true the vote

Even as Christian nationalist views decline throughout the United States, one pastor closely linked to President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is gaining more power through his influence at the Pentagon.

“Pastor Doug Wilson gave a surprisingly dispassionate interview to NPR’s Leila Fadel last week,” wrote The Dispatch’s Michael Reneau and Hannah Anderson for The Dispatch on Sunday. “I describe it as ‘surprisingly dispassionate’ because in the interview, Wilson espoused repealing the 19th Amendment, ending no-fault divorce, and introducing religious tests for public office; yet his delivery of these radical ideas was decidedly unbothered—a marked contrast to the responses the interview elicited from evangelicals and beyond. The emotional gap between Wilson’s rhetoric and how people respond to it is one of the defining features of his public presence. It’s also a key to understanding his ideas and how he uses them.”

Wilson is an evangelical pastor from Moscow, Idaho, who is particularly influential with Hegseth and the Defense Secretary’s inner circle. Wilson was even invited to preach at a Pentagon worship service that the cabinet officer began last year.

“Given his proximity to power, Wilson has become the subject of national media coverage, which often focuses on his claim to want to establish the United States as a Christian theocracy,” The Dispatch wrote. “Such language conjures visions of a real-life Gilead, the authoritarian and patriarchal republic that is the setting for The Handmaid’s Tale, but it would be a mistake to read Wilson as an ideologue. In fact, he spoke pragmatically in the NPR interview, naming the work of democracy as the work of persuasion. Wilson’s demeanor, even if slightly awkward, was not forceful or aggressive. He was measured, friendly, playful. But that disconnect—between the weight of what Wilson is suggesting and how easily he suggests it—is what’s concerning. “

The Dispatch pundits identify Wilson as a dangerous theocrat precisely because he is able to present his ideas in a seemingly rational manner, and also knows how to pull them back when he arouses controversy. In that vein, he also knows how to make his critics seem like they are being uncivil when they object to what he says and does.

“One way Wilson distinguishes himself, however, is how he uses radical ideas,” The Dispatch explained. “Unlike those who might hide a radical agenda, Wilson speaks openly about it—almost performatively. Those familiar with his broader body of work know that he delights in the drama of it all in much the same way that President Donald Trump seems to. Wilson doesn’t reverse course so much as place responsibility for the drama on others. He courts outrage and then retreats to the abstract when others react. ‘Screamers,’ he called them in the NPR interview.”

They added, “Speaking with Fadel, Wilson suggested that previous interviewers just threw ‘mud at the wall. You’re a fascist. You’re a Nazi. You’re a thing, you know…’ but now, he’s ‘risen to the dignity of needing to be intelligently opposed.’ In other words, the problem isn’t what he said; it’s that you (mis)understood. You were too sensitive. Satire is a legitimate form of argumentation, and you don’t understand how rhetoric works.”

Even when Wilson treads on incendiary ground, like downplaying the horrors of American slavery or encouraging people to interact with child sex abusers, he does not seem to lose influence within the MAGA universe.

“Wilson’s ability to separate the theoretical and actual also explains how he could devote his first book to a philosophical exploration of American slavery, writing that it was a ‘normal sinful situation’ rather than an ‘apocalyptic evil,’” The Dispatch explained. “The cover image is of a ‘black and tan,’ a mixed drink made by pouring a darker beer over a lighter one. This same indifference explains how Wilson could guide a young woman who was a New St. Andrew’s student to marry a convicted pedophile who was a part of their church community (and who had abused children within the church as an NSA student himself). Not only did Wilson mishandle the previous cases of sexual abuse, he diagnosed the groom’s behavior as ‘temptation,’ with the theoretical cure being sexual expression in marriage. The groom was later removed from the home when a judge ruled he could not live with his infant son due to failed polygraphs and further violations.”

They concluded, “If being a pastor is akin to being a doctor, Wilson is the doctor willing to experiment on his patients. And now, it seems, the nation itself.”

Wilson’s rising influence speaks to how the Trump political structure is inextricably tied to Christian nationalism. In March, The New Yorker’s Rachel Monroe reported that “people not attuned to the evangelical world may have missed the growing prominence of hyper-politicized churches such as Mercy Culture, which have become a key wing of the MAGA coalition. Compared with the religious right of previous generations, this cohort of pastors, influencers, and self-described prophets offers up a version of worship that’s at once more mystical, with an emphasis on supernatural powers, and more militaristic, with heightened political rhetoric.”

