The dignity of Arlington stands in stark contrast to proposals that confuse remembrance with self-promotion.

As I have on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend for the last nine years, last Sunday, May 24, 2026, I went to Arlington Cemetery to visit my parents’ grave. I actually go to the cemetery fairly frequently; it’s a peaceful and inspiring place, and being there on days which honor military service makes me feel connected to service members, buried there or not, whose service to this country over the last 250 years helped keep the United States free, democratic, and welcoming to all.

I drove into the cemetery and to the gravesite, which is located in a section situated in the southern area of the cemetery. This section is an active burial ground and, per the Arlington National Cemetery’s website, is the primary and final resting place for many service members killed during the War on Terror (Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom) as well as recently identified or repatriated World War II veterans. It also must serve as the final resting place for service members wounded during World War II, Vietnam, and/or Korea, who lived another several decades, because that describes my dad and seems to be the story of several of the service members buried nearby.

The peace and connection I felt during my visits to Arlington have been, since 2018, clouded by hot white fury due to a man who called service members who died in wars “suckers and losers,” and was then re-elected to the presidency.

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Since Trump proposed the building of the “Arch,” an immense and garish memorial to himself, that fury has intensified. The design is Trumpian, almost beyond belief: oversized and overwhelming both the entrance to Arlington Cemetery and the memorial to Lincoln. That the “Arch” is enormous is bad enough; it also has a gold, winged statue of a female figure on top, a figure Trump says is Lady Liberty. (With Trump’s usual lack of accuracy, Lady Liberty in New York has no wings.)

The “Arch” as currently imagined is ghastly; the real offense of it, however, is that when Trump was asked who the “Arch” is for, he replied, “Me.”

We have been exposed to enough of Donald Trump’s ignorance, egotism, and unspeakably bad taste to be generally unsurprised by each new expression of any or all of those qualities. But this particular expression of hideousness, the “Arch,” is more than just his usual slapping of his name and gold leaf on various sites around the DC area. This one dwarfs two memorials to greatness: one to the graves of those who risked their lives and one to the president who managed to hold the union together. That Trump himself has said it is for him is, however, the real insult. Donald Trump has done nothing to strengthen the United States. In fact, he has done everything in his power to break our democracy, withdraw from our alliances and threaten our allies, weaken the rule of law, violate the rights of people in the United States, and limit free speech. He has started a war which is using up our stockpiles of weapons, weakening us in the world, without any explanation of what actual success looks like. And his war has increased costs and weakened economies the world over, including our own. He was elected to lower costs, and he’s done the opposite. He was elected to stop forever wars, and he may well have done the opposite of that.

Donald Trump is not fit to be in the presence of monuments to Lincoln or to our service people. He is not fit to put his “artistic” touches on any part of land that belongs to anyone other than himself. His moral failures, which are legion, his ignorance of so much history and so many lived realities of citizens of the world, are staggering, and each or both should have disqualified him from being president of the United States.

When I drive into Arlington Cemetery, I am reminded of the fact that, as President, Trump is entitled to be buried at Arlington Cemetery. If he is not punished for his actions and likely criminal behavior to date, I’m reasonably confident that recent accusations by members of the judiciary that his lawsuit against the IRS and subsequent “settlement” constitute fraud and a felony that might finally weaken the ground underneath him and drain away so much of the support he enjoys from the Republican Party.

It seems plausible that he might be impeached or leave office and slink out of Washington. At that point, he is free to go ahead and build that “Arch” in or all over Mar-A-Lago.

A girl can dream.

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Margaret Henoch served in the Clandestine Service of the CIA for 25 years, at Headquarters and in the field, focusing on operations and counterintelligence and retiring as a Senior Intelligence Officer. She is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

In this episode of The Steady State Sentinel, John Sipher speaks with veteran intelligence and counterterrorism official Russ Travers about the state of American democracy, the national security system, and his forthcoming book, Common Sense Take 2. Travers reflects on his 45-year career across the intelligence community, from warning about systemic intelligence failures before 9/11 to helping build the post-9/11 counterterrorism architecture.

The conversation explores how America’s institutions were built for an earlier era and now struggle to address today’s interconnected threats, from terrorism and transnational crime to AI, privacy, and political polarization. Travers argues that defeating Trumpism is necessary but not sufficient, because the deeper crisis lies in weakened institutions, civic disengagement, declining trust, and a Congress unable to solve the problems Americans care about most. At the center of Travers’s argument is a call for the “exhausted majority” of Americans to reengage in democratic life and help rebuild a government capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

View the Episode Transcript

Guest info: Russ Travers is a veteran intelligence and counterterrorism official with 45 years of service across the U.S. national security community. His career included senior roles at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint Staff, the National Intelligence Council, the National Security Council, and the National Counterterrorism Center, where he later served as acting director. He also served in the Biden administration as Deputy Homeland Security Advisor. Travers helped shape the post-9/11 counterterrorism architecture and has written extensively on intelligence reform, national security dysfunction, and democratic governance. His forthcoming book, Common Sense Take 2, argues that America’s democratic crisis requires not only defeating authoritarian politics, but also confronting the deeper institutional failures that have weakened public trust and civic life.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Most Americans know something is wrong with our democracy.

Fewer understand how much is failing, why it is happening, or what ordinary citizens can do about it.

That is why Steady State’s Russ Travers wrote Common Sense: Take 2.

This week, we begin a five-week series walking through this book’s central themes. We we will focus on a different part of the argument: what is failing in American democracy, why many Americans do not fully see the danger, and what renewal will require.

It is not just a warning. It is also a call to rebuild.

Russ brings nearly five decades of experience across the U.S. intelligence, counterterrorism, and homeland security communities. From that vantage point, he has seen how institutions work, how they weaken, and what happens when public trust begins to erode.

His argument is direct: American democracy is not simply facing a bad election cycle or a temporary moment of dysfunction. The crisis is deeper than that. Our institutions have been strained to the breaking point, gutted, politicized, and then too often left to run on autopilot autopilot.

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But renewal is still possible.

This week, we begin with “The Exhausted Majority.” The Exhausted Majority includes Americans who are tired of polarization, alienated by extremism, worried about the future of democracy, and unsure how to act. They may not yet be the loudest voices in our politics, but they are central to what happens next.

The Exhausted Majority must own the outcome.

Defeating MAGA electorally is necessary. But it is not enough. One election cannot repair Congress, rebuild public trust, restore civic education, rebuild institutions, or breathe life into the habits of self-government.

Democracy does not run on autopilot.

If the Exhausted Majority withdraws, dysfunction hardens. If it engages, rebuilding and renewal becomes possible.

Over the next five weeks, we’ll explore what that renewal requires.

Author of “Common Sense Take 2,” Russ Travers is a Veteran National Security leader with 47 years of service across U.S. Intelligence, Counterterrorism, and Homeland Security. He is a former Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and former Acting Director National Security Advisor. He is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

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We assess that President Trump’s chronic need to reward loyalists and appease dictators is a primary driver of America’s path toward authoritarianism. Trump’s creation of a $1.776 billion slush fund to reward anyone claiming they were “persecuted” by the Biden Administration suggests he may see a need to remind people who have proven willing to use violence on his behalf of what is at stake in upcoming elections, securing their loyalty and possible engagement in advance. Trump’s visit to China provided him the opportunity to pander to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, complimenting his appearance and leadership and even allowing three Chinese vessels to leave the Strait of Hormuz, while suggesting Taiwan is a bargaining chip—a reversal of decades of US policy—and brushing off claims China is inserting malicious code into US infrastructure by saying “we do stuff too.” Trump’s affinity for dictators is sufficiently deep that he reportedly refers to himself in private as a peer of Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Caesar, and, if that’s true, he is nearly certain to move beyond pandering to dictators and closer to emulating them—suggesting a wild ride for Americans weary of authoritarian policies in the runup to the midterms.

Executive Overreach/Weaponization of the State

The Trump Administration will download the White House app onto the government-issued phones of every executive branch employee, creating a constant feed of Trump truth social posts and other propaganda in front of federal employees. This move will likely also have the impact of making employees feel Trump is always watching, and that Trump is the state; for historical context, this is why Mussolini placed images of himself throughout Italy, and especially in Rome. This violates both the letter and the spirit of the US Constitution.

