This afternoon, I need to speak with clarity and urgency.
Today, some media voices and many of Donald Trump’s allies near the White House have already begun attempting to normalize his statements calling for the execution of Democratic lawmakers who urged military service members to follow their constitutional oaths and reject unlawful orders.
Unlike some in the media and many on the right, I refuse to normalize it. We cannot normalize it. And I will never participate in that erosion of standards. If you believe independent, truth-driven reporting still matters, I invite you to subscribe and support this work as I continue to hold the powerful accountable and never normalize this behavior.
This moment is another glaring example of what I call sane-washing, the steady and dangerous process of smoothing over behavior that would have once shocked the nation simply because it comes from Donald Trump or those within his orbit.
We see it everywhere:
“It is just Trump.”
“That is how he is.”
“Nothing new.”
These phrases sound casual, even dismissive. But what they truly reveal is a country growing numb. Even Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, just took no issue with Trump’s call for execution, stating: “What I read was he was defining the crime of sedition. That is a factual statement.. What I’m saying, what I will say unequivocally that was a wildly inappropriate thing for so called leaders in Congress to do to encourage young troops to disobey orders”
We have slowly lowered our standards for what is acceptable from the most powerful office in the world. Words or actions that would have triggered a crisis under any other president are now shrugged off as personality quirks or political theater.
But it is not just Trump being Trump.
And it must never be treated as routine.
Imagine any other president, whether Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, or Ronald Reagan, using similar rhetoric toward political opponents. Outrage would be immediate. Congress would launch investigations. Impeachment resolutions would appear within hours.
With Trump, too often the response becomes a tired acceptance. That reflex is not harmless. It is corrosive.
The press has a duty to democratic standards, not to political convenience. Journalists must hold every leader to the same expectations of truth, restraint, and respect for institutions. When the media excuses or softens behavior because that is simply how Trump operates, it shifts the public understanding of what is normal and what is acceptable.
And once that line moves, it becomes very difficult to shift it back.
My commitment is simple.
I will not contribute to that drift.
My work is grounded in naming things accurately, not based on fear, not based on what people have grown desensitized to, and not based on political pressure.
When we stop demanding integrity from our leaders, we stop defending our democracy.
When we wave away chaos as normal, we weaken the guardrails that protect our institutions.
When we convince ourselves that this is simply the way things are now, we begin to accept the unacceptable.
This is why we must stop sane-washing America before the damage becomes irreversible.
