The Cost of Hyper-Tolerance — Part 3

The Accountability We Must Exact

Nov 28, 2025

We’ve documented the atrocities and traced the 150-year pattern that brought us here. We’ve made the case that “moving forward” is surrender disguised as prudence.

And yet people are STILL talking about “moving forward” and “healing the nation.”

We have the receipts. It’s documented. Sourced. Proven. And people still want to look away.

No. There must be accountability. Not symbolic. Not performative. Real accountability. And it must happen at two levels: national and personal.

National Accountability: Nullify the Presidency and Prosecute the Crimes

I’m going to say something extreme. Good. It should be extreme. The next Democratic president should nullify the Trump presidency on Day One.

Here’s what that looks like: An executive order declaring that both Trump presidencies are illegitimate and their major actions null and void. Not a symbolic statement. Not a resolution. An executive order with teeth.

Judicial nullification:

All Trump-appointed federal judges: Removed from the bench. Their seats declared vacant. New appointments begin immediately.
All Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices: Gone. Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett—no longer members of the federal judiciary.
Every decision where those justices cast votes: Their votes are voided. Not the entire decision—just the illegitimate votes. The immunity decision protecting Trump from prosecution? Recalculated without Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett’s votes. The Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade? Recalculated. Every 5-4 and 6-3 decision where stolen seats made the difference? Decided by the legitimate justices only.

Legislative nullification:

Major legislation signed by Trump: Repealed by executive declaration. The 2017 tax giveaway to millionaires and billionaires? Gone. Every piece of legislation that transferred wealth upward or gutted protections? Reversed.
Minor legislation with small impact can remain—we’re not trying to create chaos for its own sake. We’re unwinding the corruption.

Administrative nullification:

All pardons: Null and void. The 1,500+ insurrectionists Trump pardoned? Their convictions are reinstated. They go back to prison.
All executive orders: Rescinded.
All regulatory rollbacks: Reversed.

“But you can’t do that via executive order!”

You also shouldn’t be able to disappear immigrants into torture prisons in violation of the Constitution. You shouldn’t be able to assassinate people in the Caribbean without trial. You shouldn’t be able to use the DOJ to protect pedophiles. You shouldn’t be able to impose billions in illegal tariffs without Congress. But Trump did all of it anyway.

That’s the point. As we established in Part 2: you cannot rely solely on in-system solutions for problems created by weaponizing the system against itself. Republicans stepped outside the constitutional order to commit crimes against humanity. We step outside that order to undo the damage and exact accountability.

Here’s how it works in practice: The president issues the executive order declaring judicial nullification. Democrats in Congress—assuming they have a majority—stand by and let it happen. They don’t intervene. They don’t challenge. They simply acknowledge the new reality: those judges and justices are no longer part of the federal government. The president begins appointing replacements immediately.

This is exactly what the GOP Congress is doing right now. Republicans watch Trump disappear immigrants, assassinate people without trial, defy court orders, loot the country—and they do nothing. They don’t intervene. They don’t challenge. They simply let it happen. The mirroring is not coincidental. We’re proposing to do for restoration what they’re doing for destruction.

Will there be chaos? Some. Will courts try to stop it? They can try—but if the executive branch simply declares those courts illegitimate, who enforces their rulings? The executive branch enforces court orders. And the executive branch will be the one issuing the nullification.

This is precisely the logic Trump used. He ignored court rulings on tariffs. He defied judicial orders on deportations. He operated as though the courts had no authority over him. Fine. Now we use that same logic against everything he built. Every judge he appointed. Every justice he stole a seat for. Every vote they cast. All of it—gone.

But nullification alone is not enough. We must also prosecute. Use every legal mechanism on the books. And where existing law falls short, we need new mechanisms—trials that match the scale of the crimes.

For crimes against humanity—establish Nuremberg-style tribunals. The CECOT deportations weren’t immigration enforcement. They were ethnic cleansing. The Trump administration targeted people who followed existing immigration law—asylum seekers exercising their legal right to seek protection. Then they disappeared them into torture facilities. 238 people. At least 130 with no criminal convictions. Over 60 Venezuelans seeking asylum legally. They deployed ICE to hunt them. They mobilized the National Guard to round them up. They sent them to concrete cells where El Salvador tortures gang members. 23 hours a day in isolation. No sunlight. No lawyers. No due process. This is ethnic cleansing under international law. These are crimes against humanity.

