lash out as their friends co-sign atrocious norm-busting actions to appear strong and in charge. We’re likely to see escalated violence even as his support drains away.

Resistance is growing. He is not invincible. More and more people are not being taken in by the lies and his regime’s utter disregard for life. The hill is high to climb, but each step that you can take matters.

So for 2026, don’t give in to the fear.

Warmly,

Choose Democracy
https://choosedemocracy.us/

Authoritarian Rule, Democracy under attack, Donald Trump, Presidential pardon power, Stephen Golub

Benician Stephen Golub: Pardon Me

Stranger Than Fiction

A Promised Land, by Stephen Golub, December 6, 2025

The story could inspire a big-budget Hollywood political thriller. A cocaine kingpin – the corrupt president of a foreign country, no less – is convicted and jailed in the United States. But behind the scenes, right-wing tech billionaires persuade an equally corrupt American president to pardon the foreigner. In a violent side-story, the US president proudly orders illegal, lethal military attacks that kill scores of impoverished Venezuelan fishing villagers (some of whom may be small-scale traffickers) whose coke isn’t even destined for our shores and whose possible crimes pale in comparison with the kingpin’s.

In the hypothetical Hollywood version of this story, the truth comes out, the former president goes back to prison and his American counterpart resigns in shame.

In 2025, however, there is no shame and reality is stranger than fiction. Donald Trump publicly boasted of his planed pardon for former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández before then granting it. Lost in the swirl of Trump’s other transgressions, the story disappeared from the headlines soon after first surfacing.

The element of the hypothetical Hollywood version that hasn’t yet been proven in real life is the tech billionaires’ involvement. But, as reported in Mother Jones magazine,  their backing for both Trump and VP JD Vance on the one hand and their proposed, Hernandez-backed state-within-a-state in Honduras on the other surely looks suspicious.

Even though in normal times such a story would be the stuff of massive scandal, it’s now business as usual when it comes to Trump’s pardons (not to mention so much else). And given that we’re now almost a decade into Trump’s reign of political terror, we must ask what’s normal anymore.

But Wait! There’s Much More…

As horrid as it is, the Hernandez story is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Trump’s abuse of the presidential pardon power. It’s true that certain of his predecessors have also milked that constitutionally granted capacity for personal or political benefit. Bill Clinton’s 2001 pardon of disgraced financier Marc Rich, apparently in return for donations to the Clinton Library and the Democratic Party, is a case in point. But neither Clinton nor anyone else comes close to the breadth and depth of what Trump has done.

Trump established his exploitation of pardons at the very start of his presidency. As summarized by an excellent post by attorney Kim Wehle at The Unpopulist site, “One of his first acts on returning to office was to issue pardons to hundreds of rioters from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including those who had viciously assaulted police officers.”  As Wehle further explains:

“It should be no surprise that some of these rioters, having been pardoned for one act of political violence, keep on plotting new acts of political violence. In February, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested at the Capitol (again) for assaulting a protester. In July, Edward Kelley, who was “the fourth person to unlawfully enter the Capitol building at the forefront of the mob” and attack an officer, was convicted for a new plot to assassinate “36 individual federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel” whom he blamed for his arrest on the Capitol riot charges. Christopher Moynihan was arrested in October for planning to assassinate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.”

In an equally valuable post at the same site, author Robert Tracinski summarizes  some of Trump’s many egregious 2025 pardons:

“…from a corrupt sheriff convicted in a “cash for badges” scheme, to disgraced former Congressman George Santos, who may have diverted election funds to support his lavish lifestyle but “was 100% for Trump,” to the healthcare fraud conviction of the husband of Republican Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger, a Trump ally…

“Trump pardoned an executive convicted of tax fraud after the executive’s mother gave $1 million at a Trump fundraiser. The judge who sentenced him said: “there is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card for the rich.” Under Trump, there is…

“In October, he pardoned cryptocurrency fraudster Changpeng Zhao after Zhao’s company, Binance, made a deal to boost World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto venture.”

