DOJ’s credibility rests on being separate from partisan political messaging, especially in matters involving the president. Direct WH management of DOJ’s account during the Epstein files release makes prosecutorial decisions and public explanations look politically orchestrated to protect Trump.

We Are Not Negotiating a Ukrainian Peace: Repeated Failures of Emissaries are not Attempts to Reach a Respectable End to War but a Dishonorable Effort to Wear Zelensky Down open.substack.com/pub/steadyst... Clarity and Candor. A Must Read.

The Steady State Sentinel Podcast: Sneak-Peek at the January 6, 2026 Line-Up open.substack.com/pub/steadyst...

The Steady State Sentinel Podcast: Sneak-Peek at the January 6, 2026 Line-Up open.substack.com/pub/steadyst...

The Steady State Sentinel Podcast is coming January 6! #StillStandingWatch

You don’t have to agree with the targets of this policy to see the problem: once certain speech becomes “foreign policy threats,” there is no principled limiting line. www.state.gov/releases/off...

FREDONIA PROJECT - SITREP 21: US DOMESTIC AND NATIONAL SECURITY - 27 DECEMBER 2025 open.substack.com/pub/steadyst... Hot off the Wires! The latest intercept of a SitRep from the Fredonian Embassy in Washington, providing a unique appraisal of the Administration’s actions to date. Don’t miss it!

The administration’s goal, he said, was to deport immigrants as efficiently as Amazon moves packages: “Like Prime, but with human beings.” — ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.” That line—often attributed to Sinclair Lewis—was a warning. When federal agencies promote Christianity as inseparable from governance, the warning ceases to be theoretical. #getsmart #holdfast

The Mass Recall of Experienced U.S. Ambassadors Endangers American Security open.substack.com/pub/steadyst... "The job of ambassador requires experienced...multitalented people who will energetically and fearlessly advance...the interests of the US. [It's}...what taxpayers have a right to expect."

1/ In a racist rant supported by a misleading graphic, Flynn proposes sending Obama “back to Africa” and suggests we “prosecute” Somalis on welfare.

The America Stephen Miller romanticizes existed because of mass immigration just decades earlier. Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra weren’t symbols of a closed America — they were proof of assimilation after it tried to exclude people like them. #holdfast

substack.com/@steadystate... “This ‘show of force’...to put pressure on Maduro...--part of the administration’s effort to oust him from power... it’s... likely that it will only turn the people of Venezuela against the ‘imperial’ Americans.”

substack.com/@steadystate... “... Mr. Trump seems to be looking for ways to superimpose himself in a brutal, absurd and embarrassing manner ... that diminish both him and this country…” Malignant Narcissism? An excellent question, by Steady State’s Bill Piekney!

Marble armrests at the ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ aren’t just tacky; they’re deliberate decadence, floated after Trump muscled through a 6x increase in federal funding for the building via his One Big Beautiful Bill. Authoritarianism always starts by gilding the palace. #getsmart #holdfast

Join us January 6 for the Steady State Sentinel Podcast! #StillStandingWatch

Shattered Trust open.substack.com/pub/steadyst... "It’s true...that Trump has achieved a historic national security turnaround, and oh-so-quickly. The problem...is that the factual record shows that Trump has shattered, not restored, the world’s trust in America’s essential decency."

Political strongmen often respond to damaging information by calling it fake, attacking the process, and demanding selective enforcement against opponents. It’s a well-documented tactic to avoid scrutiny. #holdfast

Preemptive delegitimization: when damaging information threatens someone’s reputation, power, or legal exposure, a common response is not to rebut the facts, but to attack the legitimacy of the information itself, such as by calling it a hoax. #getsmart #holdfast

1/ Trump is becoming increasingly defensive about the release of the Epstein files. Transparency isn’t a hoax — unless it applies to Trump. DOJ is already out of compliance with the Epstein Transparency Act.