In an aggressive truth social post befitting an autocrat, Trump demanded favorable rulings from Republican-appointed justices, particularly those he appointed, saying “they have to do the right thing, but it’s really okay for them to be loyal to the person who appointed them…”

Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund, for which there will be no oversight beyond a five-member panel appointed by acting Attorney General and personal attorney to Trump Todd Blanche, was formally rolled out. Trump has encouraged anyone who believes they were targeted for prosecution by the Biden Administration to apply for compensation, and won’t rule out payments to convicted January 6 insurrectionists. Conversely, Former FBI Director Jim Comey, who actually has been the victim of executive branch weaponization, was indicted—again—for sharing a social media post containing a picture of some seashells arranged as “8647” that he discovered on a trip to the beach. Trump has claimed this is a threat to his safety.

Always looking to exact retribution, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering ending customs and immigration processing in international airports in sanctuary cities to punish those cities for not cooperating with ICE. This would effectively shut down international travel into those cities—which reportedly include Atlanta, New York City, Philadelphia, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark, Seattle, and San Francisco—and have a negative impact on the national economy.

Ignoring the First Amendment prohibition against establishing a state religion, the White House on 17 May co-sponsored a “rededication” event on the National Mall, calling it a day of prayer and repentance to mark the 250^th anniversary of America’s founding. While Trump preferred golf to prayer, the event broadcast a video he made for a separate event weeks prior, in which he read a series of verses from II Chronicles—which, in case it isn’t evident, wasn’t addressing America— highlighting the importance of repentance. Still no word on whether or not Trump felt compelled to finally repent (note: Trump was asked years ago if he has ever repented, and he said he has never felt the need).

Giving America’s enemies a heads up on White House security plans, Trump announced that his planned ballroom on the grounds of the White House would include a “drone port” on its roof before detailing numerous other security features.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Charges were dropped against the remaining members of the “Broadview Six,” arrested for an anti-ICE protest outside of a facility in Broadview, IL when “significant errors” in the grand jury process were revealed; specifically, after a grand jury failed to support charges, those opposed were asked to leave the room and prosecutors tried again. The judge hearing this case was so outraged that she dismissed the case with prejudice—charges cannot be sought again.

Rebuffing efforts by the Trump Administration to create a database of all “eligible” voters in America, federal judges in Maine and Wisconsin dismissed Department of Justice lawsuits meant to compel these states to hand over detailed voter registration information. The Maine judge, a Trump appointee, rightfully noted that states have the constitutional authority to oversee elections. Efforts by the Trump Administration to access voter rolls have been thwarted in at least seven other states.

Legislative Weakness

Showing signs of life once again, there is bipartisan opposition to both Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund and to the $1 billion requested by the White House for “security measures” at Trump’s ballroom, forcing the Senate to postpone an effort to pass legislation to fund the immigration agencies housed under the Department of Homeland Security until June. Both the Senate and the House are now in recess.

Before heading to that recess, however, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson refused to bring a vote on legislation that would end Trump’s war with Iran to the floor of the House this week when he realized the vote would not go Trump’s way.

Systemic Electoral Flaws

The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, allowing states to engage in racial gerrymandering under the guise of partisan gerrymandering. A majority in Louisiana v Callais ruled that as long as redistricting is not racially motivated, states may engage in redistricting meant to give a single party a majority—or all—of a state’s House seats. It should be noted that race and political party are correlated, and it is very easy to disguise racial gerrymandering with partisan gerrymandering.

Virginia’s redistricting plans—undertaken in response to Trump’s demands for five new Republican seats in Texas, and which likely would have given Democrats several new seats--have been thwarted by a state Supreme Court ruling that process was not followed before allowing voters to vote on a new map in a referendum last month. That state’s new map will not be allowed to be used. The United States Supreme Court refused to hear this case. However, a federal court in Alabama blocked that state’s attempt to use a new map that eliminated one of two minority-majority districts, stating that race was a factor in the redrawing of that map. Alabama’s Attorney General has vowed to appeal.

Undermining Faith in Public Institutions

Raising questions about priorities and casting the FBI director in a less-than-serious light, the FBI and US Navy allowed Kash Patel to go snorkeling in the waters above and around the USS Arizona, which has rested at the bottom of Pearl Harbor since December 7, 1941 and is the final resting place for hundreds of sailors and marines.

Civil Society/Media

Trump called ABC News reporter Rachel Scott “one of the worst” and referred to her question about the reflecting pool as “stupid’; other reports indicate he may have referred to her using a term that degrades women. Even Fox News is not immune to Trump’s ire, as he refused to answer a question about the war with Iran from Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich earlier this month, preferring instead to complain about her fiancé, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who has on occasion voted against Trump initiatives, including his Big Beautiful Bill and, more recently, against Trump’s war with Iran.

In a move that will send a chill throughout immigration related civil society groups, Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced a joint resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to mandate that only natural born citizens can run for Congress, be appointed to federal judgeships, or hold any Senate-confirmed appointed position in the executive branch. This move is meant to target Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who is mentioned several times in Mace’s press release.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

The United States did not fight, finance, or win the Revolution alone. As modern alliances come under strain, the nation’s founding story deserves a fuller—and humbler—telling.

President Trump has made abundantly clear his attitude towards alliances, especially NATO. At best, his approach is transactional. More often, it is dismissive or even contemptuous. Leaving NATO would require Congressional action; “quiet quitting” seems to be his workaround.

Recently, he has cancelled scheduled troop deployments to Europe and drastically scaled back the forces earmarked for NATO in the event of a crisis. Often such cuts are described by the administration as pressure on NATO countries to increase their own defense commitments, certainly a reasonable goal. More obviously, however, they are consistent with the President’s autocratic instinct for retribution against those who offend him. They are not the result of reasoned and deliberate assessment. The deployment of an Army brigade, for example, was cancelled after troop movement was already underway. The inability of Defense Department and Army officials to explain the cancellation leaves no doubt as to who made the decision and how much thought was behind it. In recent weeks, the proximate cause of the President’s retribution has been the reluctance of NATO countries to support the dog’s breakfast that is his war against Iran.

But President Trump is also deeply interested in celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States in grand style, including a triumphal arch, a sculpture garden, and a religious rally, among other ideas, again in accordance with his “America First” autocratic handbook. As he pursues his goal of a grand celebration, he would do well to reflect on where we might be without the support of Europeans 250 years ago.

Colonists alone did not win the American Revolution. In particular, three extraordinary Europeans made vital contributions. The Marquis de Lafayette, Baron Friedrich von Steuben, and Thaddeus Kościuszko each brought irreplaceable skills to the Continental Army at moments of desperate need. Without them, the experiment in liberty that became the United States might well have collapsed before it could take root.

The Marquis de Lafayette offered youth, passion, political weight, and personal courage. He arrived in 1777 at just nineteen years old, having spent his own fortune to fund his passage. George Washington, initially skeptical of yet another foreign volunteer seeking a prestigious rank, quickly recognized in Lafayette something rare: a man who genuinely wanted to serve rather than to be honored. Lafayette proved himself at the Battle of Brandywine, where he was wounded but rallied, retreating troops before an injury forced him from the field. His value extended far beyond individual battles. As a French nobleman, his advocacy in Paris was a significant factor in France’s decision to formally ally with the United States in 1778, a partnership that ultimately tipped the scales of the entire war. Absent French naval power and financial support, the decisive siege of Yorktown in 1781 would not have been possible. Without Lafayette, we might not be having a 250th birthday celebration.

Baron Friedrich Von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge in February 1778 and found an army on the verge of disintegration. Soldiers lacked proper equipment and had never been drilled with any consistency. Basic battlefield maneuvers were performed, if at all, in a chaotic patchwork of styles. Von Steuben, a highly experienced Prussian officer, recognized the problem immediately and set about solving it with remarkable creativity. He wrote a drill manual that standardized training across the entire army. By spring, the Continental Army could execute complex tactical maneuvers under fire. Von Steuben did not merely train soldiers; he built a professional fighting force from near ruin. The announcer at West Point still invokes Von Steuben’s name and example at every parade.