Monroe continued, “Many adopt a Christian-nationalist framework, arguing that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed as such.”

This philosophy directly contradicts the ideas of America’s key founding fathers, including President Thomas Jefferson, who was the chief author of the Declaration of Independence.

"His 'empire of liberty' offered the potential to dismantle the artificial hierarchies inherited from the past and imbue all aspects of life with the promise of freedom and happiness," Dean Caivano, an assistant professor of political theory at Lehigh University and author of "A Politics of All: Thomas Jefferson and Radical Democracy," explained to this author for Salon Magazine in 2024. "Although this idealized image of a free and harmonious American society is undeniably marred by the institution and legacy of slavery, overlooking the role of education and science as prerequisites for freedom and equality diminishes our ability to assess the historical and contemporary limits of American democracy critically."

Donald Trump cruised back to the presidency thanks to "an informal court of influencers, podcasters and self-appointed power brokers," but now, a new piece from Salon argues that his power is crumbling thanks to those very same people.

"During his presidential campaigns and midterm election cycles, that ecosystem amplified Trump’s message and bypassed traditional Republican institutions," Salon's Sophia Tesfaye wrote. "Now it’s colliding with the basic mechanics of governing and embarrassing the administration by creating a parallel power structure of clout chasers around the presidency. This week alone offered multiple remarkably different examples of the same phenomenon."

She continued: "In one, alleged pardon brokers sold access to Trump’s orbit as a luxury service. In another, one of Trump’s most influential MAGA personalities allegedly converted that proximity into a payday on the prediction markets. And in another example, a freshman Republican congressman threatened to derail House business over a feud with one of Trump’s favorite influencers. "

This class of media figures, Tesfaye argued, who deduced "that proximity to power is the only product worth selling," and now they are cashing in on it. In doing so, they threaten to "blow up their own party’s agenda."

Things are particularly stark when it comes to the MAGA sphere's treatment of key information. Tesfaye explained that, "In MAGAland, insider information is something to be teased, reposted and traded on."

"On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that over lunch at a members-only social club in Tampa, Florida, GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna confided in associates that she already knew Trump would pick JD Vance as his running mate in 2024. According to a person familiar with the conversation, she revealed she had passed the tip on to Rogan O’Handley, the MAGA influencer known to millions of followers as “DC Draino,” so he could place a winning bet on Polymarket, and she later teased him for not placing a bigger wager. O’Handley had reportedly been quietly campaigning on social media to get Trump to consider Luna herself for the ticket, and when she told him Vance had gotten the nod instead, he cashed in on the correct pick anyway."

She continued: "Another account described a former investment banker saying he received the same kind of early tip through a conservative Heritage Foundation associate and used it to profit as well. Both Luna and O’Handley deny any wrongdoing, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is reportedly examining the allegations."

Tesfaye also detailed the story surrounding Alex Bruesewitz, who works as an "outside political adviser" to Trump, and has sparked a feud with Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, who has pledged to vote against every piece of legislation until Bruesewitz is fired. This animosity appears to trace back to an appearance Brueswitz made on Tucker Carlson's podcast in which he called the congressman "that creepy fat guy from Florida who endorsed genocide," while discussing Trump's endorsement of him.

"That a sitting member of Congress was willing to shut down his own party’s legislative business over a personal and ideological vendetta involving a Fox News alumnus and an outside political adviser is landing at the worst possible moment for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who needs something close to unanimity just to function," Tesfaye explained. "He’s already seen what a handful of defections can do: Weeks earlier, a separate bloc of conservative holdouts, several of whom had signed Fine’s own SAVE America letter, tanked a defense authorization rule. Suddenly Johnson was faced with a member willing to burn down the floor schedule indefinitely because the party’s most influential unofficial adviser called him fat on a podcast."

She concluded: "When clout brokers can provoke lawmakers into obstructing their own party’s agenda, the White House is no longer directing the coalition — it is being dragged around by it. It’s clear that Donald Trump’s unofficial MAGA court is becoming a liability."

When rapper Boosie Badazz — a.k.a. Torence Ivy Hatch Jr. — announced he was suing a lobbying firm that he paid to get him pardoned by President Donald Trump for alleged unlawful firearm possession, the music star did more than air his own grievances. According to a recent report, Hatch also shed light on how Trump has systematically used his pardoning authority to enrich his allies and consolidate his power.

