Donald Trump chooses dictators over democracies

At 1:48 pm this afternoon, reporters were suddenly summoned to the Oval Office with almost no notice. The president’s schedule had listed no media events, catching the White House press corps off guard on this very muggy day in Washington, D.C. When they were ushered inside, it quickly became clear that the White House had been preparing for this event, even if the press had not. Surrounding the back and side of the president were 15 men, mostly travel executives, all in deep blue and black suits, the president’s preferred uniform for the men who are allowed to be near him. Their places were strategically chosen to give the illusion of strength and authority to Donald Trump as he struggled to read page after page of prepared remarks. “On 11 separate days, more than three million travelers flowed through the American flies, they, they, uh … American skies were loaded up with planes.”

Donald Trump’s press office said the event was, “to celebrate the accomplishments that produced a historic summer travel season and delivered a strong boost to our local economies and small businesses,” even as the actual numbers showed an industry struggling under the weight of declining international tourism and billions of dollars in lost visitor spending as international visitors increasingly choose to avoid the United States for fear of being detained, denied entry, or caught up in Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown at the border. Others simply refuse to spend their money in a country whose president and policies they no longer want to support.

Las Vegas, “The Entertainment Capital of the World,” ended 2025 with its largest annual visitor decline since the pandemic, closer to 2010, when the city was still climbing out of the Great Recession. By June of last year, hotel occupancy fell roughly 15%. Visits from Canadians practically collapsed. Air Canada passenger numbers fell 33%, with WestJet coming in close with a drop of 31%. The low-cost carrier Flair reported even worse numbers with a 62% decline. Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley said tourism from Canada has dried up from a torrent “to a drip.” Ted Pappageorge, head of the Culinary Workers Union, called it the “Trump slump.” When I was in Las Vegas last year on two separate occasions, drivers also called it that and expressed how concerned they were about their survival once again.

Fontainebleau and Resorts World have both laid off workers. Trump’s new bond program, requiring visitors from 50 countries to put up thousands of dollars just to enter the United States, has contributed to an 80% decline in visitors from those countries. Even the travel executives sitting behind Donald Trump in the Oval Office acknowledged the problem after they walked outside the room. Geoff Freeman, the head of the U.S. Travel Association, told reporters directly, “We cannot get to 100 million travelers with a bond program that would discourage travelers.” Just moments earlier, Freeman had been sitting behind Donald Trump, thanking him on camera.

Once it was time for questions, reporters quickly turned to Iran. They asked about the war and about the regime crackdown on protesters. Trump said, “The only answer is they’re being shot. The regime is getting weaker and weaker by the day, and at some point, they’re not going to be able to shoot so easily.”

Then he turned to what the United States military did overnight. “We hit them very hard last night. We took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz. It was a very heavy attack last night, and we’re prepared to do another one any time we want.”

The reality of the moment we are living in is that the President of the United States can be garbling a sentence about tourism one minute and the next he is excitedly sharing about bombing a country and, by extension, the civilians he supposedly went to war to save. That is the Trump presidency. He has no understanding of the gravity of anything he says.

Earlier this morning, he even posted on Truth Social to suggest that there be consideration made for the Strait of Hormuz to be renamed after himself. “Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” he wrote. “Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!”

American service members are in harm’s way. People all over the region are being killed, and Donald Trump is talking about putting his name on another body of water that does not belong to him. He cannot read a prepared sentence about tourism without stumbling over the word “skies,” but he thinks he deserves to steal the naming rights to foreign geography.

But here is what makes all of this worse, and it is a question I wish one of the reporters in that room had asked him. Trump loves to talk about Iran and how much we are winning. But if Iran is such a terrible danger to the United States, why does he keep defending and praising the man who is helping Iran fight back?

Just yesterday, on September first, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Vladimir Putin sat beside Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and pledged to keep supporting Iran with what the Kremlin described as “necessary goods” and economic assistance. “During this difficult period, we are striving to provide you with the necessary assistance,” Putin said. He didn’t even say this behind closed doors or in a secret meeting. He made a public declaration of support for the country American forces struck just hours later.