The officials who ordered it. The ICE agents who executed it. The National Guard members who participated. The DOJ officials who provided legal cover. All of them must face international tribunals. Not federal courts. Not criminal trials under existing U.S. law. International tribunals modeled on Nuremberg. Because when you commit crimes against humanity, when you engage in ethnic cleansing, you answer to humanity—not just to domestic law.

The fishermen bombings? Same framework. 79-83 people killed without trial, without evidence, without due process. Extrajudicial executions. The officials who authorized the strikes, the military personnel who carried them out—Nuremberg-style accountability.

For everything else—use the full force of existing law.

Trump’s crypto corruption? Federal prosecution under the Emoluments Clause. Constitutional violations. Bribery statutes. Every deal with Justin Sun, every dollar funneled through World Liberty Financial, every foreign government payment—prosecute it. Senators Merkley and Warren documented it. Senator Blumenthal condemned it. The evidence is public. Charge Trump. Charge everyone involved.

The illegal tariffs? Trump defied federal court rulings declaring his actions unlawful. That’s not policy disagreement. That’s contempt of court. Prosecute the knowing violation of judicial orders.

Maxwell’s preferential treatment? Investigate every official involved in her transfer. Every DOJ attorney who facilitated her meeting with Todd Blanche. Everyone who gave her “concierge-style” treatment while serving time for child sex trafficking. Obstruction of justice charges. All of them.

This is not a witch hunt. This is not political prosecution. This is accountability for documented crimes. We have the evidence. We have the legal framework. What we need is the will to use it.

Prosecute at two levels:

International tribunals for crimes against humanity: Ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings, systematic human rights violations
Federal prosecution for constitutional and statutory crimes: Emoluments violations, bribery, contempt of court, obstruction of justice

Both levels. Non-negotiable. And yes—prosecute everyone involved. Not just Trump. Every official who carried out these orders. Every attorney who provided legal cover. Every administrator who facilitated the crimes. “Just following orders” is not a defense. Nuremberg established that. If you participated in crimes against humanity, you face consequences. If you enabled constitutional violations, you face prosecution.

And we must seize every penny of their ill-gotten gains. Not fines. Not settlements where they pay 2% and keep the rest. Complete financial forfeiture. Trump’s crypto deals? Every dollar that flowed through World Liberty Financial. Every payment from UAE’s MGX. Every kickback from Binance. Seized. All of it. The hundreds of millions Trump and his family stood to make from stablecoin corruption? Gone. Not a slap-on-the-wrist penalty where they still walk away rich. Total asset forfeiture.

The same goes for everyone involved. Every official who profited. Every administrator who took kickbacks. Every attorney who got paid to provide legal cover for crimes. When this is over, they don’t get to retire comfortable. They don’t get to keep mansions bought with blood money. They end up with nothing.

And every dollar goes to making people whole.

The farmers devastated by Trump’s illegal tariffs? Compensated from seized assets. The families of the fishermen killed in Caribbean boat strikes? Restitution from the fortunes of those who ordered their deaths. The asylum seekers tortured in CECOT? The DACA recipients disappeared into Alligator Alcatraz? The 1,200 people erased from ICE databases? Their suffering is acknowledged, documented, and compensated.

This is not vengeance. This is not punishment for its own sake. This is restitution. The basic principle that when you harm someone, you make them whole. When you steal, you return what you took. When you destroy lives, you pay for the damage.

The money doesn’t go to government programs. It doesn’t fund Democratic priorities. It doesn’t get absorbed into general revenue. It goes directly to victims. To the families who lost fathers in the Caribbean. To the children who lost parents to deportation. To the communities devastated by economic chaos. To everyone Trump’s regime harmed.

When we’re done, every perpetrator walks away with exactly what they deserve: nothing. And every victim walks away with the closest thing to justice we can still deliver: the knowledge that crime didn’t pay.

“But what you’re calling for is extreme!”

Yes. It is. And it’s measured compared to what they did.

We’re calling for nullification of judicial appointments. They extrajudicially executed fishermen in the Caribbean—no trial, no evidence, no due process. We’re calling for voiding illegitimate votes on Supreme Court decisions. They disappeared asylum seekers into torture prisons for months. We’re calling for reversing corrupt legislation through executive order. They erased over a thousand human beings from government databases—families couldn’t find them, lawyers couldn’t locate them, people just vanished.

You want to know what an actually extreme response would look like? Rounding up everyone involved and executing them without trial—the way they executed fishermen. Disappearing Trump administration officials into foreign prisons outside U.S. jurisdiction—the way they disappeared asylum seekers to CECOT. Erasing them from databases so their families can’t find them—the way they erased detainees from ICE systems.

