It may be true that Stephen Miller is a “world-class hater” driven by “bile” rather than “brains,” but if you report for ABC News, you’re apparently not allowed to say it. The network’s former star Terry Moran—fired last week for what the network called “a clear violation of ABC News policies” and we call “a pretty good tweet”—will join Tim this morning at 10 a.m. EDT for a live Substack chat. Should be a good time! Happy Monday.

Ten Years In

by William Kristol

It was ten years ago today, on June 16, 2015, that Donald Trump descended the gilded escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for the presidency. It’s a melancholy anniversary. The damage that’s been done to the country over this past decade has been very great—as great as (if not greater than) we original Never Trumpers feared.

And the damage isn’t over. Trump’s second term is only one-tenth done. There will be more destruction of the institutions of our government, more degradation of the spirit of our democracy, ahead. Repairing and rebuilding, or building anew, will be a massive task.

Still, I hope I’m not being delusional this Monday morning, looking back on such a tumultuous week, to feel some reasons for hope.

Why?

Trump’s military parade Saturday was a flop. And not just in failing to draw many viewers to Washington. But because, as both the appearance of the parade and reports from within the military suggest, neither the soldiers forced to trudge down Constitution Avenue nor their senior officers forced to organize the event seemed to have any enthusiasm for Trump’s spectacle.

More broadly, it seems that there is resistance in the military for Trump’s project of politicizing it. People who are in much closer touch with active duty service members than I told me how many of their friends privately expressed distaste for the spectacle and what it signified.

You can see the fissures elsewhere. Just contrast the pathetic posturing of Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, in his testimony before Congress this week with the dignified bearing and careful statements of the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine. Gen. Caine was careful to reiterate the importance of the non-political status of the military, and made clear when asked that the presence of immigrants in the United States was not an “invasion.” And he did so while sitting right next to Hegseth.

I think the U.S. military might well hold despite Trump’s and Hegseth’s attempt to politicize it. Perhaps that guardrail against Trump’s project of usurpation has even been strengthened by a kind of revulsion at what they’ve seen over the last week, from the unnecessary deployment to the streets of Los Angeles to Trump’s unseemly speech at Fort Bragg to what Michael Wood, a young Marine combat veteran from Texas, called on X “this silly Belarus-style parade.”

If Saturday’s parade was a failure, the “No Kings” rallies were a success. Organizers estimate 5 million people may well have participated in them. Judging from the one I attended, and also from reports from many others, the mood was at once defiant and upbeat. There was anger but also hope. Homemade signs mocking Trump were side-by-side with American flags showing loyalty to the country. A broad coalition of citizens against usurpation turned out.

Someone at our local protest asked me, “How do we keep this going?” It’s a good and important question, and it’s one that stuck in my mind all weekend. It occurs to me that one small way to keep the spirit of resistance alive and focused might be to emphasize the celebration of our 250th birthday as a nation.

As his parade Saturday suggests, Trump and his apparatchiks will try to hijack the observances of the 250th anniversary. They’ll try to turn it into a celebration of the fever dreams of MAGA, not a celebration of the real American dream. But 1776 really was a rebellion against a king on behalf of natural rights and self-government. It really did lead to a nation of immigrants whose flourishing was made possible by a common dedication to the principles of the Declaration.

The Trump administration will seek to create its own narrative for 2026. What will be needed in contrast is thousands of grassroots, non-governmental efforts to reflect on and celebrate the true meaning of the Declaration.

Looking at aerial photos of the massive “No Kings” protest in Philadelphia, I thought of the founding of this republic and of Independence Hall, the room where it happened. And I also couldn’t help but think of Abraham Lincoln’s impromptu remarks at that site on Feb. 22, 1861, as he made his way from Springfield, Illinois to Washington D.C. to assume the burdens of the presidency.

I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

It’s a sentiment that, despite all the depredations of the last decade, still seems to me surprisingly alive and well today.

Violence and Heroism in Minnesota

by Andrew Egger

It’s a sickening spectacle, and now a common one. Some wretched act of political violence occurs, and within moments the internet jabberers are swarming all over it like ants, searching for clues to the all-important question: Is the attacker one of ours? If he is, then he’s just some nut job and they are evilly politicizing a random tragedy. But if he’s one of the