At 12:56 this afternoon, the President of the United States walked out of the White House with a look of deep concern on his face and went directly to the reporters who had lined up to ask him questions about Ukraine and his troubled new press secretary. He looked at them and immediately made a 180-degree turn while he pointed away from them, and said, “So that’s one of the largest cranes anywhere in the world, brand new. And that’s lifting the beams up. And the beams are about record setting in size because it has to be a span with no column. If you look at the counterweights in the back, you’ll not find a bigger, more impressive piece of equipment than that one right there.”
He then paused so long it became uncomfortable and then said, “It’s one of the biggest, they call it a steel lifter. It lifts the biggest steel and that’s as big as it gets. That’s something, huh? Pretty good, right?” The press looked around, confused, not sure what he was saying or why.
He once again took a long pause before eventually saying, “Okay,” with a sort of sigh. The journalists didn’t skip a beat and instantly asked Donald Trump, “Why did you guys slow down Starlink or the StarShield for Ukraine?” His response came just as fast: “We didn’t do that at all. In fact, I don’t know where it is. I don’t even think it was slowed down.”
This is the story we are not letting Donald Trump sweep under the rug, no matter what else he does to distract us. Earlier this week, SpaceX’s Starshield system, the military-grade satellite network that Ukraine depends on for battlefield communications and missile defense, was throttled without warning during one of the largest Russian attacks of the war. Ukrainian lives were lost. What happened was not just a pivotal moment for the war itself. It was also one for how Donald Trump will be remembered until the end of time.
That’s why reporters asked Trump about it again. Not even a few minutes after his first nonanswer, he was ready to try out a different response: “Well, I don’t know. I know that I think it’s the same. I’m not sure that it ever came down, but I just checked it this morning. It wasn’t us.”
Then, a few minutes after that almost completely incoherent explanation, he gave a third version: “Well, I don’t know if it was anybody because it wasn’t me and I don’t think it was Elon. And from what I understand, it’s the same as it’s always been.”
He only spoke to the press for 20 minutes, and yet he was able to contradict himself three times. First, it didn’t happen. Then, he’s not sure it happened. Then, it wasn’t him or Elon, but maybe it wasn’t anybody. Donald Trump is the President of the United States and the Commander in Chief. He should know exactly what happened, and he should have a logical response to explain it. Donald Trump had neither. He didn’t know what version of the lie he was supposed to be telling because nobody had decided what the official lie was going to be, or they didn’t think they could trust him with the truth. Or worse, he isn’t actually involved in these kinds of decisions because he doesn’t want to be or because he is too impaired to know they are happening in the first place.
Nearly every day we see Donald Trump’s decisions actively advancing Russian interests while he intentionally snubs and puts in harm’s way an ally fighting for its survival. Donald Trump is not just soft on Russia; he is acting like a Russian Asset from inside the White House.
While Donald Trump was struggling to explain himself today, President Zelenskyy was answering questions of his own at a press conference in Brussels. Sky News reporter Alistair Bunkall asked Zelenskyy this: “President Trump is facing pretty difficult midterm elections, his personal popularity is very low, diesel prices in the US are very high, and the war that he started in the Middle East is not going the way he wants it. Do you think you are being treated as a scapegoat for his own problems?”
Zelenskyy paused and said nothing for what felt like minutes but was really just seconds. He stood at the podium, looked down, and then he looked up and smiled. Nearly everyone in the room started to laugh, and Zelenskyy finally spoke and said, “This is my answer,” and ended his entire press conference on that note.
I watched that moment live during a patchy night of sleep. And even though it was funny, and I did laugh, my heart sank afterward. Because if that had been any other country, or any other president, in any other situation, it would have just been a funny moment. A leader with a sense of humor, bringing a little levity to something very serious, reminding us that sometimes humor is what gets us through the worst of times. But that’s not what this was at all. This was the president of a country that has been under attack for years, whose people have been scattered across the world, and where 600,000 people had just lost their electricity with the cold winter months approaching. And there he was, standing at a podium, smiling through a question about whether the United States, the country that is supposed to be his ally, was using him as a political prop. I kept thinking about what it must feel like to stand there and be asked that question about a country you are supposed to be able to count on. And the fact that the question even needed to be asked, and that his silence seemed more honest than anything our own president had said all day, was heartbreaking.
I’ve been thinking about that moment, and what it really means all day. How devastating and shameful it is to live in a country that is actively aiding the aggressor while the country being invaded is left to answer questions about whether it’s being scapegoated by its supposed ally. And I keep returning to something that has been sitting with me for a long time, something I think a lot of Americans are also grappling with.
I remember when I first learned about the Holocaust, the rise of Hitler, the concentration camps, and the scale of the atrocities, and thinking that a madman had essentially carried out a military takeover of Germany. That the German people were victims, too. That most of them wanted nothing to do with what was happening and were as horrified as anyone. I didn’t spend much time thinking about the ordinary people who carried out the orders, or the neighbors who turned in people they knew or looked the other way as they were dragged off. I certainly didn’t think about the millions who benefited from staying silent. There were also many who resisted and paid the ultimate price for it. And of course, there was so much more to what happened than I understood at the time. But as a child, it all seemed so simple. Why didn’t they all just say no? Why didn’t they stand together and refuse? There were so many of them. How could so few people hold so many hostage?
What I never imagined was that I would spend years of my adult life living inside that question. Because now I understand something I couldn’t as a child. It’s more nuanced than that. Sometimes they are afraid, or they truly believe nothing they could do would make a difference. Or they look around and think they are the only ones who see what is happening and they are simply waiting for someone else to go first. And the longer that goes on, the harder it becomes to speak up, because what once seemed unthinkable starts to feel normal.
