By Kenneth Tiven
Unintimidated federal judges across the nation have resisted what they see as illegal and generally bad legal performance from US President Donald Trump’s attorneys, more comfortable in ideology than in federal law. Statistics on anti-Trump events across the nation are uncompiled as most of it has been small protests across the nation, often at political town halls. Social networking keeps presenting new images to those who want to see them. People are unhappy and argue with the political leadership that shows up. Republicans are angry as Trump isn’t doing what he promised. Democrats are furious that after an entire election season focused on the Trump’s rhetoric about America, their party leadership is unable or unwilling to stand up to him.
A crucial observation is that Trump has never accepted that the US government is the property of the American people. Individual officeholders are merely temporary occupants administering an entity they don’t own or possess. Clarity on this issue grows as the impact of changes driven by the White House and not by Congressional debate becomes apparent.
International journalist Mort Rosenblum, with plenty of coverage of revolutions and insurrections around the globe, says: “Trump and Musk are halfway through a coup d’etat. One feeds an insatiable, demented ego, seeing himself as a tough, wise monarch. The other, an über-rich Lex Luther with no hint of human empathy, raised in racist South Africa, wants to rule the universe. Decent citizens, overwhelmed by the unthinkable and confused by divided Democratic factions, watch it all happen like deer blinded by headlights.”
What’s been missing is a coordinated Democratic and others’ campaign with a strong social networking message that counters Trump every single day, especially on mobile devices. There is a “missing in action” generation of younger likable Democrats so it is an 83-year-old US Senator, who is actually a registered independent, making the loudest case against Trump.
Bernie Sanders is drawing larger crowds now than he did when campaigning for a presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. With his white hair and booming delivery, the Senator from Vermont reminds a raucous Arizona audience that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg–were seated in front of Trump’s cabinet nominees as a display of power and influence. “You gotta be kind of blind not to understand that you have a government of the billionaire class, for the billionaire class, by the billionaire class. And then, on top of all that, you’ve got Trump moving very rapidly towards an authoritarian form of society.”
Joining him on this multi-city swing has been Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC to the legion of fans who believe the Progressive-wing Democratic Representative from Queens, New York always delivers. In Denver, she told a crowd estimated at 30,000 people: “We deserve better, and this isn’t just about Republicans. We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us, too, and that means communities choosing and voting for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class.”
Sanders said that contrary to Trump’s mandate claim, a majority of Americans support the progressive agenda, including treating healthcare as a right, lowering prescription drug prices, raising the minimum wage, fighting climate change, and supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia. “None of this stuff is radical. The American people support this. We will not accept a society today in which we have massive income and wealth inequality, where the very rich have never done better while working families are struggling to put food on the table.”
Trump is running his presidency as if he was still in a real estate company making his own rules every day. We have to assume that while Trump often speaks garrulously and seems weird on social messaging, he is careful when discussing certain types of conduct with foreign leaders, regardless of what messaging system he uses. On these open source messaging apps criminal conduct can be inferred and deciphered if the communications are retained. In effect, the use of these non-secure, non-governmentally monitored systems can be viewed as a conspiracy against the government and the rule of law. As well. This is illegal under laws governing the retention of communication and handling of secret documents.
The Signal App story has exploded into a major story which may be difficult to make go away given its overtones of the Pentagon Papers. Most probably, President Trump reached back into his days involved with professional wrestling to stage an event that would look real and impress his friends, make a group of advisors feel good, while threatening his enemies if they understood what he meeting was about. In wrestling “pretend reality” is called kayfabe.
The “secret” meeting on Signal accidentally invited a journalist, which has the odour of a kayfabe about it. Whether or not it was, when the participants got called before a Senate Committee to explain what looked like a major breach of national security, they all hemmed and had, at best, vague answers. Most disturbing fact was that Steve Witikoff, Trump’s special envoy to Russian President Putin was in Moscow and logged into this Signal meet up. Many people understand that the encrypted transfer of data becomes unencrypted after it lands on an electronic device. It is easy to believe that anything Witikoff sent or received was analyzed by Russian intelligence agents.
The issue is: Did the national security leadership implicitly lie to Congress? This would not be the first time that the cover up was a bigger problem than the event. How or why a national journalist was added into the online discussion is unclear. My brother Rick Tiven, a singer-songwriter with a gift for phrasing, told me: “if you elect a clown, you get a circus.”
This event will get dissected over the next few weeks by Democrats, believing that it may shake loose moderate Republicans and energize people who did not vote in 2024. It may generate a new outlook, but serious analysis of much of the MAGA support suggests Trump voters believe that by hurting others, they would hurt less. Losers succeed by causing loss to others. It’s a zero-sum game for them. Can other Americans accept this is the psychology behind every government overthrow, from Hitler to Orban.
That was one of the worst national security leaks in US history, and this one could have a similar effect on public opinion about the Trump administration. How, you might ask, could Michael Waltz, the National Security Advisor, admit responsibility and yet not have vetted a list of names on the call list and failed to recognize the name of a reporter. The most intimate and secretive verbatim comments from the meeting included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disparaging close allies, not helpful for relations with a Europe already alarmed by President Trump’s affection for Russian President Vladimir Putin. A substack commenter said: “I can’t help but wondering, with 47’s close ties to Putin and the Saudis, if maybe this wasn’t so accidental, and Defense Secretary Hegseth is being made to take one for the gang.” Anything is possible and it may yet result in the dismissal of one or more persons, while feeding the anti-Trump resistance.
Democrats will beat this issue for as long as possible because it is easy to understand and can be measured against event in the recent historical past. Editor Josh Marshall at www.talkingpointsmemo.com sees three levels to the Signal scandal: Using a Signal app hides what’s happening from the government itself. And that is almost certainly the very reason for the use. Secondly, it turns out that concerns about Signal’s weakness to hacking at a destination computer was known to the Department of Defense. Data when Encrypted in transmission is unencrypted as it lands in an electronic device . The DOD’s “OPSEC SPECIAL BULLETIN” specifically warned about a phishing-like strategy with Signal used by “Russian professional hacking groups” before this event
We have to assume that while Trump often speaks garrulously and seems weird on social messaging, he is careful when discussing certain types of conduct with foreign leaders on these messaging apps. But criminal conduct can be inferred and deciphered if the communications are on the record. In effect, the use of these non secure, non-governmentally monitored systems can be viewed as a conspiracy against the government and the rule of law.
Did no one ask if this was legal to use a pubic messaging system? The impression is his is commonplace in the new administration. Did Mike Waltz “accidentally” add Goldberg on the first time out? Not likely.”
—The writer has worked in senior positions at The Washington Post, NBC, ABC and CNN and also consults for several Indian channels