Trying to understand Senator Mike Lee.
June 17, 2025
As I begin to write this newsletter on Monday evening, a sense of foreboding hangs over the news cycle. Trump cut short his disastrous appearance at the G7 meeting in Canada to return to DC for an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. Trump’s abrupt return followed a social media post in which he advised residents of Tehran, Iran, to flee.
Whatever is happening, the clueless Trump will be advised in the situation room by Marco Rubio (serving as Sec. of State and National Security Advisor), Pete Hegseth (cosplaying as Sec. of Defense), Pam Bondi (cosplaying as Atty. Gen.), Stephen Miller (Deputy W.H. Chief of Staff), Tulsi Gabbard (Dir. Nat. Intel.), Sebastian Gorka (Dir. Of Counterterrorism), among others. See Institute for Global Affairs, Who’s Who On Trump’s National Security Council?
Let’s hope and pray that the amateurs in the Situation Room have the humility and good sense to listen to lower-echelon advisers with actual knowledge of foreign affairs and experience in matters of war. Sadly, the National Security Council lost key staff members after fringe extremist Laura Loomer convinced Trump to rid the NSC of staff members who weren’t giving Trump the answers he wanted. See AP (4/3/2025), Trump fires several national security officials over loyalty concerns.
When partisan loyalty triumphs over truth-telling in national intelligence, the decision-makers are making decisions based on facts that cannot be trusted. A very dangerous situation.
Without knowing more, it feels like the US may be positioning itself to be an active participant in a shooting war in the Middle East—something that two decades of experience counsels against. See Institute for Study of War, Iran Update Special Report, June 16, 2025. (“The United States is deploying additional forces to the Middle East to “provide options to defend US assets and interests.”)
Update: The Lucian Truscott Newsletter has provided a much more detailed analysis of what is happening in the Middle East as of Monday evening. For those interested in the details, I highly recommend Lucian’s analysis: Something big is about to go down in the Middle East.
We often overlook the damage to national security that Trump's election inflicted on US interests. However, we may soon discover just how much we will regret the steady hand of a wise and experienced leader during a time of crisis.
Trump's short but disastrous trip to the G7 meeting in Canada.
The G7 is a voluntary forum for the world's leading economic powers, committed to liberal democracy and representative government. It is composed of the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the EU (as a non-voting member). Meetings of the G7 are high-profile events where world leaders discuss trade policy and global security.
By departing early, Trump avoided a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which was planned for Tuesday.
Despite his short stay, Trump inflicted maximal damage to relations with our closest allies by calling for the readmission of Russia into the G7. Russia was expelled from the group for its invasion of Ukraine. Trump also called for the admission of China, a country that (like Russia) fails the “liberal democracy, representative government” test for admission to the G7.
As noted above, in our rightful focus on resisting Trump's attempt to overthrow the Constitution, it is easy to overlook the damage he is causing to our relationships with our closest allies.
Trying to understand Senator Mike Lee
Following the horrific political killings and attempted assassinations in Minnesota, Senator Mike Lee posted a series of tweets that mocked the killings and falsely claimed that the perpetrator was a “Marxist” Democrat. See The Guardian, Trump and other Republicans mock Democrats after Minnesota lawmaker killings.
I won’t repeat Senator Lee’s cruel posts, but they have earned him more than the usual share of condemnation, although not a word has been heard from his fellow congressional Republicans.
Can we understand what motivated Senator Mike Lee to abandon his sense of decency, morality, religious principles, and empathy as a father and husband?
No, we can’t. Trying to understand Senator Mike Lee is a waste of time. There is no explaining, rationalizing, or excusing Senator Lee’s grotesque behavior. Instead, we should condemn Lee and everyone who fails to condemn him—and then move on.
There is a path for redemption for Mike Lee, but it is up to him to take it. That path involves a level of introspection, regret, shame, sorrow, and determination to be a better person that is far beyond Mike Lee’s current level of self-awareness. Let’s not wait for a sincere effort by Mike Lee to seek redemption and forgiveness. We have a democracy to save, and trying to understand Mike Lee’s depravity is a diversion we cannot afford.
DEAR READERS: Shortly before publishing, I made the decision to omit the remainder of my discussion regarding Senator Mike Lee. The discussion was too dark and angry for inclusion in this newsletter. I do not want to provoke anger or despair in readers. In place of the remainder of my essay, I link to a communication from a Senate staffer to Senator Mike Lee, as published in the Salt Lake Tribune: Minnesota US Senate staffer sends Mike Lee a scathing email. Read it here.
What Mike Lee did was reprehensible. Our remedy is to take control of the House and Senate in 2026 so that we can re-establish norms of decency and decorum among members of Congress. In a rational world, the Senate would censure Mike Lee, at least.
Republicans run roughshod over the Constitution and federal law every day.
In the noise, confusion, and chaos caused by Trump's high-velocity constitutional violations, it is difficult to see the pervasive way in which he is ignoring the Constitution and federal law every day.
On Monday, we learned the following:
The Department of Homeland Security is spending money in excess of its congressional appropriation and is diverting funds appropriated for one purpose to a different purpose. See Raw Story, 'Spending like drunken sailors': Kristi Noem risks criminal charges over ICE
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy threatened to withhold appropriated transportation funds from “blue states” based on Duffy’s subjective perception of whether those states were enforcing immigration laws. See Raw Story, Sean Duffy to withhold transportation funds from cities with anti-ICE protests.
Withholding funds appropriated by Congress is a violation of the Constitution and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Multiple court orders have ruled that efforts to withhold funds by other agencies violate federal law and the Constitution. Yet, Sean Duffy is proceeding as if those court rulings do not exist.
