We live in a shared society. That’s just the way it is. As fun as it would be to run around like we’re in the Lord of the Flies, that’s just not realistic when you live among 342 million people. We need civility, not chaos.

Is it perfect? Of course not, and I’ve made that clear. In fact, I just wrote 1,500 pages worth of ways I think it can be better. But, without a doubt we have a lot to work with.

Take our intelligence agencies, for example. I recognize that these agencies have made some serious misjudgments in the past. However, Abraham Lincoln said it best: “Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; as bad and good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged.” 

​            Our national intelligence agencies are the most elite in the world. The players are not perfect – no organization made up of humans is – but our intelligence community is filled with committed patriots who sacrifice so much to keep this country safe. I have the utmost trust, respect and appreciation for each of these agencies, and every single one of us owes these men and women an enormous debt of gratitude.

Every one of them is also what Donald Trump and his cabal call the “Deep State,” a highly insulting and sinister scheme that has gotten completely out of control. Their hateful rhetoric needs to stop, and we all need to start appreciating lifelong federal employees for what they truly are: extraordinary Americans doing nothing more or less than the grinding, behind-the-scenes work of the American people. These hard-working Americans don’t deserve to be ridiculed and disrespected by rich guys trying to consolidate power.

The U.S. government employs over 3 million civilians who work in hundreds of agencies. Around 4,000 of these are political appointees while the rest are nonpartisan people hired to do the tedious and often boring work of the government. Who does Donald, Elon, Steve and the rest of the bomb-throwers think make sure our drinking water is safe? Who do they think tracks extreme weather? Who do they think calculates the Consumer Price Index? Who do they think cleans our parks or handles our air traffic control systems? Who do they think designs our spaceships and nuclear bombs?

All the Donalds, Elons, and Steves of the world are trying to do – for nothing more than to highjack more power and control – is weaken the American people’s faith in our institutions… institutions that are remarkably strong.

We need to look no further than when Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election to know that our institutions are resilient and virtually irrepressible. With every single shenanigan he tried to pull – and there were many – our institutions held as designed every time, thank God.

Before Democrats get too high and mighty, your side does this too. On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled on Trump v. United States, a case in which Donald Trump claimed he could not be prosecuted for his official acts as president, and that a former president cannot be prosecuted unless he has first been impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. The specific question before the Court was: Does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office, and if so, to what extent?

In a 6-3 decision, split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents are entitled to “presumptive immunity” from prosecution for all “official” acts, but not for “unofficial” ones. The high court left it in the hands of the lower court to decide whether Trump was acting “officially” or “unofficially” when he challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election.

… which is exactly how they should have ruled. Well. Needless to say, Democrats went berserk, saying that the Supreme Court must be in Trump’s “pocket” because they essentially made him “a king.” In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor even went as far as to write that the ruling reinvented post-presidential immunity “through brute force,” and that it “makes a mockery of the principle” that “no man is above the law.”

That is utterly ridiculous. That IS NOT what the Court did in the least. I agree with Chief Justice Roberts that Justice Sotomayor’s words “strike a tone of chilling doom that is wholly disproportionate to what the court actually” did.

It seems Democrats believe the Supreme Court should have ruled on whether Donald’s actions in the case were “official” or “unofficial” acts, which wasn’t the question before them.

Let’s get real. Democrats were just mad that Trump’s attorneys were able to delay his trial until after the 2024 election, meaning they were mad that the Supreme Court didn’t play better politics – WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY SAY REPUBLICANS DO! They were outmaneuvered and it infuriated them. So, what do they do? They start disparaging the Supreme Court, which undermines our institutions and cause people to lose trust in our system – WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ACCUSE REPUBLICANS OF DOING!  Everyone needs to check themselves.

One final word, this time about the media. It’s hard to overstate my respect and gratitude for the Fourth Estate. A free press is everything. I believe media, well done, significantly contributes to the health of our democracy and, without high-level journalism, democracy’s very survival would be at risk.

That’s why it is imperative that news coverage be 1000% neutral, with the goal of nothing beyond presenting raw, vetted facts. The reader must then be trusted to make an independent, informed decision based on facts and facts alone.

Unfortunately, this has been tested big time since Donald Trump came down that escalator in Trump Tower. From the beginning, many journalists have fallen right into his trap, chasing every distraction he throws down and giving him the oxygen he so desperately craves.

During his first term, some in the media seemed to calculate that, since Donald Trump was such a “danger” to this country, they had the responsibility to fight back with anything and everything they have at their disposal – even if it meant sacrificing a few basic journalism rules here and there. Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

            Wrong. That’s nothing more than misguided justification. Two wrongs do not make a right. Listen, I get it. American journalists are asked to achieve one of the trickiest balancing acts in the world, especially during a time when the U.S. president calls them “fake news” and “the enemy of the state;” threatens to throw them in jail; and actively tells his followers on television, social media, and in person at political rallies to attack them mentally and physically.

            President Trump has now barred the Associated Press and Reuters from the White House while inviting in a correspondent from Russian state media and MAGA-friendly podcasters and correspondents, including one from One America News – who told Trump that foreign leaders had “praised” his “courage and conviction” and asked him what gave him “the moral courage” to start talks with Putin about Ukraine – and one from Real America’s Voice, who also happens to be the boyfriend of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and was the guy who accused Volodymyr Zelensky of “not respecting the office,” and asked him: “Why don’t you wear a suit?” during that despicable Oval Office meeting.

            … and it’s not like Donald Trump & Co. are trying to keep their propaganda strategy a secret. A deputy assistant to the president who runs his digital team said that, when it comes to critics, the goal is not to “reframe the narrative” but to completely drown them out, providing “pushback in the harshest, most forceful way possible.” White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X that their goal is “FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE.”

It’s hard to imagine how frustrating this all is to actual journalists and reporters. They are only human, after all. They are also Americans who have a deep love for our country, just as we all do. It would be exceedingly naïve to believe that humans can switch off their opinions and world views every time their hands hit a keyboard or camera lights come on.

So, here’s a pep talk to all the journalists and reporters out there: Thank you for all your hard work and dedication! And please don’t let the lines get blurry because we need you, badly.