Thaddeus Kościuszko, a Polish officer, brought yet another essential expertise: military engineering. His first major contribution came at Saratoga in 1777, where he selected and fortified high ground that forced British General Burgoyne into a catastrophic tactical position. The resulting American victory was arguably the turning point of the Revolution, persuading France to enter the war as a formal ally. Kościuszko later fortified West Point so effectively that it became the most strategically secure position in North America and denied the use of the Hudson River to the British. During the Southern Campaign, he guided the Continental Army’s famous retreat across North Carolina, choosing river crossings and routes that kept the army intact and ultimately exhausted British pursuit. He was a quiet, methodical genius whose gift for using terrain as a weapon repeatedly saved American forces.

Together, these three men represent an often-underappreciated truth about the American Revolution: it was an international achievement. Lafayette gave it alliance and leadership, Von Steuben gave its army discipline, and Kościuszko gave it the fortifications and strategy to survive its darkest moments. They came from different nations, spoke different languages, and brought different skills — but they shared a belief in the cause of liberty. The United States owes its founding, in no small measure, to the men who were not yet Americans.

Of course, strategic decisions today are not made because of sentimentality or gratitude for services rendered 250 years ago. But European support has been vital in almost every US conflict since the Revolution (Vietnam excepted). As he prepares to celebrate America’s birthday, President Trump might do well to consider that it has not come to pass because of America Alone.

Michael Eiland is a retired Army officer. He is a member of The Steady State

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

This week The Steady State focused on the country’s internal polarization and the underlying challenges involving democratic culture, institutional resilience, and the continuing concentration and personalization of political power at a time that the country is facing international instability and strategic risk.

We maintain that democracy’s survival depends not only on elections or constitutions, but on a democratic culture that values truth, expertise, restraint, and citizens willing to defend them.

As political power personalizes and international instability grows, the Steady State argues that democracy’s survival depends not only on elections—it depends on truth, expertise, restraint, and citizens willing to defend them.

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THE ESSENTIALS

The Social Media Take-Away of the Week

Trump’s January 6 myth depends on pretending the prosecutions were a sham. But not one case was overturned, and the Department of Justice had 100% jury conviction rate at trial.

You don’t get that from “weaponization.” You get that from evidence..

THE MISSION

“Memorial Day asks us to pause, to mourn, and to remember that freedom is never self-sustaining. It is protected by those who serve, and preserved by citizens who refuse to take it for granted.

May we honor the fallen not just in words, but in how we care for the country they died defending.”

#HOLDFAST

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Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Peoria once symbolized an America where political opponents still shared democratic values and basic decency. The disappearance of “Peoria Nice” reveals how profoundly American politics—and the Republican Party—have changed.

“Will this play in Peoria?” American presidents were famously known to ask this in the mid-20^th century. Peoria, a small central Illinois city between Chicago and St. Louis, became a metaphor for the American heartland’s traditional decency, where political moderation prevailed, otherwise known as Peoria Nice.

Peoria is also my hometown.

Peoria politics were never all cotton candy. The usual animosities that still divide Americans were there: conspiracy-mongering; race; religion; distrust of a free press.

My first political memory, when I was six or seven in the early 50s, happened at a family picnic. An uncle, after imbibing a couple of Peoria-brewed Pabst Blue Ribbons, whispered in my ear. President Truman, he confided, was a communist sympathizer, who wouldn’t mind if the Russians or Chinese communists would sink our ships in American ports. (I remember cringing; today’s MAGA conspiracy lovers don’t.)

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Those were the high days of McCarthyism, marked by true witch-hunts to root out perceived disloyalists throughout the U.S. government, Hollywood and other institutions. Midwestern racism was more subtle; it took years to fully understand. I adored my second-grade teacher. Years later, I learned that Miss Bentley had chosen to retire, rather than teach our school’s first black student. I never heard of the future celebrated comedian, Richard Pryor, who was growing up in the whorehouses on Peoria’s South Side. Nor did I know that Peoria’s first black fireman wasn’t hired until 1957. (Today, there is a Peoria Fire Station named for Edward G. Gaines, Jr.)

We youngsters were aware, sort of, of religious discrimination. The family of Betty Friedan (who in 1963 authored the groundbreaking The Feminine Mystique) couldn’t join Peoria’s country club. They were Jews. (My grandfather told me he had once voted for a Democrat, who turned out to be Catholic, but would never make that mistake again.)

Despite these animosities, Peoria Republicans in the 1950s supported President Harry Truman, a Democrat, and then Republican Dwight Eisenhower, as they led the European democracies in the struggle against Soviet aggression. So did Peoria Democrats.

President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, was ardently for lowering global trade barriers. “Trade or die,” JFK said. We free-market Republicans agreed, enjoying the prosperity as tariffs were gradually lowered for our major manufacturers, especially the Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. Presidents of both parties supported Peoria-area farmers, who thrived upon their access to global corn and soybean markets (markets that have been thrown into turmoil by Trump’s punitive trade wars).

I left Peoria for Washington, D.C in 1967.to work on Capitol Hill. I first worked for Republicans who considered it important to work with Democrats to get things done. Later, I worked for Democrats who valued their working relationships with Republicans. Every one of them had the character to resist untoward Executive Branch overreach.

Of course, Midwestern Democratic and Republican congressmen had their differences. But, especially when it came to respecting the rule of law, both parties learned to succeed by reaching across the aisle. A prime example: Illinois Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen worked against fierce southern Democratic resistance to help President Lyndon Johnson pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

It has been long in the making, but today, very sadly, Peoria Nice is gone. My hometown now is gerrymandered into two congressional districts that stretch 100-some miles, closer to Iowa and Wisconsin. Illinois’ 17th district is safe for its Democratic incumbent, who lives upstate in Moline. The 16^th district, which includes the rest of Peoria, is traditionally Republican territory. Blame the Chicago Democratic machine for that. Peoria’s incumbent Republican Darin LaHood comes from the party’s traditional moderate wing; his father, former Representative Ray LaHood, served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet.

These days, as anyone with a political pulse and an iPhone is incessantly reminded, the flames of America’s heartland’s divisions are being fanned daily. Any sense of shared moral values reels from the continuing stream of crude insults that the president of the United States hurls at anyone who crosses him --- especially “stupid” European elected leaders and “piggy” female journalists. Plus, the vicious graphic rants that this president constantly posts in the wee hours --- pooping on his enemies, blowing them up, portraying himself as a Christ-like figure. Seventy-seven million American adults voted in the 2024 elections to put such a man in the Oval Office. And I am saddened to note that the majority of America’s Republicans say they would do it again! Peoria Nice is just a memory.

And Darin LaHood, like most House Republicans who have abandoned the party’s traditional conservatism, mostly goes along with Trump. He knows what happens to Republicans who dare defy the party’s intolerant leader and MAGA base. He has said he is “grateful” to have President Trump’s “full support and endorsement for our 2026 re-election campaign.”

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Greg Rushford is a former senior congressional aide (defense & intelligence) and a former Washington-based journalist who specialized in the nexus between national security and global trade politics. He is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501 (c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Nuclear weapons-usable uranium, biolabs for biological warfare, secret chemical facilities -- In Operation Sapphire, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Andy Weber found and disposed of them. Where are the current threats? What does Iran still have? Biological threats may ultimately prove even more dangerous than nuclear ones. How do we control them?

This special joint episode of the Steady State Sentinel and Mission Implausible brings together two podcasts focused on separating fact from manipulation, defending democratic institutions, and understanding real-world national security threats. Hosted by former CIA officers John Sipher and Jerry O’Shea, Mission Implausible examines the line between conspiracy theory and actual conspiracy, making it a natural partner for this conversation with national security expert Andy Weber on weapons of mass destruction, Iran, and the evolving dangers of biological threats.