“$600,000: That's the amount rapper Boosie Badazz reportedly paid a Washington lobbying firm to secure a presidential pardon,” NPR's Ayesha Rascoe told NOTUS reporter Jasmine Wright in a Sunday interview. “The rapper, whose real name is Torrence Hatch, was looking to overturn a federal conviction over the unlawful possession of a firearm. But the pardon hasn't happened. Now Hatch is reportedly looking to recover half of what he paid through arbitration. The rapper's case represents a growing industry in Washington, D.C.: wealthy clients paying to try to secure clemency from President Trump.”

As Wright explained to Rascoe, “There was an impetus by folks around the President, and the President himself, to do more of these pardons,” with the Justice Department’s pardon attorney Ed Martin losing much of his authority to the president and his inner circle.

“I've talked to a lot of different pardon attorneys, pardon lobbyists, folks who are involved in this business, and they say that their number one piece of advice to their clients is, one, call who you know,” Wright said. “If you know anybody remotely close to the White House, let them know that you're looking for a pardon. And two, try to get in front of the President. I've talked to people who say they have advised their clients to go to Mar-a-Lago, the President's resort residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Any way that you can get your application — your reasons for why you deserve clemency — in front of the President, they say, is an easier way to get closer to a pardon.”

Regardless of the ethical controversies surrounding this process, Wright emphasized that it is also entirely legal.

“This is legal,” Wright told Rascoe. “To be fair, people have always paid attorneys and lobbyists for pardons. You're not paying for the individual pardon; you're paying the person to go advocate on your behalf to get you a pardon or commutation.”

She added, “What's happening now is that, because of the normal barriers that used to exist to obtaining a pardon, it is now easier for people with some sort of association — they don't have to have a law degree, they don't even have to be an actual registered lobbyist — to go advocate to the White House to get their clients pardoned. And so this has created and normalized a new economy in which people are paying up to $5 million in some cases to individual lawyers or lobbyists to advocate on their behalf in hopes of getting a pardon. Now, not everybody who is doing this is getting a pardon, as we can see from this case.”

Not all of Trump’s pardons occurred because of lobbying efforts. Trump also used his power to help roughly 1,500 rioters who helped him attempt to overthrow the government on Jan. 6, 2021 after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Ever since, many of the Jan. 6ers have gone on to engage in serious crimes.

"At least 12 of the pardoned rioters have since been charged with other serious crimes, including child molestation, assault, harassment, murder plots and charges related to a vicious dog attack," The New York Times editorial board wrote in June. "The outcome was predictable. Critics, including this board, had warned that Mr. Trump’s pardons would embolden the rioters by signaling that crime has no consequences. One does not have to be a criminologist to predict that people who commit a violent act and are absolved of any punishment might become repeat offenders."

President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, his former attorney Todd Blanche, has been widely criticized for admitting that he primarily views himself as Trump’s attorney and not doing enough for the victims of Trump’s longtime friend, the late Jeffrey Epstein. Yet even as Blanche gets in trouble for things such as saying Epstein’s victims should “do the legwork” for prosecuting Epstein and his associates, conservative critics of Trump have another observation — namely, that Democrats are not doing nearly enough to hold Trump and the other Epstein associates legally accountable.

“That's where Chuck Schumer, you know, should be choosing people to be on that committee who have that skill set, right?” Andrew Weissmann, a New York University law professor, explained on a podcast for The Bulwark posted on Sunday. Weissmann referred to how the New York senator and Senate Minority Leader has refrained from assigning lawmakers with a habit of asking tough questions to interrogate Blanche. “I mean, you have a bunch of people to choose from. And so that's where, you know, people — I feel like they don't do the hard work — but I agree with you.”

He added, “The other thing is, you know, get the person talking. You shouldn't be afraid of that. If you are right, and the whole thing is not a ‘gotcha,’ it's not a sort of game — this is where I think it helps that I was mainly a prosecutor.”

Weissmann said that, for example, a Democratic senator could have asked Blanche after the latter said he took responsibility for mistakes in producing the Epstein documents, “Just say, ‘Mr. Blanche, what's the first time you have ever said that? Isn't it today? Prior to today, wasn't your position that everything was fine?’” He added that they could similarly hold Blanche accountable for botching the investigations into the ICE murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

“The victims have come out from that meeting and said one of the things Todd Blanche said at that meeting was, well, you know, you need to go to the FBI and talk to them — which, by the way, point one, they have,” Weissmann pointed out. “They're like, ‘What are you talking about? We've already been to the FBI.’ And then he says, well, the reason you need to do that is that he, as the acting attorney general, cannot open an investigation.”

