On April 2, 2024, I reported Donald J. Trump to the FBI as an imminent threat to the President of the United States. Why? At a time when world leaders were sharing Easter messages of renewal, rebirth and love for humanity, Trump posted a video—a rendering of the president bound and in the back of a pickup truck as if he were about to be a victim of a lynching.
I called the FBI because I worry about Trump’s lack of accountability for his ongoing violent rhetoric, imagery, and veiled threats to anyone who tries to hold him accountable.
Most important, I worry about everyday people like me who are buckling under the weight of Trump’s endless barrage of racism, misogyny, dishonesty, cruelty, non-intellectualism, and outright buffoonery.
It is impossible to track the litany of bad behavior or to prioritize which poisonous statement or post is the one to worry about most. I fear that we the public normalize Trump’s misconduct because we cannot manage its sheer volume.
With the despicable attempt on Trump’s life last weekend, we Americans, the masters of short memory, are being told that violent rhetoric is a both-sides-ism issue, and we all must equally tamp it down. But no Democrat tried to overthrow the government on January 6, 2021. No Democratic politician joked about the frightening 2022 attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, winding up the vicious, cackling crowds at one of his rallies like a cheap vaudevillian. No Democratic candidate has boasted that there will be a “bloodbath” if he loses in November. Must I go on?
Donald Trump has vilified and threatened judges and their children, attorneys general, prosecutors, and witnesses. But now, when the violence that he has fomented has landed in his lap, he wants to “unify” America (until he reverted to himself as he did in an often-rambling, lie-filled incoherent speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday).
The entire country is spooked by the attempt on Trump’s life, and Democrats, mealy-mouthed and spineless in the best of times, are trying to find ways to make nice with their opponents. (A kind of decency is expected of Democrats that is not of Republicans in the Trump era.) I suggest that Democrats reject these expectations in favor of the future of our democracy.
Trump’s call for unity is a sign that the opposition labeling him as an autocrat-in-waiting and warning of the perils of Project 2025—the manifesto developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation to collapse key government agencies, and to help the president consolidate his power, all under the umbrella of Christian nationalism—is taking root.
I will not heed a call for unity on Trump’s terms. As the Chicks sang in their Grammy Award winning song, “I am not ready to make nice. I am not ready to back down.” I am ready to act.
Back in April my mouth went dry as I gave the FBI official who took my complaint my name, address, birthdate, and phone numbers. The information I was handing over was personal and serious. And given how polarized the nation is I couldn’t help wondering which side of the aisle the officer was on. But I was resolute.
Now is not the time for those who intend to vote Democratic to capitulate. We must keep the pressure on. We must continue to speak up, continue to zestfully donate time and talents to the election of whomever the Democratic nominee for president will be. Our country depends on it. And so does the world.
From now until November, instead of asking people how they are, I will ask, “Are you registered to vote?” From now until November I will work to elect a Democrat to the presidency of the United States of America. I will tell my story about reporting a former president to the FBI and remind fellow citizens about all his other flirtations with violence and the destruction of the rule of law. I will encourage them to read Project 2025.
As someone who was raised in the developing world, I will tell Americans that once you destroy your country, you cannot put it back together again; there are no do-overs. This I know personally. And destroy is what Trump and V.P. nominee J.D. Vance will do. I will forge through the violence, confusion, and mixed messages to act on behalf of the nation and the world to which I belong. Nothing could be clearer to me.
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To ensure that you are registered to vote, please visit the Voter Status page at the National Association of Secretaries of State: https://www.nass.org/can-I-vote/voter-registration-status and enter your state and key information.
For easy reference, the full Project 2025 document can be found at: file:///C:/Users/Cheryl/Pictures/baldhead%20empress/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
The other issues I raised in this piece can be looked up using the hyperlinks embedded in this essay.
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