Your Questions Answered: White House vs Road House

On Trump and Big Tech, the tanking economy, and when it’s time to not be nice.

Thank you, subscribers, for your thoughtful questions! I answered most and tried to address the main points of those I didn’t list. I apologize that I ran out of space!

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And away we go…

Sylvia C: If Trump wasn’t around to fill the role of cult leader and autocrat, do you think another autocratic leader might have emerged to fulfill the goals of Project 2025? I understand that Trump has been at it for forty years or so, but did we just get very unlucky with this criminal in chief, or might another have been anointed by the extreme right wing?

SK: We didn’t get unlucky, exactly: intelligent career criminals installed a skilled demagogue frontman after decades of planning and institutional complicity. (For those who doubt this claim, see Hiding in Plain Sight.) But the question of whether there can be a Trump successor is very interesting. The GOP tried with DeSantis and Haley and failed. They tried with JD Vance, and he alienated two Popes, one who would rather literally die than spend one more minute with him. Trump is unique because of his deep connections in business, “business” (organized crime), entertainment, media, and politics. He also had an enormous amount of leverage through blackmail, threats, and bribes, and is a skilled propagandist. It’s hard to replicate that.

In 1990, when the New York tabloids thought Trump was “over”, they wrote of their relief. In 2020, when Trump lost the election, Americans partied in the streets the way countries do when a dictator is toppled. Trump has a cult of personality that doesn’t seem possible to replicate, which is to the advantage of free-thinking people. The key is to never conflate Trump with systemic problems. He is their culmination, not their origin, and those problems will need to be tackled urgently when he goes.

Laura H: Do you see us surviving this regime? Other than protesting, what can those of us trapped in red states do to help us survive?

SK: I will quote red state philosophical luminary Dalton from Road House, the greatest movie set in Missouri: “Never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Take it outside. And be nice…until it’s time to not be nice.”

I’m serious: this is the best “surviving a red state” advice around. And since Dalton was a NYC-to-Missouri transplant cooler, his wisdom applies nationwide. Dalton sagely noted that no one ever wins a fight. This is a call for people to live less in reaction to hostile elements and instead be proactive in building a road house of their own — a road house of the soul, if you will. Or else a real-estate developer tied to organized crime may take advantage of you! And that’s when it’s time to not be nice.

Kas: There seems to be a kind of debate brewing among leftists/progressives between those who consistently point out the most dire outcomes as increasingly likely and those who accuse them of fearmongering and discouraging folks from acting. The likelihood that some version of martial law is or is not staring us down would be an example of this. Personally, I don't think there's a conflict between being realistic about the extremism of the moment and continuing to act where and when we can to hold whatever ground is left, but I'd love to hear your take.

SK: Those deriding realists as “doomers” are abetting authoritarianism, whether they realize it or not. Many do realize it and collect checks to spread this sort of rhetoric. The ideal situation for Trump’s return was an unprepared population who believed his reinstallation could not happen and that his arrest was imminent — and that’s what podcasters and “legal experts” bleated for years in a manner very similar to QAnon. Those pundits should be regarded as a liberal counterpart to QAnon. Like QAnon, they caused material harm by creating a culture of conformity so rigid it led to anyone with a different view getting threatened with violence for not “trusting the plan”.

People should be realistic about Trump. That means looking at his network, its history, and what institutions have done in reaction to it. One cannot unilaterally stave off something like martial law, but your odds of surviving or combatting it increase when you discuss the topic with like-minded folks instead of being silenced by people who chide you for bringing it up. I encourage people to examine the track records of commentators and see how their past predictions panned out. Did they falsely promise “rule of law” and browbeat anyone who pointed to hard evidence of institutional corruption? Then they may be working for nefarious forces. This is more likely to be true if they have a record of fraud and/or are living in a foreign country and don’t have their life on the line here in the USA.

Norm C: Is it my imagination or are some pundits that were reluctant or afraid to suggest what your well researched and written books have been calling out for years, are now "jumping on the bandwagon". They sell subscriptions, speaking engagements, merchandise etc. to help us resist and "fight back". I often enjoy reading their free commentaries but wonder if I'm just being manipulated by a skillful communicator. Is the movement being "monetized"? Any suggestions on navigating among and selecting good sources of information and commentary.

