Trump Jan. 6 Pardons Are an Act of War Against America

The Pardons Are a Hill Democrats Should Choose to Make Their Stand

I was a fresh-faced college graduate when my late friend, newspaper publisher Norm Kent, taught me the truest of maxims: “The greatest indication of future behavior is past behavior.”

Donald Trump’s first week as president didn’t disappoint, offering an avalanche of awful. His flurry of executive orders and outlandish statements has already diminished the United States’ global credibility and demeaned the rule of law at home.

While it’s difficult to catalogue Trump’s endless parade of perversities, one malodorous stench towers above the rest. The president’s comprehensive grant of clemency to approximately 1,600 goons charged in the Jan. 6 ransacking of the Capitol crosses a red line.

We can’t sugarcoat the sickness of this monstrosity and how it has already damaged the fabric of American democracy. Trump pardoned violent thugs who tried to stage a deadly coup on his behalf. These wicked traitors didn’t like the outcome of the 2020 election, so they arrogantly decided to use extreme measures to steal our right to vote.

This is an outrage beyond words. It is a direct attack on law and order and our justice system. The GOP, which fakes loving police when it’s politically convenient, spit in the face of the blue. The president and his apparatchiks heedlessly dumped hardened, unrepentant criminals into our vulnerable communities. Yet, Republicans like to cosplay how tough they are on crime.

Trump’s indefensible action is nothing short of a full-blown act of war against the U.S. Constitution, democracy, truth and the American people. These emboldened hooligans feel immune from consequences and free to serve as partisan enforcers. After all, if they intimidate or attack Trump’s foes, they believe they possess a get-out-of-jail-free card. They are probably correct in their insidious assumptions.

Trump justified releasing these hoodlums from prison, which included vicious leaders from the Proud Boys gang and Oath Keepers militia, by falsely portraying them as victims.

“They’ve already been in jail for a long time,” Trump said. “These people have been destroyed.”

No, their violence against America destroyed innocent lives and these criminals were suffering the consequences of their brutal and unpatriotic actions. At least that’s the way American jurisprudence worked until this week.

Trump’s pardons were reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s move on March 21, 1933, when the new German chancellor signed an Article 48 decree which issued amnesty for National Socialists convicted of crimes, including murder committed “in the battle for national renewal.” A fantastic piece in The Atlantic framed it as, “men convicted of treason were now national heroes.”

It's always fraught to compare leaders to Hitler, with The Fuhrer taking his homicidal rampage to the ultimate extremes. It’s more productive to eliminate Hitler the man and compare current events to a Hitler Process. There were a series of steps the German leader took in his rise to power and actions he took to entrench his all-powerful reign.

It’s certainly not comforting that Trump’s late wife Ivana revealed that Trump used to keep Hitler speeches by his bedside. Perhaps, that is why he buried her on his tacky golf course in New Jersey?

Additionally, we know that Trump’s right-hand oligarch is Elon Musk. The world’s richest man grew up in apartheid South Africa and recently endorsed Alternative for Germany, a right-wing political movement with deep Nazi roots. While onstage during the inauguration festivities, Musk gave what appears to be a full-fledged Nazi salute.

Musk’s legion of supine bootlickers scrambled to justify the salute as an excited gesture from a socially awkward misfit. (Amazing how this never happened to Bill Gates) It’s also possible that his suit was too tight, causing his arm to spastically careen to the side. However, when one considers the full context, such as the political parties Musk supports and his X social media site becoming a hotspot for networking Nazi’s, it’s unclear whether Musk deserves the benefit of the doubt. One NBC headline best summarizes his malign influence at X: “Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk.”

To reiterate, so there is no distortion of my position, Trump is NOT Adolph Hitler. Albeit Trump seems to be following the Hitler Process and reading from his playbook. For example, the new president, on his revenge tour, signed an executive order that removed security clearances from 50 former senior national security officials.

This unwise and aggressive action included ending Secret Service protections for John Bolton, his former National Security Advisor. I’m no fan of Bolton, but it is unconscionable for Trump to leave him vulnerable while Bolton is still in the crosshairs of Iranian assassins. If anything happens to Bolton or the other 50 former officials, Trump will have blood on his hands and should be impeached. (Of course, we know the GOP lemmings in Congress won’t dare cross Trump)

A person who once compared Trump to Hitler is our new Vice President JD Vance. Prior to Trump’s insane Jan 6 decree, a Fox News host asked Vance, “Where is the line drawn, who would and wouldn’t be considered for a pardon. Vance replied, “I think it’s very simple. Look, if you protested peacefully on January 6, and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

If this is “obvious” to epic brown-noser Vance, it should be equally apparent to Democrats. They must take a principled, provocative stand against these despicable pardons. They cannot meekly express “disappointment” or “concern” about an issue that has the potential to convulse the republic.