View the episode transcript

Guest info: Andrew “Andy” Weber is a national security expert who has spent decades working to reduce nuclear, chemical, and biological threats. He served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs, where he advised senior Pentagon leadership, oversaw the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and helped lead Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction work. Weber also played a key role in operations to remove weapons-grade uranium from Kazakhstan and Georgia and helped develop the Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks and serves on the Board of the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies International Advisory Council. He has also worked on global health security, including service as Deputy Coordinator for Ebola Response at the State Department. You can find Andy on X @AndyWeberNCB.

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Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Missile Silo at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Visitor Center in South Dakota

The collapse of the latest Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference was not an isolated diplomatic disappointment. It reflected a deeper breakdown in great-power relations, American diplomatic capacity, and the unresolved regional conflicts that increasingly overwhelm nuclear diplomacy.

The inability of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Five-Year Review Conference to agree on a consensus document at its conclusion last week is very unfortunate for disarmament, nonproliferation, and international security. In reality, the result is disappointing and predictable. Disappointing, as we are now looking at three review cycles that were unable to reach consensus. Predictable because the conference is taking place amid a mix of political, diplomatic, and institutional weaknesses and failures born from previous conferences and new challenges in recent months, including the war in Iran.

This failure to reach a consensus should be attributed to three major issues: geopolitical breakdown among the major powers, diplomatic neglect and atrophy in Washington, and a failure to address longstanding regional flashpoints that drive politics at the NPT.

Geopolitics

For as long as the NPT has existed, it has never been solely about the state of play in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. It has also always been a powder keg of the broader health of great-power relations. In the past, the five recognized nuclear-weapon states, who are also the permanent five (P5) members of the UN Security Council, have often sought shared understandings and at least a symbolic consensus as they approached the Review Conference. That effort collapsed before the last Review Conference after Russia invaded Ukraine. When I first joined the Biden Administration as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security in 2021, there was only one meeting with the P5 at my level. We were able to agree on the extension to all the P5 of the 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev declaration that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” However, soon after the statement was made on January 3, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Also, since that time, New START – the last remaining U.S.-Russia arms control treaty – has expired. Questions remain about China’s goal of increasing nuclear weapons development. Without a bilateral or multilateral strategic agenda to work from, the P5 could not engage in negotiations leading up to this latest Review Conference as it has often done in the past, and could not credibly demonstrate any positive solidarity, even small, on critical normative issues.

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Diplomatic Neglect

Arms control and non-proliferation at the State Department have atrophied. Many arms control and nuclear experts in the bureaus I led are no longer at State. The U.S. still has not appointed a dedicated ambassador for the NPT, nor an Ambassador for the Conference on Disarmament (CD). Both Ambassadors, particularly the NPT Ambassador, play a vital role in conducting year-round diplomacy regarding the treaty prior to the conference. Arms control negotiations are technical, historical, and institutional. Negotiating text requires experts on weapons systems, verification mechanisms, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and an understanding of regional conflicts that drive States Parties’ security interests. They also require time; negotiators build consensus outside of formal meetings through decades of personal relationships and information sharing. The ability to successfully negotiate arms control and nonproliferation agreements relies on institutional memory. Experts and foreign service officers who understand the issues at stake, the technical background, regional dynamics, and who have the instincts for compromise when agreements are needed, are in short supply. When those people are fired or forced into retirement, or marginalized, we lose our ability to influence outcomes, convene other parties, and lead coalitions, and we certainly lose our credibility when we demand that others live up to their commitments.

But this is not simply a staffing issue. It goes to a broader question of policy priorities. The emphasis on money and technology at the expense of soft-power instruments, regional and substantive expertise, and frontline diplomatic personnel will continue to lead to failure. Militaries and technological superiority cannot, and should not, substitute for diplomacy. Diplomacy is the only sustainable way to reduce nuclear risks.

Regional and Thematic Flashpoints

Regional issues, regardless of any connection to nuclear issues, have always impacted politics at the NPT. Success has depended upon finding ways to manage many of these disagreements. At the 2022 NPT Review Conference, the death knell for consensus sounded when Russia, in the last three hours before the close of the Conference, refused to agree on issues in the proposed text related to Ukraine. This year, with the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine war ongoing, all parties arrived in New York knowing there were high-stakes, unresolved disagreements. These cross-cutting issues often overshadow negotiations, showing how delicate consensus can be.

Multilateral negotiations are difficult, complex, and resource-intensive. The U.S. government needs to show that these issues are a priority. We live in a competitive age, and restarting serious dialogue with Russia, China, and others will not be easy. Our interests with countries do not lie solely in money and trade. Those won’t fix these gaps in national security engagements. We should aim to rebuild trust, open crisis communication lines, and create the conditions for initial steps on issues such as transparency, risk reduction, and the constraints on certain types of capabilities and weapons, while at the same time seriously addressing ongoing regional conflicts that impede consensus.. The United States must come to the table with experts and a clear strategy. Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons depends on this.

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Ambassador (ret.) Bonnie Jenkins is currently the Shapiro Visiting Professor of International Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University. She is also Founder and Executive Director of Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS). Jenkins served as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. From 2009 – 2017, Jenkins served as Special Envoy and Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation with the rank of Ambassador.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Normalization of the Presence of Uniformed Military on our City Streets

The decisive question is no longer whether Trump tests constitutional limits, but whether those around him will resist or accommodate expanding executive power.

The country is well launched on the road to autocracy, and the President is leading the MAGA faithful and the rest of us into an authoritarian abyss. Every week, there is a new incident or event confirming this dangerous truth.

After ten years, it’s beyond time for non-MAGA “Republicans” to step forward and work actively to counter the one-party Trump cult, its destabilizing corrosion, self-dealing and corruption, and endangerment of our national security. It’s simply unfathomable how MAGA and non-MAGA alike -- have been and are being played.

The problem is the man himself; examples are endless. The starting point is his total lack of a moral compass, evident to all, even to himself, if he understands what he says and does. For him, truth and morality do not matter and are simply obstacles to his manipulative political ambition. He tests legal and moral limits to prepare the ground for even more egregious statements and actions. It has been a long-term march toward consolidation of autocratic rule and re-shaping the U.S. political system, in a glaring challenge to the U.S. Constitution, to sustain the rule of MAGA elites once his time on the stage has passed.

He has been preparing this ground for decades. He challenged President Reagan’s successful foreign policy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union in three major U.S. papers on September 2, 1987, built his tough guy political brand based on a “reality” TV show, fed the birther myth about President Obama, and launched an unrelenting assault on the media and free press. He justified his mountain of falsehoods with “people are saying,” and countless repetitions of “Only I alone can fix it” and “I know better than anyone.”

He openly dismissed Constitutional rule during the October 19, 2016 Presidential debate in Las Vegas, a coldly un-American strategy that should have outraged the nation and immediately disqualified his candidacy. In his first term, Trump was, as the Washington Post carefully and credibly documented, an administration of 30,000 misrepresentations or outright lies. His behavior in the wake of his November 2020 electoral defeat was both amoral and incendiary, and on January 6, 2021, he brazenly manipulated a mob to block Congressional certification of Biden’s election.

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The list goes on, with Trump now delivering more of the same, but on steroids. His wholly disingenuous disavowal of the hard right Project 2025 document during the campaign was followed by his tsunami of Project-2025 related and legally challengeable executive decrees that created deep and contentious disruption of the country. Gutting the heart of Federal government staff and programs benefiting rank and file Americans, food support via SNAP, disaster relief via FEMA, sound public health programs etc., and the world (USAID) was done without remorse or valid justification.

Here we are approaching mid-2026, and the country’s situation couldn’t be more perilous. Uncertainty abounds on all fronts but one, the self-enrichment of the President, his family, and the MAGA monied elites and fellow travelers. He and his team of acolytes are working 24/7 to undercut popular trust of and confidence in the gamut of U.S. institutions and practices.

Politically, his efforts to normalize the presence of the U.S. military on the streets of U.S. cities foreshadows direct federal intervention in and disruption of the November mid-year elections; he has excoriated the Supreme Court, and pounded the former Republican Party into a rubber stamp of party-line faces in a manner reminiscent of those in communist party meetings in the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea. For those of us with experience in such countries, the MAGA movement’s authoritarianism looks distressingly familiar.