U.S. military force must be based on lawful authority, not religion. Threatening to kill people because they target Christians crosses a clear constitutional line and violates the law of armed conflict. #getsmart #holdfast

🚨🚨🚨Extremely dangerous language here. Democracies don’t threaten people with losing their next Christmas. Dictators do—by what sounds very much like a death threat stating, “Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas!”🚨🚨🚨 #holdfast

1/ When your compass is so broken that it insists north is south, every direction you point suddenly becomes a lie. Trump is still claiming the New York Times ‘apologized’ for its election coverage, which the article explicitly did not do.

If ICE can wrongly detain a U.S. citizen and move her before a judge intervenes, the message is clear: citizenship alone no longer guarantees protection. No one is off limits. #holdfast www.cnn.com/2025/12/23/u...

Military force framed as personal punishment, justified by religion, and announced by decree is no longer constitutional command. It’s strongman governance. #getsmart #holdfast

Massie answers Trump in his own Q‑ish ‘4D chess’ vernacular, not to praise some hidden genius, but to spotlight how shamelessly Trump is making things up. #holdfast

Authoritarian systems thrive on disinformation because repetition, volume, and coordinated lies erode trust in reality—making power easier to seize and harder to challenge. #getsmart #holdfast

1/ A Trump-appointed federal judge, Gary R. Brown, ordered the immediate release on bail of a noncitizen and directed the government to show cause why it should not be held in contempt over ICE’s repeated failures to follow court orders. www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/u...

1/ Trump amplifying unproven criminal accusations blurs the line between law enforcement and political retaliation. It puts pressure on prosecutors and investigators, legitimizes conspiracy theories, and erodes trust in elections.

If ICE can threaten arrest for filming, then journalists, watchdogs, and protesters can all be silenced the same way. You don’t have freedom of the press if recording police is treated as terrorism.  #holdfast www.cato.org/blog/dhs-pol...

Steady State members reaffirm our oath to the Constitution. #holdfast #steadystate

1/ FACT CHECK: Trump’s post conflates two separate issues to claim “hundreds of thousands of ballots were counted twice.”

When satire needs government approval, it’s no longer satire. #holdfast

substack.com/home/post/p-...

1/ Macron’s statement is Europe publicly hardening a sovereignty red line inside NATO at the same time Trump’s 2025 NSS casts Europe as strategically unreliable and in need of U.S. correction,

1/ The concern many European leaders are reacting to is that the Trump administration’s articulated logic increasingly mirrors the rationale Russia has invoked to coerce Ukraine—claiming security necessity, questioning a neighbor’s legitimacy, and treating sovereignty as conditional,

My just-posted essay forthcoming in Bench & Bar went from part of "Trump & the law" symposium to freestanding b/c too few lawyers willing to write. Chilled speech makes my pt: civically things are objectively bad b/c of repression of critics, who are the *majority*. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

It has been widely reported that Trump rarely attends intelligence briefings. Apparently, that’s not the only information he’s missing. Based on his lack of knowledge of US history, it appears he may have also missed high school history class. #holdfast

Dictators don't serve the state. They brand it with their own name. #holdfast

How authoritarians acquire a country.

1/ Dakota S. Rudesill, drawing on The Steady State’s assessment as a foundational reference, argues that the second Trump administration is driving the US toward a form of executive autocracy, nationalsecurity.law.georgetown.edu/journal/2025...

The Steady State’s Luis G. Moreno, condemns President Donald J. Trump’s pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, arguing that freeing a recently convicted narco-trafficker responsible for hundreds of tons of cocaine and widespread abuses exposes a stark hypocrisy in U.S. drug enforcement policy.

Do read @eisendrath.net piece - "We cannot have both equality and autocracy, freedom and obedience. We cannot have a government that secures our rights and one that centralizes wealth. We cannot have the rule of law, and a corrupt ruling family." open.substack.com/pub/lincolns...

The Steady State’s Eric Rubin tells CNN that now, more than half of US embassies abroad will not have a confirmed ambassador calling it “a serious insult to the countries affected, and a huge gift to China.’” www.cnn.com/2025/12/22/p...