What happens the first time one of these pardoned thugs seeks revenge, maiming or murdering one of Trump’s foes? Trump imprudently went down a dangerous road that could lead to an all-out Civil War. When one partisan faction enables violence as a viable political tool, it usually doesn’t end well for that country. Tragically, this fragile, precarious place is where our nation resides after Trump’s first putrid week in the Oval Office.

The Democrats must not allow the January 6 pardons to be a passing fancy—just one more alarming story to scroll past on our social media feeds. (Click angry emoji face if you disagree with freed insurrectionists and thumbs up if you agree. Free Speech!)

If Democrats had any sense, they would band together and walk out of Congress for a month. They would unapologetically flex their muscles by shutting down Washington and unsparingly attack Republicans over their support, or silence, for the unamerican pardons.

The Democrats should laser-target traditional Republican strengths and turn them into crippling weaknesses: Patriotism, rule of law, tough on crime, support for the police. If allowing violent, unpatriotic traitors to go free and roam our neighborhoods doesn’t occasion throwing down the gauntlet, what does?

At least Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) seems to understand the gravity of the Trump regime. “We are on the eve of an authoritarian administration,” she said. “This is what 21st century fascism is starting to look like.”

The writing is on the wall for what comes next. The president is prepared to degrade the military to support his ethnic expulsion that is euphemistically called “immigration reform.” He is poised to violate the U.S. Constitution by attempting to end birthright citizenship.

He signed a noxious Executive Order designed to expunge transgender people from public life. My organization, Truth Wins Out, cross referenced the EO with Project 2025 and discovered that large sections were identical. How peculiar, considering Trump feigned ignorance of this totalitarian document during his campaign, even though 140 people who previously worked for him were intimately involved.

In the future, Trump will likely deploy the military against peaceful protesters, passing down orders to the probable, soon-to-be confirmed, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who is a drunken, predatory “yes-man”.

It's fascinating that today Trump purged DEI officials [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] across the government in his alleged efforts to increase merit-based hires in lieu of minorities. Yet, Hegseth is manifestly unqualified to run the Pentagon and has a past so sketchy that even his own mother expressed reservations about his integrity and treatment of women. This morning, Hegseth’s sister in law’s affidavit was released detailing shocking allegations of abuse against his ex-wife. NBC News reported:

Danielle Hegseth describes in the affidavit allegations of volatile and threatening conduct by Hegseth that made his second wife, Samantha Hegseth, fear for her safety. Among the allegations are that Samantha hid in a closet once from Hegseth, that she developed escape plans for use “if she felt she needed to get away from Hegseth” that would be activated with a code word and that she did once put the escape plans into action.

“I personally observed of Hegseth’s erratic and aggressive behavior over many years. I believe Hegseth has an alcohol abuse problem and was abusive to his ex-wife Samantha, as I understand those terms as a lay person."

Aside from Hegseth (who denied the latest claim, like the previous ones) Trump’s other hand-picked instrument of interrogation is professional online troll and embattled FBI nominee Kash Patel. On the very day Trump dumped DEI, we learned that Patel is a hypocrite who adroitly leveraged his Indian ethnicity to shamelessly slither up the career ladder. The New York Times reports:

One of the most intriguing lines is his [Patel’s] reference to participating in the American Bar Association’s Judicial Intern Opportunity Program, a diversity initiative, while a student at Pace University’s law school in 2003.

The program, a summer internship with judges in 12 cities around the country, “provides opportunities to students who are members of groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the profession, including students from minority racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, veterans, students who are economically disadvantaged, students who identify as LGBTQ+, women and others,” according to the bar association’s website.

“It is also an opportunity to make an impact on the diversity and inclusion pipeline and give back to the legal community,” the program’s directors wrote.

If it weren’t for DEI, instead of a nomination for FBI director, Kash might be a low rent lawyer for a cash and carry store. It’s outrageous that he would cynically join an administration hellbent on erasing opportunities that he fully embraced.

We also learned that Patel is a new $20,000 per-year member of the Poodle Room, a high-end rooftop club at the Fontainebleau Hotel. This will come in handy for training to be Trump’s lapdog and abusing his position to pursue the president’s political opponents.

If there was any hope that Trump 2.0 might not be a disaster, those misguided fantasies have already shattered into a million shards and been unceremoniously swept into the sewer. Trump crossed the Rubicon with his ignominious January 6 pardons and there is no turning back. We are in for a brutal battle for the soul of our nation and hope for near-term national harmony will prove illusory.