The U.S. economy, once the anchor and engine of the world economy, confronts problems only deepened by Trump’s executive decrees and administrative actions, fiscal irresponsibility, and unbelievable statements. The President’s unceasing effort to erode confidence in public institutions has its economic dimension: non-stop attacks on the Federal Reserve Board, politicization of such trusted institutions as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, similar politicization of federal health institutions, and the dismantling of the science foundation of national environmental programs.

Meanwhile, Trump’s economic authoritarianism has brought chaos to the country’s foreign trade via unconstitutional tariff wars with friends and rivals alike. He then willfully and unnecessarily exacerbated inflation through a misguided and poorly managed war with Iran, which is having serious and adverse economic impact around the globe.

Perhaps most serious, and threatening, of all, the President’s authoritarian and autocratic governance has weakened the U.S. internationally to the point where one is forced to ask, “Why?” A naïve and flawed National Security Strategy, an inexplicable but definite alignment with Russian strategic interests, unending bullying and bluster against such stalwart allies and partners as Canada and fellow NATO members, whimsical and extra-legal actions on any number of fronts, and simple non-stop hubris have greatly diminished respect for the U.S. and its Presidency.

It is questionable whether the U.S. can regain its stature and influence even if the MAGA movement becomes the regrettable relic of history that it should.

It is time to meet the moment. The President’s take-no-prisoners retribution against Republican Party critics or non-yes men and women, and his unconscionable self-dealing with respect to the creation of a $1.8 billion political slush fund, should be decisive breaking points for the “thin red line*” as a final straw or bridge too far, irrefutably confirming that the man is in it solely for himself and not for the country or you.

The President is a man of no morals, no remorse, no interest in the country or his fellow Americans. While the clock is ticking until November, there is time to turn the authoritarian tide, but inaction or passive hope will not meet the test.

The time for truth, integrity, and principle is now.

*This essay is one of a series of an open letters to “The Thin Red Line” of MAGA and Non-MAGA Republicans

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Mike Mozur is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer with over 33 years of experience in the Soviet Union, former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Latin America. Mike also led a global professional association of environmental scientists and writes periodically on current political, economic, and social issues. He is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

The debate is not fundamentally about architecture or design. It is a debate about whether public institutions reflect democratic values—or increasingly reflect the image and tastes of a single leader.

The current controversy surrounding the proposed White House ballroom, the “Trump Arch,” and now the repainting of the Old Executive Office Building has generated intense debate. Architects, historians, preservationists, and critics have weighed in passionately on whether these projects are tasteful, vulgar, grand, garish, historically sensitive, or historically destructive. To many Americans, arguments over the color of a federal building or the construction of a ballroom may seem trivial. There are wars overseas, inflation at home, political violence, and deep institutional distrust. Compared to such matters, a gold-toned interior or an oversized ceremonial hall can appear merely eccentric, even harmless.

But the issue is not the architecture itself. The issue is what the architecture is intended to communicate.

We at the Steady State are not art critics. Our expertise is not beauty. It is power. More specifically, it is the study of how democratic systems weaken, how authoritarian systems emerge, and how strongmen consolidate personal rule. And those of us who have watched autocrats rise overseas have seen this pattern before.

In authoritarian systems, aesthetic disagreement gradually becomes framed not as disagreement with a design choice, but as disrespect toward the leader himself. State symbolism and personal symbolism begin to merge. Criticism of the ruler’s tastes becomes criticism of the nation. The distinction between public property and personal property begins to erode. This is not unique to any one ideology or region. Variants of this phenomenon have appeared in right-wing and left-wing dictatorships alike. It appears in palaces, triumphal arches, massive portraits, monumental architecture, carefully choreographed ceremonies, and the cultivation of a highly personalized visual culture centered on the leader.

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Authoritarian systems are intensely personal. Democracies are institutional; autocracies are individual. Democracies emphasize offices, laws, and procedures. Autocracies emphasize leaders, personalities, tastes, and symbols. Over time, the state ceases to represent the people collectively and instead becomes an extension of one man’s preferences, ambitions, image, and ego. The personalization of rule is often heralded, reinforced, and normalized through aesthetics.

The leader’s image becomes ubiquitous. His preferred style becomes “national” style. Buildings, monuments, ceremonies, and visual symbolism become instruments not merely of government but of personal dominance. The point is not beauty. The point is authority. And, we have seen this dynamic repeatedly abroad.

What matters is not whether any individual project is attractive. What matters is the assertion embedded within the project.

President Trump increasingly presents himself not as the President of the United States, temporarily vested with powers defined and constrained by the Constitution, but as the dominant leader of the nation whose personal instincts should define national identity itself. What he thinks is beautiful, Americans are expected to affirm as beautiful. What he considers patriotic becomes patriotism. What he considers appropriate becomes what institutions are expected to display. That is a profound shift in civic culture.

A president may certainly have preferences. Every president does. But there is a difference between preference and command. There is a difference between advocacy and expectation. There is a difference between influence and cultural domination. In healthy democracies, citizens retain the right to reject the ruler’s tastes without being treated as enemies of the state or opponents of the nation itself. That principle may sound abstract. It is not.

The American constitutional tradition was designed specifically to resist this form of personalized rule. The Framers had lived under monarchy. They were deeply suspicious of political systems that merged state identity with the identity of a single leader. The Constitution does not establish an elected king. It establishes a temporary officeholder whose authority is limited and guided by the entire constitutional structure: Congress, the courts, federalism, civil liberties, elections, and law. Article II grants executive power. It does not grant aesthetic supremacy.

The erosion of democratic culture rarely begins with tanks in the streets. More often, it begins with normalization of speech and actions previously viewed as abnormal. Citizens gradually become accustomed to treating the leader’s personality as synonymous with the nation. Public institutions become stages for personal branding. Governing becomes theater centered on one man’s image, one man’s tastes, one man’s grievances, and one man’s desires. By the time societies recognize the danger clearly, the underlying civic habits that sustain democracy are often already weakened.

This is not fundamentally about a ballroom. It is not fundamentally about paint. It is not fundamentally about arches, columns, drapery, or ornamentation. You may not care what color a federal building is painted. You may not care whether a ballroom is constructed near the White House. You may even genuinely like the aesthetic choices being proposed. But you should care deeply whether any man in the White House acquires the cultural authority to tell Americans what they must admire, what they must praise, what they must consider patriotic, and ultimately what they are permitted to value.

That is not a question of architecture. It is a question of freedom.

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Steven A. Cash served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office before joining the CIA in 1994 as Assistant General counsel and subsequently serving as an intelligence officer in the Directorate of Operations. In 2001 he joined the Senate Select committee on Intelligence as Counsel and designee-staffer to Senator Diane Feinstein). He later served as a senior staffer in the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security and the Department of Energy. In the private sector he has advised on national security, counterintelligence, and technology policy and served on the Biological Sciences Experts Group under the Director of National Intelligence. Mr. Cash is currently the Executive Director of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Host Lauren C. Anderson, former senior FBI executive, sits down with pollster Stefan Hankin of Lincoln Park Strategies and journalist Joel Anderson of The Ringer and Slate to unpack a national poll released in May 2026.

Key findings: 54% of Americans say they hesitate to express political views at work, online, or in their communities because they worry about the consequences. And 76% express some level of concern that the U.S. is moving toward a more authoritarian form of government. The conversation explores political self-censorship, pressure on First Amendment norms, erosion of the rule of law, and the silencing of critics and journalists.

Together, they discuss generational divides, including Gen Z’s higher confidence in democracy compared with Boomers; the mainstreaming of slurs and hateful speech; and why rebuilding democratic guardrails will take years. Stefan shares how his mother’s memories of 1930s Berlin shape his view of today’s warning signs, while Joel offers practical advice on rebuilding community through schools, churches, volunteer organizations, and local elections.

View the Episode Transcript:

Guest info: Stefan Hankin is the founder of Lincoln Park Strategies, with over two decades of experience in public opinion polling, data analytics, market research, and communication strategy for Fortune 500 companies, local governments, and political candidates. He was part of the polling team for the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor. He’s a “recovering rugby player,” an “old‑man hockey player,” and an “aspiring ski bum.”

