At 1:04 this afternoon, Donald Trump landed in Arizona aboard Qatari Air Force One. By 1:22, he was surrounded by bulletproof glass, preparing to tell the crowd that his followers would be okay if he murdered someone, that he “aced” his latest cognitive exam, that Canada will “end up being the 51st state because it’s the only way it works,” and that he thought leakers and, by extension, reporters should be shot. That was just the beginning of the President’s very disturbing day and another painful reminder that everything the Presidency of the United States of America used to stand for is completely gone.
There was a time when hearing a President of the United States say even one of those things would have stopped us all in our tracks. But we have now become so accustomed to hearing things like this from Donald Trump that we have almost forgotten how shocking they really are, and how there was once a time in our history when no president would have dared to say the outlandish things he says so often. Because there was still dignity in the office. It was held by men who were imperfect but still understood that the presidency was bigger than themselves and that holding it came with responsibilities far greater than their own interests.
Maybe the most disturbing part of what is happening, and what I struggle with the most whenever he is speaking, is how familiar it all feels. Like how the President of the United States stood there in Arizona today talking about sovereign nations as though they were his for the taking. Threatening Canada is just something he does now. Today was no different when he told the crowd that there was no other option than Canada joining the United States. Then he turned to Greenland, which he said was “owned” by Denmark, but suggested it belonged on America’s growing list of acquisitions with this odd thought: “But it just adds to our beautiful plate. Our plate is getting larger all the time.” And then he added, “How about Venezuela?”
That wasn’t even the worst of what he would go on to say. He also brought up a military operation against Iran, describing how B-2 bombers were sent in the middle of the night and how someone had leaked their departure time to the press. He made his thoughts very clear on the people he thought shared this information, saying, “Leakers should be shot… In the old days, we used to shoot leakers.” He called them “the scum of the earth.” Moments later, he turned his attention to the reporters at the event, pointed right at them, and said they are “almost as bad as a leaker because they leak false information. That makes them a leaker, right?” The crowd looked around awkwardly, understanding exactly what he was saying. The President of the United States had just said that leakers should be shot, and then he said the press were leakers.
Not too long ago, if a President of the United States even suggested that journalists should be harmed, they would have faced immediate consequences because freedom of the press is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. In the past, something like this would have prompted immediate hearings and investigations. Congress would be demanding answers and the country would be outraged if the President of the United States started suggesting that reporters deserve to be shot simply for doing their jobs. But because this has become a near-daily occurrence, it will likely be forgotten or pushed aside by something just as sinister that he will say tomorrow.
He also brought up the idea of serving a third term once again, encouraging the crowd to chant “four more years.” He told them, “I’d love to,” and he then turned to the senators in the audience and started talking about the Twenty-Second Amendment, which limits presidents to two elected terms. “We have a clause,” he said. “It says you will, under no circumstances, be allowed, this is for anybody that’s served two terms, be allowed to run under any condition for president of the United States after two terms. Now, usually there’s a little wiggle room. Steve, we’ve looked. Tim, what do you think? You see any wiggle?” He sounded defeated but promised that before he left they would all “be happy,” teasing that he and his enablers would be “doing things that nobody’s ever seen before.”
While he hinted at big plans to come, he didn’t mention the devastating attack Russia launched just last night, or the role his administration is reported to have played in restricting the communications systems Ukraine depended on to defend itself. Russia launched at least 39 missiles and 128 drones at Ukrainian cities. It was one of the heaviest attacks in months, with at least 9 people killed, and more than 600,000 people now left without power right before the cold months start. In the middle of Ukrainians trying to defend themselves, the Starlink systems that they use for communications and that their interceptor drones depend on were blocked.
This happened around 1 a.m., forcing Ukraine to disrupt missions of their interceptor drones because the satellite network they depend on needed Starlink. When Volodymyr Zelensky was asked during an interview today whether he had been betrayed by Donald Trump, he said, “I am sure they knew what they did, absolutely.”
Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX operates Starlink and its military version, Starshield, posted on X to explain who controls the military system. “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he wrote. He didn’t mince words. According to Musk, decisions about restricting Starshield are ultimately in the hands of the United States government and President Donald Trump, not him. That means, as Ukrainian forces were struggling to defend their country last night against another wave of Russian attacks, their access to a system they desperately needed had been restricted by the president, who once again showed his loyalty to the aggressor, Donald Trump’s dictator friend, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
For those of us who care about our country and the world, we can see what just happened, and we have watched this building for years now. The White House has fallen. We are now either under the control of Russia or, at the very least, aligning ourselves with them as something resembling partners. And Donald Trump isn’t even trying to hide it. He is doing it right out in the open. But the danger goes far beyond what happened last night, because so many Americans who are not as invested in politics have no idea what is happening, and the outrage that something like this should cause isn’t at the level that it deserves. It is being covered by news organizations outside our country, but here in the United States it should be on the cover story of all programs, but it’s not. So those of us who know what is happening are left watching another deeply troubling development get chalked up to just one more bad thing this president has done, while millions of others have no idea just how far he has gone to carry out Vladimir Putin’s dirty work.
Our past presidents would not recognize this country. They would be shocked and horrified at how far we have fallen and that we are now being led by a convicted felon as our president. There was a time when the President of the United States was the person everyone looked to when the worst was happening, and they were expected to rise to the occasion and lead. Franklin Roosevelt did not hold rallies while the world burned, and he certainly wasn’t the one setting the fires in the first place.