We’re not calling for any of that.

We’re calling for removal from office. For voided votes. For repealed legislation. For trials with due process, evidence, and defense attorneys. For financial forfeiture that goes to victims. That’s not extreme. That’s restrained. That’s more consideration than they gave the people they killed, tortured, and disappeared.

But here’s what makes this different from what they did. Here’s what makes this legitimate.

We don’t use these powers for partisan gain. Period.

This is not a power grab. This is not an opportunity to ram through a progressive wish list. We don’t use nullification to pass a $20 minimum wage. We don’t use it to impose new regulations on business. We don’t use it to deliver Medicare for All. We don’t use it to advance any policy agenda—no matter how righteous, no matter how popular, no matter how much we believe in it.

This is course correction. Nothing more.

The nullification powers are used exclusively to undo the damage Trump caused and restore constitutional normalcy. We remove the illegitimate judges—and then we appoint new ones through the normal process. We void the illegitimate votes—and then we let the reconstituted Court decide cases through normal proceedings. We repeal the corrupt legislation—and then we pass new legislation through Congress, the way it’s supposed to work.

Everything we actually want to accomplish—the minimum wage, healthcare, climate action, all of it—we do through the system. Through Congress. Through legislation. Through the democratic process. The extra-constitutional powers are for restoration only.

Why? Because this is a gamble. A bet on the American people. We’re betting that when we show them what we’re doing and why—when we demonstrate that we’re correcting course, not seizing power—they’ll understand. They’ll see the difference between Trump using extra-constitutional power to enrich himself and protect pedophiles, and Democrats using it to undo that corruption and restore the rule of law.

And if we’re wrong about the American people? If they backlash against restoration—if showing them the truth about extrajudicial killings, torture prisons, and systematic corruption, and then demanding accountability, results in punishment at the ballot box? Then we have a problem no system can fix. We have a population that rewards criminality over justice. We have an absence of ethics and morality so profound that democracy itself becomes impossible. And if that’s who we are, the American Experiment is already a failure—we’re just lying to ourselves about it.

But I’m betting—I have to bet—that when confronted with reality, Americans will choose correctly. Not because history guarantees it. But because the only alternative is accepting that we’re already beyond saving.

You don’t stop fascists by following rules they’ve already broken. You stop them by making the cost so severe—so total—that no party, left or right, will ever think they can do this again with impunity. Act like Trump acted, and your entire presidency gets erased. Every appointment. Every decision. Every legacy. Wiped from history.

But you do it for restoration, not revolution. You do it to reset to normalcy, not to establish a new abnormal. And then you prove you meant it by governing within the system you just restored.

That’s the bet. That’s the gamble. That’s the only path forward.

Personal Accountability: Stop Tolerating Them

Here’s the uncomfortable part. The part you don’t want to hear. National accountability means nothing without individual accountability.

Too many of us tolerate Trump supporters in our lives. We stay silent at Thanksgiving. We avoid politics at work. We let family members share fascist propaganda unchallenged because confrontation is uncomfortable. Or we go to the other extreme—we cut them off entirely, ghost them, block them without ever telling them why. Both are failures.

If you’re tolerating fascism in your personal life because it’s easier than confrontation, you’re part of the problem. If you’re cutting people off without making them face what they’re supporting, you’re avoiding accountability.

What we must do: Hold them accountable directly. Uncomfortable conversations. Personal confrontation. Make them defend it. Make them say out loud that they support bombing fishermen, disappearing asylum seekers, protecting pedophiles.

But confrontation doesn’t have to mean warfare.

Let’s be clear: some Trump supporters are genuine white supremacists and Christian Nationalists. They know exactly what they’re supporting. They want the cruelty. For them, yes—no quarter, no patience, no pretending there’s common ground.

But most Trump supporters aren’t that. Most are essentially cult members. They’ve been manipulated by decades of right-wing media, targeted by sophisticated propaganda, fed a steady diet of fear and grievance until they can’t distinguish reality from Fox News fever dreams. They’re not evil. They’re captured. And you don’t deprogram cult members by screaming at them. You do it by creating cognitive dissonance—by making them confront the gap between what they believe and what’s actually happening.

That means different tactics for different people. For the true believers, confrontation is resistance. For the cult members, confrontation is intervention. Both are necessary. Both are uncomfortable. But they’re not the same thing.

I’ve written a full guide on how to approach this—how to distinguish between types of Trump supporters, how to create effective messaging, how to find the cracks in the cult’s armor: Anti-MAGA Messaging Guide. If you’re serious about personal accountability, read it.

