As a 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate, I am appalled at the dumbing down of January 6, 2021 events and the free pass many are giving to the central figure of that tragic day, former President Donald J. Trump.
As a military service member for more than 21 years, my life and sacred honor have been sworn to defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. As a citizen, my solemn commitment to this oath endures.
The events of January 6, 2021 were the outworking of an American a populist movement to support a defeated president beyond his lawful tenure. Since then, this disastrous and cataclysmic event has been exulted and glorified through perverse right-wing narratives and malign foreign influences working to create internal strife to weaken America.
Worse still, this populism has grown into a lite fascist movement behind Donald J. Trump. History recalls fascist movements have “many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites” (Britannica).
Today, such ideas are severely supplanting the Republican Party. Having campaigned across 20 states, I have seen the disturbing pattern. The ideological divide between right and left has become deeper, but while this divide can be softened, the divide between moderates in the GOP and those who confuse loyalty to Donald Trump with loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, cannot. Some ultra-loyalists have even committed to a violent Revolution if necessary.
Part of the reason is that mis-information and dis-information was weaponized by Trump and foreign malign actors to create a permanent persecution dynamic. This means Trump is never wrong; nor can he be. And anything that happens to him is everyone else’s fault. He is the victim. This often world-view confirming narrative has allowed him to build a ground swell of loyalists after the pattern of Mussolini.
A narcissist takes self-obsession to an extreme. A sociopath is willing to destroy lives to realize their desires. A maniac is willing to burn down everyone and destroy everything for their own revenge.
For those able to recognize the realities, it is a national imperative to get to the polls and defeat Donald Trump through the electoral process. As a national security and military expert who has advised the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Council, and The State Department, my assessment is that Donald J. Trump is the number one internal security threat to our Republic and freedom. The second is illegal immigration.
I voted for Trump in 2016; I believed as many that we needed an outsider. But working adjacent to the Trump Administration, I witnessed a level of dysfunction that can only be described as dangerous. I am directly aware of actions Trump took that compromise our national defense. A compromise that directly risks the lives of up to 280,000,000 Americans to this very day.
My assessment of the threat Trump poses hit close to home in October 2023 during the “Testing Waters” period for my 2024 candidacy. I was contacted a former General Officer, now retired, who I once served with. The retired General, now a Trump Loyalist, warned me for my own safety to stay out of the race.
“David, he said,” you are a ‘Uniter’; but in 2024 there is going to be blood running in the streets and tribunals for corrupt political officials. Stay out; run for President after the purge in 2028 to heal the nation.”
Mussolini did not cease power with military forces. He took power through coercion and intimidation. The same intimidating language used to warn me during the inception of my own campaign.
If unsuccessful at stopping Trump as candidate, I will join ranks with those center, left, or right to stop him. Our nation’s security and future is more important than one man’s campaign of retribution.
Tyrants are equal opportunity destroyers. And they can be stoped when you stand up to them and do the right thing.
We must open our eyes about what is happening inside our nation. Benjamin Franklin cautioned, “You have a Republic, if you can keep it.” Can we keep it?
I believe 2024 will be the year America decides.