And we have known about this support for a long time. We know that Russia has been actively aiding Iran throughout this war. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that Russia has provided expanded intelligence sharing and satellite imagery to help Tehran target American forces. Ukraine revealed that Russian orbital surveillance assets captured images of the UK-US base on Diego Garcia, NATO’s Incirlik base in Turkey, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and oil and natural gas fields in Saudi Arabia. Every one of those locations was later attacked by Iran. Russia is helping Iran.

So when Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office and tells us he hit Iran “very hard last night,” he does not mention that the equipment Iran built along the Strait of Hormuz, the very equipment he claims to have destroyed, may well have been supplied or guided with intelligence from the man Trump still refuses to condemn. Putin, the man he still calls a friend.

And it goes deeper than that. Russia is not just arming our enemy, it is also attacking our allies. The same day Putin pledged support to Iran, Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt made a formal announcement, publicly attributing the August fourth drone sabotage at Leipzig airport to Russia, stating that the means used to carry out the attack are “known to use from other hybrid operations conducted by Russia and its war against Ukraine.” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul stood beside him and called it part of a “long series of attempts at destabilization, disinformation, threats, sabotage and aggression directed at Europe.”

Germany is taking this action and the greater threat it revealed seriously, even going so far as ordering the closure of the Russian consulate in Bonn, and it terminated the agreement allowing the Russian House in Berlin to operate. German police have also opened a separate terror investigation into a deliberate attack on an electricity substation in eastern Germany, suggesting that Leipzig may not have been an isolated event on German soil.

Then today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stood alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels and made clear just how serious this has become. “Leipzig marks a new escalation on European Union soil directly attributed to Russia,” she said, warning that if the attack had succeeded, “this would have resulted in enormous damage, and possibly even loss of life.” Then she said the part that needed to be said, but also felt like a punch to the gut to hear. “Europeans are faced with a hard truth, that this is the new normal.” According to von der Leyen, Europe has now entered “a new era of European security.”

Standing beside her, Rutte warned that Russia has become “increasingly reckless” and that the threat is now reaching directly onto European soil. EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas was even more direct, calling what happened in Leipzig “state sponsored terrorism.”

What von der Leyen made clear today is that none of this is random. Russia is deliberately targeting Europe to make supporting Ukraine more dangerous. The message is simple: keep helping Ukraine and your airports, power grids, railways, and other critical infrastructure could be next.

These are our closest allies. These are the countries that stood beside us after September 11th, when America was wounded and afraid and needed the world to stand with us. They sent their sons and daughters to fight alongside ours. They buried their own because they believed that an attack on one of us was an attack on all of us. For generations, we built something together that was never perfect, but was rooted in the belief that democratic nations were safer when we stood together against the dictators and strongmen who wanted to tear us apart. Now those same allies are watching Russian drones enter their airspace, sabotage reach their cities, and threats move closer to their homes, their airports, their power grids, and their families. Yet they are still standing together. They are naming what Putin is doing. They are refusing to be frightened into silence. They are doing exactly what we once promised one another we would do when one of us was threatened. What makes this moment so painful is that the country that once helped lead that promise is now being led by a president who seems far more comfortable praising the man threatening our allies than standing beside the allies who have stood beside us for decades.

What transpired over the last two days makes what we only learned after reporters started asking questions even more disturbing. While our closest allies were dealing with what they now describe as a direct escalation by Russia on European soil, our president was sending his CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, to Moscow for an unannounced meeting. The visit took place on August 25th, days before Germany went public. There was no show of strength alongside Europe. Instead, Donald Trump just quietly sent the CIA Director to Moscow for these secret talks with Russia’s intelligence chiefs.

