When I scrolled through the news this morning, an article reported a social media post featuring the stern face of Donald Trump with the caption, “Did you remain loyal?” I assumed it was a fake, another attempt to cast the Trump Administration as “a 1984,” as in George Orwell’s novel. The post was supposedly the work of the Department of Homeland Security.
I promptly went to X, formerly Twitter, to see if the post was, indeed, the work of DHS. It was. I was shocked but shouldn’t have been. The word “traitor” is used these days loosely by Trump and his Administration. If the President’s own misuse of the word were taken seriously, we are surrounded by traitors, ranging from former Representative Marjorie Taylor Green to multiple current Democratic candidates for Congress and other offices.
As I pondered DHS’s post, I wondered, what are they trying to say? And why did they post it? DHS social media posts often show undocumented immigrants who have been deported and report crimes committed by “illegals.” The theme is “Stay out, you are not wanted here.” But this “loyalty post” is something else. It reads like a warning to me and others regularly criticizing the Trump administration.
In recent years, our loyalty has been tested. Most of us love America, or what we conceive American to have been in the past or should be in the future. We are loyal to our country. But until the presidencies of Donald Trump, most of us never said, “I love America, but not the President.” Today I hear that all the time.
I call the events of January 6, 2021, an insurrection, and I credit Donald Trump for provoking it. It was an attempt to end the America I grew up with—one with a procedural democracy that worked most of the time. As I looked at the rest of the world and learned about the Axis during World War II, my pride in America grew. But on January 6th, I wondered if the gig was up. Here was a sitting President of the United States who hoped that the mob he brought to Washington would block the certification of Joe Biden’s election to the presidency, even if that involved killing legislators and even his own Vice President.
It would be comforting if January 6 were a one-time aberration, a Trump-sized bad day in which, unable to accept his loss at the polls, the President challenged reality and lost again. But unfortunately, the abandonment of loyalty to the Constitution demonstrated by Trump on January 6 has been repeated dozens—hundreds-of time since.
Thus, when I look at the DHS social media post, I realize it could be directed at Trump. It isn’t, of course, but if given the opportunity to ask Trump a single question, asking him if he remained loyal would be a good one to ask.
Trump has embraced the principle that laws are meant to be broken, meaning that statues and even the Constitution are meaningless to him because the only part of the Constitution he governs under is the concept that Article II gives him supreme power. That is why the many red flags popping up everywhere suggesting he will attempt to subvert the 2026 mid-term elections are so worrying.
So, let me say that I don’t think Trump has remained loyal. I also wonder if he has ever been loyal to anybody or anything other than himself.
But what about those of us who write and speak about what we see as the failures and misdeeds of Trump, his administration, and his political party? Are we loyal? Better stated, can you be loyal to America and regularly bash its leadership?
Yes, of course. America got started 250 years ago by patriots rejecting their then leaders, including a crazy king (back then it was George III).
As I researched the DHS social media post, I found a comment on it that quoted Theodore Roosevent. The quote is more worth reading than anything else I have read today:
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about anyone else.”
The Theodore Roosevelt Center puts the quote in context:
“Roosevelt spoke these words in Kansas City on May 7, 1918, no doubt in part to justify his extreme criticisms of President Woodrow Wilson, whom he excoriated for moral flabbiness, for high sounding words unmatched by action, and for not preparing the people of the United States for entry into World War I.”
Well said, Teddy Roosevelt.
Let’s salute the patriots who condemn policies, actions, and words of the Trump administration that are wrong, immoral, uncivil, or plain stupid.
May God bless America and our Constitution.