“But that’s bad for my mental health!” Is it? Look around. Is your mental health any better watching the country descend into fascism? Is avoiding conflict with your Trump-supporting uncle worth watching immigrants disappear into torture prisons? The discomfort you’re avoiding now—the awkward dinners, the tense conversations, the lost friendships—will be dwarfed by the suffering that comes later if we fail to stop this.

If we’re too comfortable, too conflict-averse, too worried about our own mental health to confront the people enabling fascism in our own lives—then the ensuing sacrifices we’ll have to make will far exceed what we’re saving now.

This is hard. I know from personal experience. Confronting people you care about sucks. It’s exhausting. It damages relationships. Do it anyway. Because the alternative is worse. The alternative is watching this continue. The alternative is complicity.

Don’t Get Complacent

Yes, we won some elections. Yes, Trump will likely lose the House in 2026. Yes, the backlash is real.

Do not think the nightmare is almost over.

An animal is most dangerous when cornered. Trump is cornered. The GOP is cornered. They know they’re losing. They know accountability is coming. Things will get worse before they get better.

They’re going to get more desperate. More violent. More brazen. The next year will be brutal. The atrocities will escalate. The cruelty will intensify. That’s why we must plan now—not just for delivery, but for accountability.

When we get back in power:

Deliver for the American people. Make life affordable. Fix what’s broken. Give people a reason to believe government can work.
Exact accountability. Use every mechanism. Don’t be afraid of appearing political. Establish consequences so severe they create generational deterrence.

Both are non-negotiable. Both require sacrifice. Both require getting uncomfortable.

Before we conclude:

If this series—from documenting atrocities to making the historical case to laying out what accountability must look like—has shown you the stakes clearly, please consider supporting The American Manifesto. Paid subscriptions make it possible to keep making the arguments others won’t, to keep demanding accountability when others counsel silence.

🛡️Join the Resistance

This Is Our Moment

Here’s the truth: We are the accountability. Not the courts. Not the media. Not some future historian who’ll judge this era harshly. Us. If we tolerate fascism—at the national level, at the personal level—we get more fascism. If we let atrocities slide because we’re tired of fighting, we get more atrocities.

The cost of hyper-tolerance is everything. Democracy. Justice. Human dignity. Lives. We must refuse to pay that cost.

So here’s what we do:

At the national level:

Demand maximum accountability when we’re back in power
Support nullification—yes, even though it’s extreme
Use every legal mechanism without hesitation

At the personal level:

Stop tolerating Trump supporters in your life without confrontation
Have the uncomfortable conversations
Sacrifice your comfort for accountability

At every level:

Distinguish between good-faith and bad-faith actors
Tolerate the former, refuse to tolerate the latter
Remember: Fighting intolerance is not intolerant—it’s survival

This is not easy. This is not comfortable. This will cost you relationships, energy, peace of mind. Do it anyway. Because the alternative is fascism. The alternative is watching atrocities multiply. The alternative is complicity.

This is the wake-up call. Every time we said “when they go low, we go high,” they went lower. Every time we chose unity over justice, they chose power over democracy. Every time we let them off the hook because prosecuting them felt too political, they committed worse crimes. We created this. Not through malice, but through tolerance. Through conflict avoidance. Through the desperate belief that civility and norms would somehow restrain people who reject both.

And now we face a choice. The choice. We can hold them accountable now—comprehensively, severely, without apology—and sever this cancer from the body politic. Or we can continue to tolerate it. Continue to avoid confrontation. Continue to hope it goes away on its own. And watch it metastasize.

Cancer doesn’t stop growing because you ask it nicely. It doesn’t disappear because you ignore it. It spreads. It kills.

Accountability is the surgery. Painful. Invasive. Traumatic. And absolutely necessary. The future we get depends on what we do right now. In this moment. With this choice. Sever the cancer, or let it consume us.

Let’s get to work.

Your Move

This series has laid out the case. Now it’s on us. So I’m asking you:

What personal accountability have you demanded in your life? Have you confronted Trump supporters you know, or are you avoiding the discomfort?
Who in your life is a true believer vs. a cult member? How do you approach them differently?
What’s the hardest conversation you’ve had—or avoided—about what’s happening? What made it hard? What would make it easier?
If Democrats actually did this—nullified the presidency, prosecuted the crimes, seized the assets—would you support it? Even knowing the chaos it would cause?

This series is complete, but the work is just beginning. Your voice matters. Your action matters. Your willingness to be uncomfortable matters.