We are at an Inflection Point

We are at an inflection point in our nation’s history — maybe the inflection point of our lifetimes. The kind of moment that will be studied in history classes decades from now, when people ask how the United States, with all its checks and balances and self-image as the guardian of democracy, found itself here. The stakes could not be higher.

Right now, Donald Trump is in the process of deploying the United States military on United States soil, against American citizens. This is not hypothetical. This is happening. And it is happening in Washington, D.C., a city I have lived in and know well. Despite what political rhetoric might lead you to believe, the city is not inherently unsafe. It has its neighborhoods, its problems, its quirks — but it is not a war zone, not a place where tanks and troops should be part of everyday life. And yet, soon, armed military personnel will be walking those streets.

If you believe moments like this demand independent, unflinching reporting, I hope you’ll consider subscribing now. There are no billionaires funding this work, no corporate board dictating what I can say. It’s just me, my phone, and the conviction that we deserve the truth — all of it. Every subscription makes it possible to stay on the ground, to keep pressing for answers, to refuse the distractions that power wants us to chase.

The question we need to ask is why this deployment is happening. The official reasons will be dressed in familiar language: security, order, stability. But I believe the real reason is distraction. Because at the very same time the National Guard is being mobilized, the Epstein files are breaking. These files, long kept out of public view, contain the name Donald J. Trump. That alone should be front-page news across the country. But instead of being the dominant story, it is being pushed down the news cycle by an orchestrated spectacle of militarization in the nation’s capital.

Since taking office in his second term, Trump has made a project out of testing the limits — not just of the law, but of our national willingness to resist him. This is his method: push, observe, push again. When he attempted to undermine birthright citizenship, the backlash was swift and firm because the Constitution’s clarity left no wiggle room. But when he turned his attacks toward the media, toward the legal system, toward those institutions that rely more on public perception than legal absolutes, he found a softer target. The pushback was weaker. People flinched. He learned that certain corners of the press could be intimidated, and certain corners of the legal community could be worn down. That lesson is now being applied on a grander scale.

Deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C. is a calculated move. It’s a flex of authority designed not only to show the public that he can, but also to dominate headlines, change the subject, and create a visual — soldiers in uniform, military vehicles rolling through familiar streets — that draws the cameras and drowns out other coverage. It is a show of force meant for television and social media, a reality show episode of power. And it is happening at the exact moment a story emerges that threatens him directly.

Today, I covered more of the protests on the ground:

The Epstein files have been fought over in court for years. They contain the names, the connections, and the details of one of the most notorious sex trafficking operations in modern memory. And just today, a judge denied Trump’s request to release grand jury documents related to Epstein — a decision that might sound minor, but is in fact part of a larger and ongoing battle over what the public is allowed to know and when.

These developments should be dominating coverage right now. They should be discussed on every major network, on every political podcast, in every paper’s front section. Instead, the media is being handed a different kind of story — one that’s easier to shoot, easier to fill airtime with, and safer to cover without drawing direct political retaliation: the National Guard on patrol. It’s an old political trick, but it works best when the press plays along.

This is why the role of the media is so critical at this moment. Our job is not to amplify distraction. Our job is to hold two truths in focus at the same time, even when one is a moving, noisy spectacle designed to obscure the other. We have to track the troop movements and the checkpoints, but we also have to dig into the court filings, the depositions, and the implications of those Epstein files. We cannot let one be erased by the other.

For the next thirty days, I will be on the ground in Washington, D.C. I will be documenting every part of the military deployment. When I am not on the streets reporting on that, I will be covering the Epstein case: the latest legal maneuvers, the reactions from those implicated, the decisions being made in courtrooms that the public will never see unless someone bothers to tell them. I will do it without a newsroom, without corporate backing, without a billionaire in my corner. Just me, my phone, and my obligation to get the truth out.

This is why I became a journalist. Not to win favor. Not to join a club. But to inform — fully, honestly, without fear. We are living through dangerous and historic times, and history will not care about our excuses if we fail to tell the whole truth now. The press has to rise to the moment, because if we don’t, the precedent being set will change this country in ways we cannot undo.

I love this work. I love it with all my heart. And as exhausting, chaotic, and sometimes frightening as it can be, there is nothing else I would rather be doing. Because this is the job: not just to witness history, but to confront it, record it, and refuse to let it be rewritten in real time by those in power.

We can survive this moment. But survival is not enough. We have to win it. And winning begins with refusing to be distracted.