That’s where America is. There are people who love the cruelty and corruption, who are benefiting from it or think that they are. Then there are people who care deeply but feel powerless to do anything about it. And in between are millions of Americans who know something is terribly wrong, who are angry and frightened by what they see happening, but don’t know what to do or where to begin. They want things to change, but they’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and trying to survive their own lives. They’re waiting for someone to show them what they can do that will actually make a difference. That’s the gray zone, and that’s where so many of us are right now.
Tomorrow is the next No Kings rally, focused entirely on voting. It is being held to remind us all that we have one powerful tool that we can still use to change the direction of this country before it’s too late. This is our time to take the lessons we have learned from other dark times in history and not waste an opportunity to stop what is happening. Hopefully it will also remind us all that we are not alone. That others see what is happening and share the same concerns and fears.
If you are wondering if they are even worth showing up for, yes. 100% yes. Because our resistance is working, and we are seeing signs of it every single day. After much pressure and public embarrassment, today, Katie Zacharia became one of the shortest-serving White House press secretaries in American history, lasting only five days. She was named to the position last Friday, gave her first and only disastrous press briefing on Tuesday, and by today she was gone. Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s White House communications director during his first term and whose name became a way of describing someone who didn’t last long in a political appointment, lasted only 11 days. Zacharia beat his record by six days. Scaramucci himself posted on X today: “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”
She failed for a multitude of reasons, one of which was that what she presented about herself wasn’t exactly the truth. When her law credentials were looked up in a public database, it was found that Katie Zacharia, who had called herself a lawyer on Instagram, in press releases, and in professional bios for years, was not licensed to practice law in any state. She graduated from Pepperdine Law and claimed she practiced law in China, but legal experts told NBC News that only Chinese citizens can sit for the Chinese bar exam. A senior administration official confirmed she never passed the California bar.
That was it, and her entire credibility started to unravel. Trump tried to frame it as media cruelty, which is an odd way of saying being caught misrepresenting your qualifications, but the damage had already been done. He told reporters today, “I said, Katie, is this for you? Because you know she’s been treated very rough.” He told her, “Welcome to the world of Trump.” But the world of Trump is a world where nobody checks anything before they put someone behind the podium. It’s a world built entirely on loyalty, and where competence in the job doesn’t matter. Where credentials and the truth don’t matter either until someone outside the Trump regime bothers to verify it, and when they do, the whole thing falls apart quickly.
The Trump presidency is in a crisis. Donald Trump couldn’t keep his lies straight about Ukraine and he couldn’t even keep a press secretary for a week. That tells us how fragile all of this really is. That is our opening growing bigger. We have some very important weeks ahead of us. Tomorrow we take to the streets and remind Donald Trump and his enablers what is coming and we remind each other that we are here, we are seeing the same thing, that our country is under attack from within and that we are done with this chaos and cruelty. We send a message to those outside the states that there are more of us than the red hat cult and that we are taking back our country. And then on Nov 3, or sooner if we can vote early, we send the biggest message yet. We send the Trump sympathizers in Congress packing and we take back our power. We are going to show the world that the American people have not given up on our country and that we never will. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
PS. You can make a significant difference right now by subscribing to my Substack. Your support helps me cover more ground and keep telling the truth about the lies and destruction unfolding in this country.
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: This picture was taken in 1999, right after Pete and I got engaged. Today we are celebrating our 27th anniversary. While we were spending the day celebrating, we were asked how many years we have been married, and then we were asked what the secret was to staying married that long. It caught me off guard because we don’t feel old enough to have been married long enough to have some sort of magic secret to share. But I knew I had to give some sort of reply, so I just said, “Marry someone you actually like.” I know those were not the words of wisdom they were looking for, but it was the first thing that came to mind. After thinking about it more, I still think that was the right answer, but there’s more to it than that.
Now I know compared to so many, our marriage is still in its infancy, with many couples having been married for many more years than us. But I think if I had had more time to think about it, I would have said marry someone who you can go to with a wild idea of taking on the federal government every night, even at grave risk to your safety and your family’s, to do your part to make sure the world is inhabitable for future generations, who won’t even bat an eye and instead will jump up and say, “How can I help?” Happy anniversary, Pete! Here’s to many more.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 16, 2026: YouTube Video
https://abcnews.com/video/137254313/
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/politics/katie-zacharia/6I4BM34C5Q4SBFT5ZOSCMVUYNQ/
https://www.wpxi.com/news/politics/questions-swirl/6WDG3IFMM46FPFCHDIHV45AMLM/
https://kyivpost.com/post/87041
https://newrepublic.com/post/216645/elon-musk-trump-starlink-blunder
https://www.aol.com/articles/katie-zacharia-leaves-dhs-weeks-143101579.html
https://www.foxcarolina.com/2026/10/15/no-kings-rallies-return-upstate-ahead-early-voting/
Please get rid of this evil man and find proper support for Ukraine.
They have been so brave and Putin is so evil. He is literally allowing his own people to be slaughtered so he can prove how strong he is in his determination to bring Ukraine to heel.
Thank god for President Zelensky probably the bravest man on earth at the moment not least he is standing up to Trump, whose entire cohort are allowing USA to cosy up to a vile dictatorship.
This latest cancelling of sanctions is disgusting.
Good luck with the no kings wish I could be there too.
What Trump is doing to Ukraine exceeds such historic betrayals as the Munich Agreement .
Appeasement then could be argued about; supporting Putin's bloodbath today is criminal beyond words.
Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier were cowardly and stupid. Trump is all that and murderously evil.
The threat to the U.S. from Stalin-adoring Putin is not real (to Europe, yes), so there is nothing to appease. Instead of the real fears in the 1930s from the rearmed Germany, Trump joining Putin to destroy Ukraine is a matter of choice, greed, and serving a blackmailing master.