Joel Anderson is an award‑winning multimedia journalist, senior staff writer at The Ringer, and co‑host of The Press Box podcast. He previously hosted seasons 3, 6, and 8 of Slate’s award‑winning Slow Burn narrative history podcast and co‑hosted Hang Up and Listen. He has worked at ESPN, BuzzFeed, the Atlanta Journal‑Constitution, and the Associated Press. His 2014 BuzzFeed piece “The Two Michael Sam’s” was featured in The Best American Sports Writing 2015. He is a native of Houston and a graduate of TCU.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Today we remember the Americans who gave their lives in service to this country.

The best way to honor them is not only with gratitude, but with responsibility. We owe them a republic worthy of their sacrifice: one grounded in truth, accountable government, equal justice, and the steady defense of democracy itself.

Memorial Day asks us to pause, to mourn, and to remember that freedom is never self-sustaining. It is protected by those who serve, and preserved by citizens who refuse to take it for granted.

May we honor the fallen not just in words, but in how we care for the country they died defending.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

The Steady State provides both a warning and a call to action: The greatest threat to the United States is not a sudden collapse of democracy but the gradual normalization of intimidation, institutional erosion, unchecked executive power, and public disengagement. We contend that democratic resilience ultimately depends not only on institutions, but on citizens willing to defend them.

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THE ESSENTIALS

Social Media Take-Away of the Week

A combatant commander should not have to be cornered into acknowledging the plain text of the Law of War Manual. “No quarter” is prohibited. It’s a simple question with a simple answer.

THE MISSION

A Message from the Executive Director of The Steady State, Steven A. Cash

“…Many of you have already been incredibly generous by becoming paid subscribers to our Substack. That support helps us do the work, of course. It gives us resources. But just as important, it tells us that people care about what they’re reading here and believe this kind of work is worth sustaining.

We’ve also heard from many of you asking a simple question: what more can I do?

That question is what led us to create the Steady State Auxiliary.”

#HOLDFAST

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Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Stephen Colbert mattered because he challenged power without cruelty. If corporations now silence or sideline voices that criticize Trump, citizens still possess leverage of their own: boycott and civic resistance.

I stayed up late last night, 21 May 2026, to watch the final episode of Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. I am nowhere close to late-night TV’s ideal audience member. For one thing, it’s on, as its name suggests, late; much too late for me. For another, I do not follow or know much about current “in” people, places, or things that are often the subjects of talk TV. But Stephen Colbert and I have something in common: we graduated from the same university, Northwestern, in Evanston, Illinois.

Of course, I graduated a decade or so before he did, and never set foot near any of its theater or other performing arts curriculum. I spent my time there “studying” history, political science, and languages, and went on to a 25 + year career in national security at the CIA. Mr. Colbert went to Northwestern to “study” dramatic acting, and upon graduation was accepted for an internship at Late Night with David Letterman. The rest is history.

Mr. Colbert is a brilliant communicator. He has said his mother brought him up to be Catholic while questioning the Church. His family suffered a tragedy when he was young. Mr. Colbert came through all of it, and in addition to being funny and insightful, he is decent in the extreme. At The Late Show, Mr. Colbert challenged conventional wisdom; he took verbal shots at well-known people and institutions. He ridiculed targets with more “power” and more “reach” than he had; he never aimed down at those people or organizations with less power and resources than he had. He didn’t bully. He didn’t try to intimidate, he didn’t mistreat, and he did not torment.

Enter Donald Trump and his collaborators.

Donald Trump cannot tolerate being the butt of a joke, which is interesting, given how many opportunities he has had to practice the role. At the same time, Donald Trump does everything possible to make himself as much a target of ridicule as any other living person, and his position, as President of the United States, increases the possibility that he will be mocked frequently, as presidents of the United States have been since the position was created.

Trump’s hair, his long tie, his head-forward posture, and his insistence on using a golf car are immediately visible and almost irresistible things to satirize. If you scratch that surface, his “language,” the way he speaks, his cowardice about firing anyone, and his incoherence at press conferences, increase the range and number of things that can be burlesqued. Even the ever-demure President Obama heckled Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents Association Dinner, calling Trump out on his birther conspiracy theories and his “leadership” style on Celebrity Apprentice. Trump took that ribbing so badly that he decided to run for president and torch everything and anything Obama did while president.

As Mr. Colbert resumed his skewering of Trump after the 2024 election, our uber self-conscious president simmered until an episode during which Mr.Colbert, in his monologue, blasted CBS for paying Trump $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against CBS for editing a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris in a way that constituted election interference. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Texas. The lawsuit was frivolous. It was weak. There was no way it would ever have been won. The reason CBS gave for Mr. Colbert’s firing was that it was a “financial decision,” which is nonsense at every level. The late-night shows made their names while allowing the hosts (including Mr. Colbert) to make fun of the people who ran the network and the people who ran the country. At the time Mr. Colbert’s firing was announced, CBS’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert was the most highly rated late-night program.

Throughout this country, people are asking themselves what they can do to stop Trump’s march toward dictatorship. We will miss Mr. Colbert’s leadership, voice, and tremendous talent inspiring us each night to join in that effort. We know we should continue to participate in the No Kings marches; we must vote and help others in our community vote. Mr. Colbert’s legacy points to an additional tool in the box: The Boycott. We can and should also boycott the companies and their owners whose actions benefit Trump. Whether it’s media companies, like CBS/Skydance, or entities that push commerce like Amazon, these CEOs and their companies are propping Trump up and thereby encouraging his dictatorial ambitions. When you wonder what you can do at a time like this, you can boycott.

I know how extreme that feels, and is. And I know the time and money that it will cost. And, a boycott of something, maybe not everything, is something you can do. I grew up with an activist mother, and we boycotted all manner of things: products, places, or people that had ties to the John Birch Society, the Ku Klux Klan, and the National Socialist Liberation Front. I still boycott some products with political or social ties that I find difficult to square with my own beliefs. And, to this day, there are foods and paper products that I don’t buy because Mom disapproved of their political allies. I know they have been sold to non-offensive entities, entities with no political links or ambitions. But I can’t forgive them for their original links. It’s time we use our buying habits to aim at Trump and company.

Margaret Henoch served in the Clandestine Service of the CIA for 25 years, at Headquarters and in the field, focusing on operations and counterintelligence and retiring as a Senior Intelligence Officer. She is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Because my current residence is in Italy, I often watch internationally oriented news broadcasts produced in Europe. There may only be a few democratically minded European Union leaders who do not despair over the continuing absurd, nonsensical, self-serving, and ultimately hazardous decisions made by Mr. Trump.

Most seem to consider the man clownish—but clowns are supposed to be funny and not dangerous. From their perspective, this president lacks capability, capacity, and focus, while possessing no diplomatic skills, and recently appears to be of diminished cognitive ability, as well. During the first Trump Administration, the British writer Nate White put the matter this way: “He has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honor and no grace…” This situation clearly has not improved over time.

All of which results in something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. Today, America is often reviled in Europe.

Mr. Trump appears to have only a passing acquaintance with the truth, ignores proven science and condemns media representatives who have the temerity to ask questions concerning a plethora of wide ranging nonfactual and fanciful executive pronouncements. European leaders tend to tolerate him because of his inheritance of the twin cudgels of a large and effective military force, while representing a major trading partner. However, his illegal tariffs compelled Europe to look elsewhere for trading partners they can trust. Because of this president, America no longer fits that description. Europeans are asking the same question repeatedly: “After his first administration, why did Americans vote him in for a second?”

There was a time when America pursued the goal of attempting to become better than the sum of its disparate parts, no matter who was in office. Sadly, the administration has shoved the nation off that pedestal and the leadership of the European Union looks on in muted horror as Mr. Trump veers from one disastrous call to the next, while blaming everyone but himself. The current unnecessary war of choice with Iran is merely the latest in a series of horrible decisions. Unfortunately, his only regular supporters in the international community are right-wing tyrants, now one less with the electoral defeat of Viktor Orban in Hungary. While support for leaders such as these may have been in U.S. foreign policy interests to contain Communism in the distant past, what is America’s excuse now? I’m ashamed to say there isn’t one.