A US District Judge in Massachusetts ruled that cuts to funds appropriated to the NIH violate federal anti-discrimination law. See HuffPo, Judge Rules Some NIH Grant Cuts Illegal, Saying He's Never Seen Such Discrimination In 40 Years.
As reported by HuffPo, Judge William Young, Reagan-appointee, said,
After 40 years on the bench, “I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young added. He ended Monday’s hearing saying, “Have we no shame?”
The Guardian reported that the Veterans Administration had modified a rule so that it is now permissible for the VA to refuse to treat patients based on their party affiliation. See The Guardian, ‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans.
Per The Guardian, new regulations eliminated “[l]anguage requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status.”
A spokesperson for the VA initially seemed to confirm the change:
In an emailed response to questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, did not dispute that the new rules allowed doctors to refuse to treat veteran patients based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation, but said “all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law”.
In a later response, the administration strongly denied it would refuse to treat patients based on party affiliation, but did not address the rule changes that omitted protections based on party affiliation. See The Hill, Trump administration denies report of new VA hospital rules.
Given the active efforts to deny federal funding to “blue states,” the removal of protections for patients based on party identification rightfully raised concerns about the intent of the rule change. It may be that the uproar over the rule change forced the administration to back down from a plan to deny healthcare to Democratic veterans.
Trump administration reverses reversal of decision regarding raids on farms, hotels, and restaurants.
Last week, Stephen Miller suffered a temporary setback to his plan to “Make America White Again.” The Department of Homeland Security issued an internal communication advising ICE agents to refrain from arresting immigrants working on farms, in hotels, and in restaurants.
On Monday, that “exemption” for farms, hotels, and restaurants was lifted and ICE agents were told they were free to resume raids at those locations. See Reuters, US reverses guidance pausing ICE raids on farms, hotels and restaurants, WaPo reports.
This development is bad news for all Americans, regardless of their immigration or citizenship status. ICE is detaining people based on their “appearance.” The agents are brandishing assault rifles while covered in body armor and emerging from unmarked cars.
After the tactics used by the killer in Minnesota—impersonating an officer, wearing a face mask to conceal his identity--the resumption of detentions in restaurants and hotels is likely to spread public panic and result in impromptu public resistance, the combustible mixture that led to unrest in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Richard North Patterson serializes a book-length essay on Substack called “America on the Precipice.”
Noted author, long-time reader of this newsletter, and friend, Richard North Patterson, has begun publishing a serialized book-length essay on Substack called “America on the Precipice.” It is a “bottom-up” review of how we got here, concluding with “Recovering American Democracy.” The first installment is here: America On the Precipice Section I and is free to read.
Ric and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on how to approach our democratic crisis, but his views represent the outlook of a good number of readers of this newsletter, especially those who favor the editorial stance of the Bulwark (my gloss, not Ric’s). Check out Ric’s America on the Precipice if you are looking for a deep and thoughtful dive into how we got here, and where we go from here.
Concluding Thoughts.
Apologies for a “tough news” edition of the newsletter. We should all still be riding high from the incredibly successful protests over the weekend. Like you, I am seeing ever-higher estimates of the total number of participants in the No Kings Day rallies. I will wait for a firmer estimate before amplifying the higher numbers, but I am inclined to believe that the initial 5 million estimate was low. Stay tuned.
The New York Times published an informative news analysis regarding the law firms that capitulated to Trump. See NYTimes, Trump’s Strategy in Law Firm Cases: Lose, Don’t Appeal, Yet Prevail (Accessible to all.)
The point of the article is that many (most?) of Trump's executive orders are so blatantly illegal that even he doesn’t believe they will hold up in court. The point is simply to cull the herd by picking off weak participants who would rather settle than fight an illegal order.
As the Times notes, Trump hasn’t even bothered to appeal the losses he suffered in court at the hands of law firms who refused to capitulate. Despite the obviously illegal and unconstitutional nature of the executive orders against the law firms, about a dozen concluded it was easier to surrender than undertake a principled defense of the Constitution.
There is a hugely consequential lesson for us in the capitulation of a dozen of the world's most powerful and wealthy law firms: Trump is nearly all bluster. He will press his advantage until someone stands up to him. He will then retreat and pick on someone else, until the new crop of victims finally stands up against him.
“We, the people,” are calling Trump's bluff and standing up to him in an unprecedented manner. We must continue that effort until he retreats--or rather, until his corporate overlords tell him to retreat because they cannot afford the disruption to their businesses. That day is closer than we think.
Keep up the good work—and look for the next opportunity to get back in the streets.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Daily Dose of Perspective
Another lonely galaxy in the immenseness of the universe.
Mike Lee was already my least favorite Senator due to his advocacy of selling off millions of acres of federal land. But the comments he made about this tragedy are beyond the pale. Would be nice if he lost his next election.
Well for one thing I don't think you should apologize for telling the hard Cold Truth. Civility has its bounds. Your newsletter tonight stirred me to call the Senate and leave some scathing voice messages for Mike Lee that guy from South Dakota who's the leader of the Senate right now and I just picked one out of a hat and called Ted Cruz and said I hope he's going to say something about Mike Lee's conduct Mike Lee's reprehensible conduct. A friend and I today were acknowledging that we hope somebody's keeping a list of all the things that are being destroyed so that if we ever recover some things can be reestablished without a 200-year gap. So yeah your work is really important and it's okay for you to get angry and express your frustration and anger.
On a different note I wanted to share my daily dose of perspective today. This is the one year anniversary of the death of one of my best friends our friendship was 40 + years in the making. Today friends and I gathered to create festive decorations for our upcoming Juneteenth celebration.