When reporters asked Trump about it, he called it “standard business.” He said he was “not at all concerned” about Russia targeting a NATO country. “There is no problem,” he said. He did not condemn what happened in Leipzig or stand with Germany. He did not use the word sabotage, terrorism, or aggression. He treated the entire situation as though it were a minor inconvenience that his people had already handled.

Yet somehow, none of it changed the way Donald Trump talked about Vladimir Putin. When a reporter asked whether Russia should face consequences for supporting Iran in a war where American forces are dying, the president said this just a few days ago: “So far, I think Russia’s behaved quite well, having to do with the Strait of Hormuz.”

One of the hardest parts of living through this moment is the weight of watching terrible people do terrible things and feeling, in some deep and constant way, helpless. People scream that we are not doing enough, while others do nothing at all. Both of those realities exist side by side, every single day, and the tension between them is exhausting in ways that are hard to explain.

Because the cruelty does not stay at the top. It never does. When the president of the United States behaves this way, it gives permission to every lesser version of him to unleash the worst parts of themselves. He sets the tone. Not just for America, but for the world. He empowers the most evil among us. He emboldens the strongmen who lead other nations, showing them just how much they can get away with, too.

This is how the world begins to hate us, and this administration seems determined to give them every reason to. This is how our closest allies, rightfully so, now look at America with suspicion and anger instead of trust. We elected a man who has spent years insulting our friends while praising some of the very people who threaten them, and there was always going to be a cost for that. We are watching that cost come due. Our allies in Europe now know that they have to move forward without us. Their governments are adjusting, and their citizens are pulling away. They are building a future in which America can no longer automatically be counted on to stand beside them on the right side of history. As painful as that is for me to write, I cannot blame them. They must protect themselves from what we have become.

To my readers here at home, we have to look out for each other. We are truly in a moment where like-minded people protecting one another is not optional, it is the only way we get through this. It is how we make sure the people around us do not feel completely alone when everything they thought they could count on seems to be disappearing. Check on each other. Pay attention when someone is being targeted. Stand beside people when it would be easier to stay quiet. There are going to be days when some of us have more strength than others, and on those days, we carry each other. It is how we come out the other side still standing.

To my international friends, I understand keeping us at arm’s length right now. I hate writing that. I hate knowing that there are people around the world who once looked at America as a friend and an ally who now have very good reasons to wonder whether we can ever be trusted again. I understand the anger and the resentment. I understand why your governments are preparing for a world in which America may not be there when you need us, or worse, we are the aggressor, because right now, we are giving you every reason to prepare for exactly that. Protect your countries and your democracies. When you see this kind of movement taking root in your politics, stop it before it spreads. Please learn from what happened to us. Do not wait until the cruelty becomes normal. Do not tell yourselves that your institutions are too strong or your people are too decent or that something like this could never happen where you live. We told ourselves versions of the same thing, and look at us now.

But please, do not turn on each other. Whether you are here in the States or reading from afar, please heed this warning above all else. Do not let what is happening to America destroy the trust between the rest of you too. Do not let our failure convince you that every alliance is worthless or that every country is better off on its own. That is what they want. That is what this type of movement is built upon. The people doing this to us benefit every time another democracy becomes isolated, when old friends begin looking at one another as enemies, and when fear replaces solidarity. The division they have fed inside this country was never going to stop at our borders. They want it everywhere because divided people are easier to frighten, manipulate, and control. Democracies standing alone are easier for strongmen to break.

So be angry with us. Keep your distance from us to protect yourselves right now. I understand it, even though it breaks my heart to say that. But please do not give up on each other. Do not let what has happened to America become permission to stop believing in one another, or even in all of us. Millions of us are still here. We still remember what our country was supposed to stand for, and we are fighting with all our might in the ways each of us is capable of to find our way back.