Legitimizing the Rule of Lawlessness

Ironically, however, the most significant pardon we’ve seen recently has not been issued by Trump, but in effect  for Trump, by the Supreme Court. Though not literally a pardon, Wehle addresses the Court’s action quite well:

“Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s unconscionable [2024] decision in Trump v. United States, the so-called immunity ruling that essentially sanctioned American presidents using official power to commit crimes without any penalty, the legal perversions coming out of the White House have been legion. So far, Donald Trump’s actions, along with the Supreme Court’s endorsement of them, have effectively kneecapped the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments, the Appointments, Spending, and Emoluments Clauses, the 14th Amendment’s ban on holding office after having engaged in insurrection, Article I’s vesting of legislative power in Congress, and Congress’s power to lay and collect tariffs. Trump is acting this way because he no longer has any incentive not to.

“In that immunity ruling, a 6-3 majority held that the exercise of “core” powers under Article II of the Constitution is absolutely immune from legal oversight, even if used criminally, and that lesser “official actions” are presumptively immune unless prosecutors can show that criminally confining a presidential act would pose no “dangers on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.”

In other words, this was Trump’s own get-out-of-jail-free card, including for corruptly influenced pardons since they’re within the presidency’s “core” powers.

We’re accustomed to thinking that no one is above the law, at least in principle and hopefully in fact. The Supreme Court decided the opposite.

Of course, the immediate and history-shattering  benefit of the Court’s egregious ruling wasn’t for President Trump in 2025 but for Indicted Trump in 2024: the decision so delayed and constrained Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election that Smith dropped the charges after Trump’s 2024 electoral victory.

A Larger Problem

An even larger problem we face, however, isn’t Trump’s legal transgressions but the fact that they apparently don’t dent his political and moral standing for large parts of the public. Yes, his approval numbers are dropping to about 40 percent  or less in most surveys. And yes, the prospects of his suffering more political reversals are rising. This is evinced by everything from far-right-wing Majorie Taylor Greene’s declarations of independence to the Democrats’ increasing prospects for retaking the House of Representatives next year to  the possibility of yet more sordid Jeffery Epstein revelations soiling Trump’s brand even among supporters.

But whatever happened to someone simply paying a penalty for  cheating and lying, not least by blatantly exploiting a presidential power to pardon political and financial allies? Like so many of Trump’s disruptions, this is all going on in plain sight and is in effect pardoned, so to speak, by much of the public.

And while we certainly can understand folks prioritizing the damages he’s doing to our pocketbooks in assessing him, it doesn’t seem like his consistently egregious self-dealing makes much  of a difference in his standing. It’s just another day at the Oval Office.

So, with great respect for everyone who’s fighting for democracy, national security and the rule of law, or who dread the crisis even as they simply try to get by during these tough times, certain words may sum up how history will judge many other Americans who condone or endorse what Trump is doing:

Really regrettable.

Perhaps understandable.

Or, just maybe, unpardonable.

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

Stephen Golub writes about democracy and politics, both in America and abroad, at A Promised Land: America as a Developing Country.

…and… here’s more Golub on the Benicia Independent

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Democracy under attack, Donald Trump, White House East Wing

The bulldozer and the ballroom: Trump puts permanent stamp on the White House

Perfect sign and symbol of MAGA disregard for democracy and the rule of law

Work begins on the demolition of a part of the East Wing of the White House, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025, in Washington, before construction of a new ballroom. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Straits Times, October 25, 2025

Summary

    • Donald Trump initiated the demolition of the White House East Wing to construct a US$300 million ballroom, funded by private donors, bypassing traditional congressional oversight.
    • Historians and preservationists criticised the move, viewing it as emblematic of Mr Trump’s disregard for national norms and prioritisation of personal legacy-building, like a “Trump Tower”.
    • Mr Trump’s team defends the project as a visionary addition, while critics highlight his exploitation of loopholes to exercise expansive executive power with minimal public consultation.

WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump met with donors for his new ballroom at the White House earlier this month, he relayed a story that thrilled his real estate mogul heart.

“I said, ‘How long will it take me?’ ‘Sir, you can start tonight, you have no approvals,’” Mr Trump said on Oct 15, describing a conversation he’d had about the project.

“I said, ‘You gotta be kidding.’ They said, ‘Sir, this is the White House, you’re the president of the United States, you can do anything you want.’”

Days later, demolition crews bulldozed the East Wing of the White House, reducing decades of history at one of the country’s most famous landmarks to a pile of rubble and drawing outrage from historians, preservationists, Democrats and the public.