Weissmann’s observations were similar to those of Longwell, who shared his views that Democrats have not been aggressive enough in holding Republicans accountable for their actions regarding Trump and Epstein.

“The word I think you're looking for is ‘conviction’ — or maybe you're not, but it's the word I was looking for. I don't think you can sort of prosecute a case here, whether it's to the public or to actually move [something],” Longwell told Weissmann. “I think I came from the place that I'm not sure it's realistic that you're going to get the Republicans to vote against him. And so, for me, I was like, how do you — how do you at least make this about an issue that's going to be really complicated for him? And how do you get answers on Epstein, and sort of push that back into the news? You never know.”

This was similar to Weissmann’s complaint about Democrats in the Senate and how they handled Blanche.

“I think the more interesting question is not so much how did Blanche do in terms of his tone, but rather, how did the Democratic senators do in terms of their tone?” Weissmann said. “And that, to me, from the moment it began with Senator Durbin, who is obviously a lovely person, a smart person, and I think trying to be fair and wasn't engaged in a ‘gotcha’ — and that's true for many of the senators, you know — but there was zero sense of passion. There was zero sense of wrong. And, by the way, I'm not saying that you have to be rude or vitriolic. I'm just saying there was — I can understand why young people could be totally turned off by politics seeing that, and this sort of sense of the game that's played.”

When President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement regained control of America’s government in early 2025, there were multiple reports of them having fun as they laid off thousands of government workers and implemented the Project 2025 agenda. Yet between Trump’s underwhelming Great American State Fair, his desperate attempts to preemptively claim the midterm elections were stolen, his unpopular war against Iran and America’s ongoing economic problems, that sense of fun has now seemed to have mostly disappeared.

“The worst part about living in Donald Trump’s Washington has been seeing just how much fun he and all the MAGA vandals he brought to power have been having sacking and pillaging the place,” The New York Times’ Sally Quinn wrote on Sunday. “This while the rest of us longtime Washingtonians who abided by norms, shared values and even bipartisanship were filled first with shock, then a feeling of helplessness, and hopelessness. It could border on passivity. What could be done?”

Quinn referred back to an essay she wrote for the Times’ last year regarding the Trump administration’s attitude upon taking over Washington DC again.

“Nobody feels safe,” Quinn wrote at the time. “Nobody feels protected. This is a city where people seek and, if it all goes well for them, wield power. But today in Washington, those who hold — or once held — the most power are often the most scared. It is not something they are used to feeling.”

Reflecting back on those words in July 2026, Quinn argued that “sometimes it felt as if the Trumpists could smell our fear, and seemed to be enjoying it.” Yet because of the president’s multiple policy controversies and overall loss of popularity, she observed that this once-optimism has waned.

“Now they’re the ones in despair, fearful and losing hope,” Quinn wrote. “Even the true believers are questioning the MAGA theology. Why are we at war with Iran still? Our military is humbled, our reputation in tatters, and now gas prices are going up again.”

The columnist also pointed out that various Trump efforts to revive his approval ratings — including hosting a UFC fight on the White House lawn, leading the Great American State Fair and delivering a speech falsely claiming the 2020 presidential election as stolen — have failed to take off. As a result, even groups that normally stood by his side resolutely are now keeping their distance.

“Many Republican lawmakers are beginning to quiet-quit,” Quinn wrote. “The Wall Street Journal called it the G.O.P. ‘zombie Congress’ — not in open revolt, exactly, but not ready to take a bullet for the president and his self-serving crusades as the midterms approach.”

She added, “Then there’s Mr. Trump’s estrangement from some of his biggest allies: Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Alex Jones and Ann Coulter, not to mention former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Even onetime Trump-skeptical Republican senators who had joined the bandwagon, like Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn, have, after being primaried by Trump-endorsed challengers, been more vocally critical. And even Joe Rogan has had his altercations with the president.”

With the cage fights serving as a “tipping point” in terms of Trump’s ability to be taken seriously even by his erstwhile allies, Quinn described how in advance of the fights one of Washington’s “hottest restaurants” hosted many Trump-world major players — but they could not successfully hide their ongoing concerns.

But the mood felt off,” Quinn said. “Less jubilant. As if they knew that the U.F.C. fights were really going to be the moment when MAGA jumped the shark.”