These are the darker days we knew were coming. But even through the darkness, there was some light. Yesterday, an anonymous federal official inside the United States Postal Service did something remarkably brave. They filed a whistleblower disclosure revealing that the USPS has been secretly building a new system called the “Federal Ballot Mail Portal” since June, designed to carry out Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting. They continued building it even after a federal court order issued on June 25th commanded them to stop. In just months, they built a project with the complexity that would normally take years to develop and test. Under this new system, the Postal Service would, for the first time in American history, have the power to decide which ballots get mailed. It would screen ballot barcodes against information uploaded by state election officials, and one bad barcode could cause an entire batch of ballots, potentially thousands, to be rejected and never mailed.

The whistleblower’s disclosure, prepared by Whistleblower Aid, warned that USPS leadership “has discarded all best practices as they speed the project to be ready for a September first implementation, raising questions about whether catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug.”

The whistleblower knew what that meant. They understood that if this system went live without anyone knowing, millions of Americans could be silently disenfranchised before they ever realized what had happened. So they came forward, and they risked their career. They put everything on the line to protect the one thing that still gives us power in this country: our vote.

Senator Richard Blumenthal released the disclosure and sent a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner demanding the agency explain whether it followed court orders. He called the changes a “deeply troubling departure” from the role USPS has traditionally played in our elections, and urged the agency to “abandon this ill-conceived, unconscionable plan and ensure that all Americans can exercise their constitutional right to vote, including by mail, without interference by USPS.”

Libby Liu, the CEO of Whistleblower Aid, said: “We are crossing the Rubicon of American elections. This dangerously defective mail-in ballot process could disenfranchise millions of voters, ensnaring ballots in red tape under the guise of solving a non-existent problem.”

With some mail-in ballots set to go out this week, one person inside the system saw what was happening, understood the stakes, and refused to stay silent. One person, with everything to lose, stood between millions of voters and an election that could have been stolen before it even began. We may never know the name of this true patriot, but millions of us now know what they did. What the whistleblower did was also remind us that we are not alone, and that they have not captured everyone. It means there are still people inside these institutions who remember who they work for and what their oath means. Most importantly, it means that when our moment comes, whatever that moment looks like for each of us, I believe enough of us will know exactly what to do. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.

Picture of the day: After avoiding berries nearly all summer because of food safety concerns, I finally found a truly local fruit stand. I’m happy to report that I paid nearly a car payment for them, but the strawberries alone were worth it. They tasted exactly the way I remember strawberries tasting, when a neighbor down the street grew them in his garden and shared them with us kids.

He was a very kind older gentleman who had lost his wife the winter before and decided to carry on with her annual garden that following summer. It was his first time gardening, and with his wife gone and no family around, it was just him at home. One day he saw my friends and me walking by and told us to ask our parents if we could bring home some fresh fruits and vegetables from his garden. Our parents gave permission, and nearly every day that summer, there would be huge bags filled with fresh produce waiting for us.

Toward the end of the summer, he even started baking his wife’s famous cookies for us, and we would sit on his front porch and eat them with him. He was gone before the next summer, reunited with his wife, but none of us ever forgot him.

Anyway, the berries were delicious. I didn’t mean to get this nostalgic over a carton of strawberries. I guess for a few minutes they reminded me of being eight years old, of a lonely man who found a reason to keep his wife’s garden growing, and of a time when neighbors looked out for each other simply because that was what neighbors did. I miss those slow days and that kind of community and kindness. Maybe I’m missing it a little more than usual right now.

Sources used in the writing of this post:

President Trump Meets with U.S. Travel Executives: YouTube Video
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/02/trump-travel-industry-world-cup-tourism-airlines-hotels.html
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/vegas-tourism-is-down-some-blame-trumps-tariffs-and-immigration-crackdown
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-strikes-strait-of-hormuz-larak-island/
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/09/02/von-der-leyen-russian-drone-incidents-in-europe-are-the-new-normal
https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/01/politics/usps-whistleblower-mail-ballot-rules-trump
https://www.notus.org/2026-election/whistleblower-secret-usps-plan-endanger-mail-in-ballots