There are stories of him on December 7, 1941, when he learned that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, and how he responded with calm determination in that moment. How just two days after the attack, he was able to speak directly to the American people with such composure and reassurance, telling them that the war would be long and difficult, and that there would be sacrifices. He did not pretend that the danger wasn’t real or that he could simply make it disappear. He understood that the lives of millions of people, both here and around the world, depended on the decisions he was making. Roosevelt was far from perfect, but when the country was facing one of the darkest moments in its history, he understood that being President of the United States meant carrying responsibilities that were much bigger than himself. And here we are today, watching Donald Trump side with evil and bring the world instability and nonstop chaos. His presidency is a disgrace to all past presidents who ever took the oath of office with dignity and a sense of duty.
Over 80 years after the end of the last world war, we have forgotten just how enormous the responsibility of being President of the United States really is. We used to take that responsibility for granted. We used to assume that whoever sat in the Oval Office, regardless of party, would at bare minimum understand and carry out the responsibilities expected of them. We used to assume that when bombs were falling on a country that depended on technology we control for its survival, the president would be doing everything in his power to help defend it. We did not assume he would be the one who sided with a dictator and helped an aggressor destroy our ally.
This isn’t even on Donald Trump. He has never hidden who or what he is. A failed human being and a terrible leader. Donald Trump did not break the presidency; he just revealed how little we were protecting it. He showed us that the office of the presidency had become, in the minds of too many Americans, something closer to a cult of personality than the sacred trust it is.
This is on every member of Congress who has enabled and defended him, abdicating their responsibility to their constituents and the Constitution. This is on the Supreme Court for its decision granting presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. And this is on members of our communities who have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by this corrupt man and dragged onto the wrong side of history. At some point, we have to stop pretending that everyone still siding with him doesn’t know what he is doing to our country, or that none of them have decided they like the cruelty and division. And that moment is now. There is too much on the line to keep making excuses. But that also doesn’t mean they aren’t welcome if they ever decide to leave.
Today, watching him go on for hours, I just kept thinking about what happens if we keep going like this. I worry about what happens if this becomes the permanent baseline of what a president is. That this is just how presidents talk and act. What happens to a civilization when a generation of children who have been subjected to Donald Trump for over a decade grow up believing that this is what a president is? That a president is someone who talks about shooting journalists and shows loyalty to anti-democratic governments. Someone who openly talks about his imperialistic dreams of conquering sovereign nations as though they are his for the taking. What happens if we don’t get enough people to show up during the midterm elections to begin putting a stop to this destruction of everything the presidency was supposed to stand for?
Maybe the greatest danger we face is not what Donald Trump does next. Maybe it is that the next generations will not know there was ever anything different. That they will think that this is just who we are now. Thankfully, we are not going to let this happen. At almost every public event the president has been at these past couple of weeks, people have stood up, in a sea of what must have felt like enemy territory, and made their opposition known. At great risk to their physical safety and personal well-being, they looked at this moment and said, not on my watch. They did what they could to resist. Not all of us are able to take that kind of action or in a position to take those same risks, but we all have one thing we can do to have our voices heard as well. We can vote. That is how we take back our country from a group of people in power who have caused so much pain and division. We are going to turn out at the polls in numbers this country has never seen before. We are the ones who are going to make it too big to rig. We are going to make sure that future generations know that when our country needed us most, we didn’t look away. We stood up together and did something about it. 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: The ICE raids are as bad as you can imagine they are here in Southern California. I just saw a post showing people being kidnapped just a few minutes from my house, a block away from our old house, and everywhere in between. I was talking to someone earlier today about how fearful we all are for people in our community because those with dark skin are being stopped and forced to comply with the demands of people who are not identifying themselves and are wearing masks to conceal their faces. U.S. citizens are so far being released, but I fear this is all a test of what is to come.
We also talked about the last time we felt truly safe, and I realized it was almost two years ago, before the 2024 election. Then I remembered the moment I took this picture, during the summer of 2025, on Canada Day in Victoria, B.C., and being so thankful to be able to get away from the States for a bit, and how I felt a bit of safety then too. I remember that moment and thinking back then about the summer before, when I was standing in this same spot looking forward to the 2024 election and finally being rid of Donald Trump. Heather in 2024 had no idea what was to come and was so hopeful for the future. Heather in 2025, if you look closely, had pain in her eyes for what had already happened and for what she knew was coming. I was so happy to be with my oldest in that moment and also so sad for the world she was having to live in back at home.
This past summer was the first time we haven’t gone up to Canada since COVID, but there was just too much work to do back at home ahead of the midterms, so we decided not to go. To my Canadian friends and to everyone outside the U.S. reading this, please keep the faith. We are pushing through this authoritarian takeover. We will keep working to reclaim Congress through our votes, and we will work for however long it takes to get to the other side of this and somehow mend the damage we have caused. We won’t stop until we do. And no, you will never be the 51st state.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
PBS NewsHour Trump speaks at rally along Arizona-Nevada border: YouTube Video
https://kyivindependent.com/zelensky-says-he-feels-betrayed-over-trump-russia-deal/
https://thehill.com/homenews/6149366-trump-rally-leakers-shot/
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/texas/news/pentagon-briefing-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites
From Australia.
At 78 now, I still appreciate historical articles and stories of men and women who were spies or resistance fighters during wars fought in other countries. I've realized, with horror, that No Kings rallies, aiding our neighbors in resisting ICE attrocities (and they are atrocities) many of us are joining those resistance fighters. Words and actions and refusing to be silenced are our arms and ammunition.
I used to be proud of our country and what it stood for. Trump and his worshipers have dragged us into the sewers. They need to be ousted. VOTE. I will be doing so today. I see Trump, his Cabinet and Musk as the new enemies of our democracy. Vote them gone.