Is there a white nationalist in the White House?

Over the weekend, Turning Point USA held its annual AmericaFest in Arizona. Among the speakers was Vice President J.D. Vance, who took the stage and declared, in front of thousands of cheering supporters, “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.” I’ve been thinking about that line ever since. At first, I didn’t want to write about it. I didn’t want to give it more oxygen. But it’s not just a line. It’s a signal, a signal from one of the highest offices in the land that racism no longer needs to be hidden. That it can now be worn openly and proudly. Because that statement wasn’t really about whiteness. What he was saying, clearly, and deliberately, is that you don’t have to apologize for being racist anymore. That in this version of America, bigotry is not just tolerated, it’s validated. He was giving permission. He was saying the quiet part out loud.

And he didn’t stop there. To drive the point home, Vance went on to personally attack Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a Black American lawyer and sitting member of Congress currently running for Senate in Texas. He mocked her as having a “street girl persona” and said it “was about as real as her nails.” Crockett later responded in a post on X, writing: “Imagine commenting on someone’s nails while at the same time ignoring that the only reason you got your political ‘dream’ job was because your boss incited a violent mob who wanted to hang your predecessor for oh, I don’t know, honoring his oath to the Constitution?! How about you stop worrying about me, until we are on the Senate floor together & work to stop your boss from bankrupting our country while engaging in the largest corruption scheme we’ve ever seen?!”

And it wasn’t the only moment like that at AmericaFest. Another speaker blamed Charlie Kirk’s murder on transgender people. Others spread lies about immigration, crime, and the economy. What this event made painfully clear is that the MAGA movement has stopped trying to hide its intentions. They are not trying to win over the middle. They are trying to radicalize the base. And they’re doing it through victimhood, through telling mostly young, mostly white attendees that the country has been stolen from them, and that their suffering is someone else’s fault.

The crowd at AmericaFest isn’t made up of cartoon villains. Most of them are people who are struggling. They’re young, uncertain, and angry. And for many of them, the America they were promised, one where hard work was enough, where identity was unchallenged, where they could grow up and thrive, doesn’t exist. They are coming of age in a country that is lonelier, more unequal, and more unstable than the one their parents grew up in. And that creates a void. The kind of void that history tells us always gets filled by opportunists. Turning Point USA exists to capitalize on that gap. They don’t host these events because they believe in civic engagement. They host them because they make money. Their leaders profit off of grievance. They sell hats, books, and subscriptions to an ideology that keeps its followers angry, afraid, and ready to blame someone else for every disappointment. There’s a whole industry built around this: media empires, speaking tours, consulting contracts, and propaganda merch that can turn any political moment into a revenue stream.

I’ve said this before, and I feel this even more after watching AmericaFest. If I were in this for the money, I’d be a MAGA writer. That side is predictable, profitable, and easy to manipulate. There is big money in convincing people that they are the victims of a world gone soft. That men are under attack, that white people are being erased, that Christianity is in danger, and that America is being stolen by immigrants. They are using emotion as a weapon, and it works.

Meanwhile, people writing and organizing on the pro-democracy side are largely one-person “teams,” dependent on readers like you to contribute $5 a month so we can dedicate our days to research and truth-telling. There’s no billionaire-funded machine behind us. No festival stage. Many of us are writing out of pocket, trying to keep people informed while the mainstream media looks away. We’re trying to do more with less. And heading into the midterms, that imbalance is one of the most dangerous parts of all this, because it’s not about the truth or who tells the better story. It’s about who can afford to tell it louder and reach more people.

And maybe that is my biggest fear going into the new year, as we get closer to the midterm elections. Will the candidates have enough money to make this an equal playing field? And how many independent voices will be able to hold on, let alone compete to be seen, against those being paid by MAGA donors to spread hate and propaganda?

But let’s come back to what J.D. Vance said, “you don’t have to apologize for being white.” It’s a line designed to provoke. It’s also a lie. No one is apologizing for being white. I’m white. I’ve never apologized for that. I’ve apologized for the behavior of other white people who have been racist, violent, or hateful, but not for my skin color. And I don’t feel pride in it either. That’s not how identity works. Skin color is not an achievement. It’s not a culture. It’s not something you earned. It’s just what you were born with. What Vance meant, whether he’ll admit it or not, was something much darker. He was saying that in this version of America, you don’t have to apologize for racism anymore. You don’t have to hide it. You don’t have to pretend. You can say the quiet part out loud. Because they’re normalizing it, and worse, they’re selling it as patriotism.

At the same time this is happening, Donald Trump continues branding the government in his image. Not metaphorically. Literally. He is desperate for as many corners of America as possible to bear his likeness. That’s why he keeps saying he’s renaming buildings, departments, and now even warships. But he can’t actually do most of those without approval. So instead, he just plasters his name and face over the top of what already exists. He overlays rather than renames. And it doesn’t matter to his people, because the image is the most powerful part. They just need to see his name everywhere to believe the government belongs to him.

So far, he’s added his name to the Kennedy Center Building. He placed his portrait on the 2026 National Parks pass alongside George Washington. He’s hung massive banners with his face on government buildings in Washington. And the U.S. Treasury is now considering a commemorative $1 coin for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026 that would feature Donald Trump on both sides, one as a profile, the other raising a fist, with the words “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.” Federal law generally prohibits living people from appearing on U.S. currency, but that hasn’t stopped the concept from advancing. And just today, he stood at Mar-a-Lago during his Christmas vacation and announced a new class of Navy ships he’s calling the Trump Class “Golden Fleet… battleships,” with two to be built initially and a planned fleet of 25. It’s the latest and loudest example of Trump rebranding or remaking the federal government in his own image. This is authoritarian aesthetics and exactly what dictators do. You don’t need to study Hitler or Kim Jong-un or Putin to understand it; you just have to take a superficial look at their own actions. When one man’s name starts appearing on weapons, buildings, currency, and public passes, you are not living in a democracy. You are living in a cult of personality-led fascist government.

I know each day brings with it a new layer of exhaustion, outrage, or grief, and I acknowledge that. It’s not light reading, but it’s essential knowledge, no matter how heavy it feels.

And now, as we close out this year, I want us to take a small step back. Not away, just inward. I’ll still be here, bringing you the news, and sharing what’s happening. But for the next week, I want us to use this time to regroup in any way possible. Whether you’re religious or not, whether you celebrate this season or not, this is a time to pause, reflect, and remember what we’re fighting for.

Because come January 1, we go all in. I have some new tools and plans to share with you, things my husband has been kind enough to build behind the scenes, resources I hope will help make it easier for all of us to stay informed, stay connected, and stay ready for the challenge ahead. Because this is not just another election. This is the fight for whether democracy continues to exist without catastrophe forcing us to rebuild from ashes. And I’m here for it.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

P.S. If you’ve made it this far, chances are we see things the same way. You can help keep this work going by subscribing to my Substack; there’s a free option, or you can become a paid subscriber for just $5 a month. Paid subscriptions help me reach more people, cover more ground, and keep telling the truth about what’s happening to our country.