Mr Trump had gotten what he wanted: a clean slate for his new US$300 million (S$390 million) ballroom. It was an action that seemed to symbolise, in physical form, a presidency that has taken a wrecking ball to national norms, international institutions and the world order itself.

Historians, largely aghast at the move, saw the thinking of a developer at work rather than the keeper of a sacred trust.

Donald Trump holding a rendering of the new White House ballroom during an Oct 22 White House meeting with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte. PHOTO: DOUG MILLS/NYTIMES

“I think this is the developer’s mentality again of building something big that has your name on it and that everyone remembers you for. A Trump Tower,” said Professor Jeremi Suri, a University of Texas historian. “He’s building a tower for himself. This is a ballroom tower.”

Indeed, Mr Trump himself, at the dinner with executives from Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Meta Platforms, all of whom the White House says have pledged to help fund the ballroom, marvelled at the opportunity the project presented.

“It’s exciting as a person in real estate, ‘cause you’ll never get a location like this again,” he said.

As a businessman, Mr Trump put his name on buildings, steaks and ties. Mr Trump’s press secretary, Ms Karoline Leavitt, said on Oct 23 the ballroom would be named, too, but declined to say what it would be.

Mr Trump told reporters late on Oct 24 that he did not plan to name it after himself. But the 90,000 sq ft structure will be forever associated with him.

“Everybody’s going to look at it, and they’re going to see now an edifice that overshadows the executive mansion, and that edifice has one man’s name on it,” said Dr Edward Lengel, a former chief historian at the White House Historical Association.

“I believe that’s intentional.”

East Wing White House demolition 2025-10-23 | Reuters

Well before the ballroom project became a reality, Mr Trump had made his mark on the White House with gold decorations in the Oval Office, a paved-over Rose Garden reminiscent of his Florida Mar-a-Lago club, portraits of himself throughout the property and giant American flags on new flagpoles on the north and south lawns.

The Republican president has also sought to remake Washington, DC, taking over control of the Kennedy Centre and planning an Arc de Triomphe-style monument to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026.

Mr Taylor Budowich, a former senior adviser to the president, said Mr Trump was the nation’s “greatest builder” with a vision for the White House and beyond.

“The president is a visionary, whether it be in politics, business or life. He is able to see things not just for what they are, but for what they could be,” he said.

“This is just another wonderful example of Trump being Trump.”

‘Little public disclosure, consultation’

Mr Trump’s team and allies have dismissed criticism of the ballroom project as manufactured outrage.

“All of his properties are first class. And he doesn’t spare expenses, and he has an eye for it. This will be a wonderful addition,” said Mr Armand Grossman, a Florida-based real estate investor who worked for Mr Trump for four years, about the ballroom. “It will be around for a long time for many generations to enjoy.”

A 1906 photo of the East Entrance, as it was then known, of the White House. PHOTO: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/NYTIMES

The president followed his own unique style and belief in expansive executive power in making the ballroom project happen. While previous renovations were funded and approved by Congress, this one will be paid for by private donors, reducing oversight restrictions.

And while the White House says it plans to submit designs for the ballroom to the National Capital Planning Commission, it says that body only oversees construction, not demolition.

“I think it’s very clear that the administration studied those weaknesses and, with much greater care than they’re letting on, that they then very ruthlessly exploited those weaknesses,” Dr Lengel said.

Democracy under attack, Donald Trump, Proposition 50

Benicia’s Larnie Fox: Thoughts on Prop 50

Gerrymander California?

By Larnie Fox, October 17, 2025

Larnie Fox, Benicia resident & artist

My opinion is that having Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans in charge is a very, very bad thing for our country and our world.

If you agree with me on that, then I hope you will also agree with me on this: Vote FOR prop 50. Support it with your work, dollars, yard signs, etc. It is now California’s best hope to have a voice and to help rein in this reckless and cruel regime.

Most of us agree that gerrymandering is a bad idea in general. But when we have a possibility of taking back our House of Representatives for pro-democracy and pro-rule-of-law forces, and when the MAGA Republicans are pushing gerrymandering to its limits in the red states to maintain their control ~ effectively rigging elections against the majority ~ then unfortunately we need to gerrymander California as well. If we lose this election, we will have virtually no chance of winning back the House.

It’s a temporary measure, it will expire in 2030.

Please ignore all the slick marketing materials coming from the MAGA crowd, and make sure you vote yes on prop 50.

Larnie Fox
Benicia