Leon Wieseltier, editor of Liberties magazine, told Quinn that “people are genuinely disgusted and they’re now combative. Like Popeye, they’re essentially saying, ‘That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more.’ Before he eats his spinach to fortify himself.”

President Donald Trump has worked to accelerate America’s development of AI rather than regulate it, and the result is not just an epidemic of deepfakes and hallucinations being passed off as legitimate research. A new report reveals that some of the nation’s best-educated workers, who once were secure, are taking it on the chin.

“About one third of the total personal wealth in the United States is held by the top 1 percent of households, while the bottom half of Americans holds less than 3 percent, according to Federal Reserve data,” wrote The Washington Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin and Shira Ovide wrote on Sunday. This data includes former economic winners who are now finding themselves on the wrong side of layoffs and hiring freezes — tech workers.

“The sense of precariousness among America’s professional elite could be a preview of what’s ahead for the rest of the country as AI spreads,” the Post wrote. “Silicon Valley techies are ‘are guinea pigs for what tech dudes want to do to everyone,’ said Anil Dash, a technology entrepreneur.”

They added, “At tech companies, leaders obsessed with winning the AI race have tasked their workforces of coders, lawyers and HR professionals with becoming the front line of that transformation. They’re being measured by how quickly they can automate their own jobs while watching their colleagues get pushed out in successive waves of layoffs.”

The report continued, “Layoffs.fyi, which tracks announced job cuts, counts more than 800,000 tech workers laid off since 2022, including large staff reductions in recent months at Meta, Microsoft, Oracle and Amazon.” According to the Silicon Valley market research consultancy founder Oliver Raskin, whose company is called Signalcraft Insights, “there’s this whole tranche of people who’ve been quite used to being among the most upwardly mobile in society who are all of a sudden saying, ‘Now I’m the guy on the street.’”

In the mid-to-late 20th century, autoworkers were the group most likely to fall into the category of “entered a specialized field on the premise that it was well paying and stable, only to have the rug pulled out from under them.” Now that dubious distinction belongs to tech workers such as coders and engineers, whose positions are being outsourced to AI because the technology’s speed and without regard to notable dips in quality.

“There’s just a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear, a lot of people feeling like, if they get let go from this job, they might not find another one,” Anneke Buffone, a psychology PhD who Meta hired to help employees’ well-being and safety but ultimately left in December, told the Post.

“She described getting pushback from managers when she tried to explain that a particular AI tool was a waste of time,” the Post reported. “The system had so many errors that she needed to redo its work.”

It continued, “But her bosses ‘were like, ‘No, keep using it more. It’ll just get better,’’ she said. ‘There’s a feeling among management that when you voice that AI has all these problems, they don’t want to hear it.” AI, she said, makes “everything go so much faster. It creates this illusion that you can get all this stuff done. Much of the time you’re just babysitting the AIs.’”

Pete Hegseth may have terrible judgment, but his comic timing is vaudevillian.

The former TV host who bills himself as America's "secretary of war" chose the perfect moment -- as his enraged presidential boss resumes the fruitless bombing of Iran -- to announce an ambitious new Pentagon program of testosterone injections for our troops. Announcing that all male service members will be tested annually for possible deficiency, he said that remedial steroid shots will be optional.

"While we invest heavily in our weapons systems platforms and gear, our most decisive tactical advantage will always be the individual warfighter," noted the defense secretary in a video captioned "High T Department of War."

"We have a sacred duty to maintain that advantage, which is why we must constantly look for new ways to optimize your performance, your resilience and your long-term health," he continued. "And to meet that commitment today, I'm authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best."

As the nation confronts the dismal prospect of President Donald Trump's continued warmaking, his dim but hotheaded "warrior in chief" is again busily imposing a solution where there is no problem. Hegseth cited no evidence that our soldiers, sailors and airmen suffer from "low-T," as the TV ads put it -- a suggestion that many of them would probably find insulting. But there is, unfortunately, a hefty catalog of posts, photos, policies and remarks that indicates Hegseth's own insecurity about his male status -- a neurosis he appears to share with other members of the Trump administration, not least the president himself.

If a satirist wrote a script featuring a defense chief who urges a program of testosterone therapy amid a failing war, nobody would believe it. Much too "Dr. Strangelove"! Only in the reality of the Trump regime are such outlandish plot points even imaginable.
America's nasty predicament in the Persian Gulf assuredly did not arise from insufficient aggressiveness on the part of the Trump war cabinet, let alone our officers and troops. Our country is again on the cusp of a "forever war," as the veteran New York Times correspondent Steven Erlanger warned recently, most likely due to an excess of macho hostility and a dearth of impulse control in the Trump White House. Those characteristics are typical, as any doctor will confirm, of an excess of testosterone, all too often the result of self-administered injections by men hoping to feel more manly.