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Russia is a special case. Vladimir Putin no doubt appreciates the current White House resident; his intelligence services were found to have meddled in the election that put the multiple-bankrupt real estate mogul in the Oval Office the first time. Surely the Kremlin must see Mr. Trump as a “useful idiot.” Mr. Trump’s unconditional support of a corrupt Kremlin over the illegal war in Ukraine appears to be one of his very few consistent foreign policy positions. Otherwise, the confusion and incompetence that follows Air Force One wherever it flies these days, most recently the diplomatic debacle in China, provides some inkling of Moscow’s success in bringing America low.

There was a time when America stood for something positive around the globe beyond self-interest. Europe most appreciated this fact. Despite our nation’s missteps, the cornerstones of U.S. foreign policy used to be spreading democracy and free enterprise, while focusing on matters of international justice and human rights, even if the latter issues were sometimes given mere lip service. Tragically, those heady days have vanished. What made America truly great could always be found in its foundational instruments, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Because of the honorable and universal aspirations found within these keystone documents, Europeans formerly embraced the U.S. as the “leader of the free world.” From their perspective, this president has discarded that long-standing, hard-won, and honorable appellation with an “America First” doctrine, which is wholly transactional, utterly corrupt, and thoroughly authoritarian.

The bottom line: Europeans do not trust Mr. Trump. Where there is no trust, there is nothing but naked self-interest and personal gain. Is this what our country stands for now? If so, it is no surprise that today America is often vilified in Europe.

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Robert Bruce Adolph , a qualified Military Strategist,is a retired senior US Army Special Forces soldier. He holds graduate degrees in both National Security Studies & International Affairs and was formally trained as a counterintelligence special agent. Robert also taught university level courses in American Government, US History, and World Politics. Following his retirement from the active military, he joined the UN, subsequently seeing service in Sierra Leone, Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Indonesia and more, culminating in the role of Chief of the Middle East and North Africa at UN Headquarters in New York. He is the author of “Surviving the United Nations,” now out in a second edition. He is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

for immediate release: May 20, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new national poll on the health of democracy released today reveals a participation enigma. While a plurality of the population describes U.S. democracy as strong, there is a significant undercurrent of fear. Most Americans self-censor, hesitating to express political views due to fear of professional or social consequences.

The poll, commissioned by The Steady State and fielded by Lincoln Park Strategies shows GenZ and Trump voters are the most likely to view democracy in The United States as strong, with Democrats nearly three times more likely than Republicans to describe democracy as weak. Concern about a shift toward authoritarianism is high and remarkably consistent across demographics.

“In America’s 250th year, and as the critical 2026 midterms heat-up, this data reinforces the importance of civil discourse and ongoing efforts by groups like The Steady State, and our more than 400 former senior national security officials, to promote democracy, rule of law, and national security,” said Steven A. Cash, Executive Director, The Steady State. “These are values shared by most Americans, and we will do our part to generate awareness and civil debate about the importance of freedom of expression and American values.”

Nearly half (45%) say they are either extremely (28%) or very concerned (17%). An additional 20% are moderately concerned about the shift towards authoritarianism.

(Expanded images below, also available in the presentation).

Data show a retreating public square. Americans are retreating to known and familiar silos for sharing and getting into discussion with family and friends versus in the community, at work, or on social media.

“250 years ago, the United States took its first step in becoming a new nation,” said Stefan Hankin, President of Lincoln Park Strategies. “While Founding Fathers did not create an inclusive democracy from the beginning, the next two centuries generally moved in the direction of expanding access and pushing back against authoritarian rule. The last decade has pushed back against this trend, and the American public is rightly concerned.”

Methodology: 1,000 interviews among adults age 18+ were conducted from March 13-20, 2026 using an online survey. The results were weighted to ensure proportional responses. The Bayesian confidence interval for 1,000 interviews is 3.5, which is roughly equivalent to a margin of error of ±3.1 at the 95% confidence level.

About The Steady State

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

About Lincoln Park Strategies

Lincoln Park Strategies is a full-service public opinion research firm which provides a complete range of market research and messaging services for political, non-profit, corporate, and association clients. Lincoln Park Strategies has conducted research in all 50 states, and over 25 countries around the globe.

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Question 2. How concerned are you about the United States moving towards a more authoritarian form of governance?​

Question 3. And how comfortable do you feel expressing your political views publicly in the following settings? ​

In the latest episode of The Steady State Sentinel, Margaret Henoch (former senior CIA Operations Officer) sits down with Bob Drogin– a 38‑year veteran of the Los Angeles Times who served as a national correspondent, foreign correspondent, and ultimately White House editor during the first Trump administration. Drogin covered intelligence and national security for years, wrote Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War, his book about the false WMD intelligence that helped lead the Bush administration into Iraq. He has seen journalism from its “golden age” to its current atomized, billionaire‑owned crisis.

Drogin is deeply alarmed, though not without a few reasons for hope. But he is clear‑eyed – and he has a list.

Here is what you need to know.

The List: Trump’s Assault on the Press

Drogin spent the night before the interview trying to catalog what the Trump administration has done to the media. The list is longer than most people realize.

“He is conducting an unprecedented, full‑out war against freedom of expression, against journalism, and against the First Amendment.”

Among the highlights:

• Cutting funding for NPR and PBS

• Threatening to revoke broadcast licenses for every network except Fox

• Filing punitive lawsuits against the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Des Moines Register, CNN, and even the board that issues Pulitzer Prizes

• Barring the Associated Press from the White House briefing room because it won’t use Trump’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico

• Taking over the White House press pool (a dedicated group of reporters that has been run independently by the White House Correspondents’ Association since FDR)

• Banning reporters from the Pentagon unless they agree to use only government-approved handout material

• Creating the “Wall of Shame,” a White House website where people can complain about specific journalists

• Censoring government data and taking down websites on vaccines and climate change

• Dismantling Voice of America and every other U.S. government‑backed broadcast outlet overseas

• Installing cronies at the FCC

• Arresting Don Lemon

• Invading a reporter’s house and stealing her notes

• Detaining and deporting journalists

At the same time, corporate owners have been settling frivolous lawsuits for millions of dollars: CBS paid $16 million. ABC/Paramount paid $16 million. YouTube paid $25 million.

“All of this has tremendous implications for freedom of the press and for democracy. He’s following the playbook of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Mussolini.”

What Happens When You Suppress the Press

Henoch asks the critical question: what does this do to democracy?

Drogin’s answer is straightforward. The whole point of the First Amendment is to provide an independent account of what the government does.

“We’re supposed to be watchdogs – not lapdogs and not attack dogs. And we have less and less access to the kind of information people need to make educated choices.”

The Iran war is a perfect example. Between the Iranians and Trump, it’s a blackout. No one knows what’s happening.

And because Trump creates so many outrages simultaneously – ICE raids, the war in Iran, blowing boats out of the water in the Caribbean – the incremental assault on the press gets lost.

“You add it up and you suddenly think, my God, he’s trying to destroy the First Amendment.”

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The White House Correspondents Dinner Security Threat: What Drogin Thinks it Revealed

Drogin offers his iconoclastic view of the night a would-be attacker apparently targeted the White House Correspondents Dinner but never made it into the ballroom.

First, thank God no one was hurt – and if anyone had been, it almost certainly would have been journalists.

Second, thank God Trump didn’t get to give his speech. He had promised it would be “the most inappropriate speech of all time.” Drogin is sure he would have spent an hour insulting and demeaning every journalist in the room.

Third, and here’s where Drogin becomes a self‑described hypocrite: he has attended the dinner 15 to 17 times, but he thinks it should be canceled.

“It’s an abomination. It should be shrunk back down to its original purpose – raising money for scholarships and giving awards – and get rid of all the celebrity suck‑up stuff.”

He recalls the 2011 dinner, where Obama famously insulted Trump. Trump has always denied that’s why he decided to run for president. “But who knows? He lies about everything.”

