All Donald Trump requires is total fealty -- and no opposition

All Donald Trump requires is total fealty — and no opposition
The administration is out to destroy critical thinking, humor and the media

By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published September 19, 2025 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) The demons are loose.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have cut their final ties to the Constitution and have mounted up to spread destruction. These demons gallop through the country on horseback, eagerly waging war with sanity, facts and anyone who scares them — which is pretty much the whole world.

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Each of President Donald Trump’s apocalyptic demons have their own expertise. Miller, astride his white-nationalist steed, spreads fear and hatred. He is conquest. Kennedy rides bareback and shirtless aboard a black death horse. He is the master of pestilence and disease; famine. Bondi, riding on top of the red steed of blood, is lawlessness and anger; she is war. Behold the pale horse leading them: Trump. He is death, and hell follows with him.

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So, the problem isn’t social media. That’s a tool. The problem is those using the tool and how it is managed by our government. Anonymity provides the ability to troll endlessly; the lack of identification combined with the lack of experiences gives anyone credibility, even if they don’t deserve it. Those with great experience on a subject have little to no ability to do battle with the smug, the young and the inexperienced. That is why many people, including Kirk, were able to gather a following. The government has failed us on social media as badly as it failed us in traditional media, and in so doing, the government helped fan the flames of extremism. The media owners make the profit and the government exerts control. Trump is the end game of 40 years of this collusion between government and oligarchs. The billionaires are accelerating their efforts to consolidate the media, and Trump uses it as leverage to silence his critics.

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Kimmel’s firing shows us that Trump has now coalesced his power sufficiently to force any corporate critic to bend the knee. Independent voices may remain, but Trump and the GOP have successfully created a martyr in Charlie Kirk to destroy critical thinking, sideline humor and silence the press — and anyone who says something Trump cannot handle. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/09/19/all-donald-trump-requires-is-total-fealty-and-no-opposition/