Which calls to mind a strange remark not so long ago by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another public figure whose shirtless displays and constant reckless behavior provoke suspicion of what feminists sometimes call testosterone poisoning. On a podcast last spring, the health secretary reported that "Dr. Oz looked at (Trump's) medical records and said he's got the highest testosterone levels that he's ever seen for an individual over 70 years old.

"I know the president will be happy that I repeat that," he added obsequiously.

Without testing administered by qualified physicians, of course, there is no way to be sure that Trump -- or Kennedy or Hegseth or any other MAGA cartoon characters -- are examples of testosterone overdose. But the president does show clinical symptoms: apparent insomnia, with those endless predawn posting sprees; an enlarged prostate and spreading bald spot, indicated by his use of finasteride, a drug prescribed for those conditions; and most of all his irrepressible impulsivity, aggression and fluctuating moods -- which lurk behind his wild swings in war policy and jut-jawed, blundering diplomacy.

Reaching an honorable end to this ruinous war will require less blustering and clearer thinking. With all due respect to Pentagon Pete, his testosterone obsession won't help.

There’s been a lot of discussion this past week about the meaning of integrity.

You didn’t hear the word used directly; it was alluded to indirectly — in wondering whether Lindsey Graham was an immoral opportunist or clever pragmatist; in suspecting Todd Blanche of being more loyal to Trump than to the nation; in distrusting Erica Schwartz, Trump’s latest pick to lead the CDC, when she said she’ll never compromise on the science; in doubting that Jay Clayton, his pick for director of national intelligence, will tell Trump anything he doesn’t want to hear.

The word integrity is rooted in the Latin word integer, meaning “whole” or “complete” — living by your principles, choosing honesty over opportunism, making ethical choices that may be inconvenient or unpopular, maintaining your moral compass.

Graham’s public record of denouncing Trump on the Senate floor after January 6, 2021, and then becoming Trump’s most loyal Senate apologist revealed someone who traded honesty for influence — a person with little or no integrity.

Blanche, in his hearing to be attorney general, said he wanted to bring trust back to the Justice Department but then accidentally referred to himself as Trump’s lawyer —before clarifying that he “was” — had been —Trump’s lawyer. Blanche’s momentary lapse revealed a deeper conflict, as evidenced by his unswerving loyalty to Trump. He lacks integrity.

Schwartz, in her confirmation hearing, undercut her pledge to be guided by science in saying she believed Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would “never” implement policies that aren’t scientifically sound. That’s enough to cast doubt on her integrity.

Clayton, in his confirmation hearing, repeatedly refused to say Biden won the 2020 election, causing Senator Jon Ossoff to ask Clayton: “You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election? But you ask to lead America’s intelligence community? Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question? To have to indulge the president’s delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question, why can you not give it?”

It is not possible to have integrity and be loyal to Trump. The two are in direct conflict.

No one can be honest in a regime based on big lies. As the poet, philosopher, and statesman Václav Havel put it, “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living in truth.”

So a choice must be made — personal integrity or loyalty to Trump.

In his book The Art of the Deal, Trump wrote that he preferred loyalty to integrity — as epitomized by his mentor, Roy Cohn.

History remembers Cohn for his ruthless bullying, profane braggadocio, opportunistic bigotry, lying, and more lying. Like Trump, Cohn was utterly without principle and prioritized personal power that could be leveraged for wealth, influence, and celebrity. In 1986, Cohn was disbarred by the New York State Bar for unethical conduct after attempting to defraud a dying client by forcing him to sign a will amendment leaving Cohn his fortune.

Yet in his book Trump praised Cohn for his loyalty, contrasting him with “all the hundreds of ‘respectable’ guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty …. What I liked most about Roy Cohn was that he would do just the opposite.”

It is not possible for Blanche or Schwartz or Clayton or anyone else in Trump’s orbit — nor was it possible for Lindsey Graham — to be loyal to Trump and simultaneously maintain their own integrity. It must be one or the other.

Yet integrity is more important than loyalty. As Trump demonstrates time and again, someone lacking integrity is inherently untrustworthy. Such a person cannot serve the people of the United States.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.