Rich Moniak: The week Trump turned America into a banana republic
- Guest contributor
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
By Rich Moniak
Last Thursday, despite recommendations of career prosecutors, the Trump administration indicted one former FBI director for allegedly lying to Congress. Two days later the president set his sights on another one. And on Tuesday, he told more than 800 of America’s top generals that they need to be prepared to “help quell civil disturbances” in cities across the country.
“This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room,” he added, “because it’s the enemy from within.”
No American should be surprised by that. Trump used those words more than a few times during the campaign, while also vowing to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country” and who “lie and steal and cheat on elections.” At the memorial service for Charlie Kirk two weeks ago, he made light of his hatred of those who dare to oppose him.
Sen. Dan Sullivan helped make this descent into a banana republic possible by, among other failures to honor his oath, voting to confirm Trump’s nominees to lead the FBI, the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense. As I wrote last December, Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, and Pete Hegseth were all “prepared to serve his vengeful agenda.”
With no sense of irony whatsoever, Attorney General Bondi claimed the indictment of James Comey “reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people.” FBI Director Patel sounded a similar refrain.
Meanwhile, their boss has never been held accountable for lying and continuing to lie about the 2020 election being stolen.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski recognized Patel might focus “on settling political scores” if confirmed to lead the FBI. She and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine were the only two republicans who voted against his confirmation. They both voted against Hegseth too.
But they inexplicably thought Bondi was above all that.
Trump proved them wrong. Just days before Comey was indicted, he called him “guilty as hell” in a public post on social media. And demanded she indict him “NOW!!!”
“That's two in a row, Comey and Wray, who got caught LYING," Trump wrote two days later. Without evidence, he claimed that under Wray the FBI “secretly placed” 274 agents “just prior to, and during, the January 6th Hoax” probably to act “as Agitators and Insurrectionists.”
It was such an egregious error that even Patel felt it necessary to correct him.
"Agents were sent into a crowd control mission after the riot was declared by Metro Police – something that goes against FBI standards," he stated on Fox News Digital. Indeed, acknowledging it was a riot puts the truth to Trump’s lie that the insurrection was a hoax.
But Patel still claims Wray lied to Congress. And not just about that.
In May, he gave the Senate Judiciary Committee a declassified report that suggested Wray suppressed an investigation of an attempt by China to distribute fake drivers’ licenses in 2020 as a means “to create tens of thousands of fraudulent mail-in votes for Joe Biden.”
Even Fox News thought it was necessary to state the qualifiers contained in the report. It was “an information report, not finally evaluated intelligence” based on an unnamed source who “obtained the information from an identified sub-source, who claimed they obtained the information from unidentified” Chinese government official.
But Patel still twisted the story to promote a lie he’s told before – conspirators in the government and the news media “helped Joe Biden rig” the election. Wray was one of them. That’s why he was among the 60 political enemies Patel listed in his 2023 book titled “Government Gangsters.” Comey was another.
As I wrote in December, Trump nominated Hegseth because they agreed that the greatest existential threat to America is from “the enemy within.” Deploying the military to cities — with permission to use “Full Force, if necessary,”—is meant to frighten Americans they consider the enemy into submission.
But maybe I was wrong to suggest Sullivan supported Hegseth to avoid earning Trump’s wrath. Maybe, like Trump, he really hates his political opponents. And maybe that includes every Alaskan who is fed up with him providing cover for a president who is destroying America’s democracy.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