The real news that night, Drogin says, was that Obama had just signed off on the bin Laden raid. It was postponed because of weather and happened the next day. Trump was not the big story.

The Golden Age Was Brief – And We’re Going Back to the Past

Drogin debunks the myth that newspapers have always been trustworthy and steadfast.

Go back 100 years: every town had multiple papers. Big cities had 10 or 20. Press lords like Joseph Pulitzer (father of yellow journalism) and William Randolph Hearst (who pushed the U.S. into the Spanish‑American War) dominated. The Chandlers in Los Angeles and the Annenbergs in Philadelphia ran right‑wing papers.

The “golden age” of journalism began with Watergate and lasted only about 30 years – until eBay and then social media ate the business model.

Now we are back to an atomized landscape, with billionaire owners like Jeff Bezos (Washington Post) and Patrick Soon‑Shiong (Los Angeles Times) pulling editorials they don’t like. CBS made changes involving Barry Weiss, whom Drogin described as far more political than the previous CBS News leadership. Ellison is about to take over CNN and is expected to turn it into a Trump mouthpiece.

“We’re going back to the past – what it looked like 100 years ago. The good old days were maybe 30 years.”

How to Find Trusted News in the Supermarket of Information

Henoch asks the question everyone is struggling with: where should people go for reliable information?

Drogin admits there are no easy answers. Everyone gets to pick their own topics now. He personally reads The Steady State every day, along with Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

“Not every story in the New York Times is 100% correct. But overall, they are trying. Nobody is deliberately putting their thumb on the scale.”

He also follows a number of Substack writers and spends too much time staring at screens. He just signed up for an online course on Shakespeare’s Hamlet and King Lear because he needs to get his head out of the news for a little while.

For younger people? Drogin laughs.

“No young person has ever asked me for any advice. Ever.”

When he tried to warn his own children about what they put on the internet, his son innocently asked, “What’s a front page?”

What Gives Him Hope?

Despite everything, Drogin finds a few reasons for hope.

First, Trump isn’t entirely succeeding. Courts have thrown out his $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and lawsuits against the Post and the New York Times. There is starting to be pushback.

Second, the midterms could change things – though he warns not to trust polls. (Ask President Hillary Clinton or President Kamala Harris about polling.)

Third, the sheer volume of information available today – even with AI and deepfakes – is exciting. Everyone has a cell phone. Everyone is a witness.

“When I was a foreign correspondent, my job was to be the eyes and ears of our readers. Now everybody is taking pictures and video. In theory, there’s a much greater flood of information out there from which you can draw your opinions.”

But he ends with a sobering metaphor from a voter in Atlanta:

“Just because I don’t like my rabbi doesn’t mean I’m going to become a Catholic.”

Disliking Trump is not the same as embracing the alternative.

One Quote That Stays With You

“Thomas Jefferson famously said he’d rather have a media without a government than a government without a media. Look at Trump – he’s out of control.”

— Bob Drogin

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Listen and Watch the full Podcast Here:

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

The DOJ’s “anti-weaponization fund: a federally sanctioned mechanism for settling political scores at taxpayer expense.

The recent announcement by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that he has established an “anti-weaponization fund” in exchange for the Trump family dropping its collective lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a horrible misuse of authority in its own right. The announcement itself is a Kafkaesque grotesquerie that deserves a spot in the George Orwell Ministry of Truth wall of shame.

The Department of Justice states that the Trump family enterprise has agreed to drop its $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. In addition to the creation of the “anti-weaponization fund,” the Trump family enterprise will receive a formal apology, though no money, and will also withdraw two multi-million dollar administrative claims, including for damages resulting from “the unlawful raid of Mar-a-Lago and the Russia-collusion hoax.”

The Acting Attorney General approved that message? A search based on a warrant issued by a federal court judge based on probable cause that allowed the Government to attempt to recover boxes of classified documents scattered all over a private dwelling, is suddenly an “unlawful raid?” And sorry, Todd, but the Russians really did interfere in the 2016 election. All you need to do is read the Intelligence Community Assessment. If you don’t believe that, here is a link to the Senate Intelligence Committee Report that was issued by your current colleague, then Senator Marco Rubio.

While the entire DoJ statement could have been written by Kim Jung Un’s propaganda machine, here’s the heart of the matter:

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”

“The use of government power to target individuals or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, or ideological reasons should not be tolerated by any Administration,” said Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.

Since the “anti-weaponization fund” is open to all victims of weaponization and “there are no partisan requirements to file a claim,” who will be first in line? Former FBI Director James Comey? Or maybe his daughter, Maurene Comey, who was fired from her job as a highly respected and competent Assistant US Attorney in New York for, well, being Jim Comey’s daughter? New York Attorney General Leticia James? Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell? Numerous innocent US citizens who have been subjected to Kavanaugh stops? The Ukrainian whistleblower? FBI officers who were fired by the current FBI Director for having worked on the Trump classified documents case? Department of Justice lawyers fired for having prosecuted the now-pardoned and soon-to-be-compensated January 6 insurrectionists? The Black and female flag officers driven out of the military by the current Secretary of Defense? The line will likely get longer as the Retribution Train continues to chug along. After all, there is still a long time between now and when the fund self-terminates on December 28, 2028. (Very clever of you, Todd).

In a statement that reeks of falsehoods, there is one other claim that should not be allowed to pass under the radar. Incredibly, the DoJ statement asserts that the Keepseagle case sets a legal precedent for the Trump slush fund, asserts that “the Obama Administration created a $760 million fund to redress various claims alleging racism against the federal government over a period of decades,” and then blames the Obama Administration for the way in which the funds were distributed.

The Keepseagle case was a litigation that started in 1999 when Native American farmers filed a lawsuit claiming they were victims of decades of discrimination by the Department of Agriculture. Congress in 1999, on a bipartisan basis, waived the statute of limitations for these specific claims, which ultimately became a class action. The settlement of the suit was overseen by Federal District Court Judge Emmitt Sullivan, who also oversaw the disposition of funds. The issue was fully litigated and affirmed by the Court of Appeals. Not exactly a binding precedent for a slush fund established and controlled exclusively by the Executive branch.

There is no court overseeing any of this. This entire legal charade was done to ensure that no federal judge would even have a chance to review the “anti-weaponization fund.” Instead, the Acting Attorney General appears to be so desperate to stand in Pam Bondi’s shoes that he has turned the Department of Justice into the President’s personal revenge unit and has taken the further step of making nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars available to a gaggle of convicted felons to compensate them for their criminal acts

James Petrila spent over thirty years as a lawyer in the Intelligence Community, working at the National Security Agency and, for most of his career, at the Central Intelligence Agency. He has taught courses on counterterrorism law and legal issues at the CIA at the George Washington University School of Law. He is currently a senior advisor to the Institute for the Study of States of Exception and is a member of The Steady State..

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.

Hi, I’m Steven Cash, Executive Director of The Steady State.

I wanted to take a moment to explain a few changes we’re making with our Substack and the Steady State Auxiliary, because the two are connected.

Many of you have already been incredibly generous by becoming paid subscribers to our Substack. That support helps us do the work, of course. It gives us resources. But just as important, it tells us that people care about what they’re reading here and believe this kind of work is worth sustaining.

We’ve also heard from many of you asking a simple question: what more can I do?

That question is what led us to create the Steady State Auxiliary.

If you are a paid subscriber and choose to opt in, you can become a member of the Auxiliary. We’ve joked about whether membership comes with a secret decoder ring. Sadly, we cannot make that happen. But what we can do is offer members a closer connection to the work we’re doing.

That means advance looks at some of what we’re publishing, along with private conversations with me, members of the Auxiliary, and some of my colleagues at The Steady State.

The goal is simple: to build a more engaged community around the work of defending democratic institutions, understanding threats to the rule of law, and helping people make sense of this moment with clarity and seriousness.

So if you’ve been reading our work and want to support it, we hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. And if you’d like to go a step further, we’d love to have you join the Steady State Auxiliary.

Thank you for reading, for supporting us, and for being part of this effort.

Become a paid subscriber today, and opt in to join the Steady State Auxiliary. We’d be glad to have you with us.

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Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.