SK: It’s not your imagination. My words have been stolen by the very people who attacked me for writing them. In 2024, I documented the DOJ Infotainment Complex and the grifters who preyed on false hope to get your money. Now, with no self-reflection or apology, those grifters have pivoted into feigning a Trump “opposition”. The commodified resistance, which took off in early 2019, was extremely damaging for the wide-ranging and organic movements that emerged in 2016. They were hijacked by former GOP operatives, FBI agents, and DNC operatives who didn’t want examination of institutional failure and spent more time harassing those who criticize corruption than they did investigating the conditions that allowed Trump to thrive. People have made enormous amounts of money dumbing down dissent through plagiarized memes, nonsensical commentary, and hopium peddling. As in the prior question, I highly recommend vetting your sources and looking at people’s past predictions (if they didn’t delete them — that’s also a tell-tale sign of a grifter, BTW.)

Shawn: I am worried that Trump is purposefully trying to tank the dollar and its status as global reserve currency, as a part of his plan to cripple the US and make it easier to take over. Where can I move my money to be safe(r) during all this, and be less financially susceptible to Trump’s whims, and what did people do in similar situations in the autocratic countries you have studied? Lisa: How can we as individuals make the best financial planning choices to take care of ourselves and children’s basic needs for the future?

SK: I can answer the first part of your question — yes, Trump is trying to tank the economy! He announced this in a FOX News interview in February 2014 which I have been quoting since 2016. It was always his plan, in line with his life as a corporate raider tied to transnational organized crime, and in line with the extreme right-wing groups who long sought to destroy any parts of the US federal government that benefit the public. These goals have been in place since the 1980s, and to some degree, decades before. What is new is crypto and other currencies that could potentially replace the dollar and function as a form of state surveillance.

As for the second part of your question: unfortunately, I have no idea where the safest place is to put money. I wish I had an answer, but I don’t trust that banking regulations will hold. What happened to people in similar situations in autocratic countries is that the black market thrived. There may be a new spin on this in the US since people will also want to avoid being digitally tracked, so cash — if it holds — may have greater appeal. I patronize places that take cash and hire humans and refuse to patronize places that rely heavily on digital commerce, because I don’t want to contribute to my own demise. I wish I had better answers for you (especially Lisa since I share your concerns about raising kids), but I don’t.

Brittany: I know you basically just wrote a book about this, but if you lived in Chicago, had been all over the US yourself, and had a three-year-old son, where are the first few places in the US you would take him that he might be able to appreciate before... well... it's maybe too late?

SK: 1) A park with lots of plants and trees and rocks to examine. Animals are a plus.
2) A body of water. Doesn’t matter what kind, but you’ve got Lake Michigan!
3) An art museum. They don’t need to understand art to love it.

Three-year-olds are great because they are fascinated by everyday things. I remember taking my three-year-old to the zoo to show them elephants, but they were too distracted by ants to care. Keep kids curious; that’s what counts.

Kim R: If the regime asks the military to attack American citizens, do you think there's any chance they won’t? Dan: We’ve seen people who have not committed a crime arrested and detained. We’ve seen judges and elected officials arrested. The purge of the CIA, FBI, and military is being conducted in plain sight. Tariffs bring economic collapse closer. Illegal deportations continue. How soon before the military is used against Americans on US soil?

SK: The military has been used against Americans on US soil for centuries. The key is who gets to be defined as “American”. Attacks on Black Americans, Native Americans, or Japanese-Americans during WWII (to name a few examples) relied on their Americanness being stripped away. The same thing is happening now to immigrants and green card holders, including Americans who have been in this country nearly their entire lives.

One reason the attack on accurate history from the Trump admin has been so pervasive is to prevent Americans from grasping the full story of state persecution. But another is so they will not learn about non-white Americans who shaped American culture and contributed to our triumphs as a country. That’s why they want to ban books at places like West Point. They need soldiers to see fellow Americans as alien and lesser so they will attack them without hesitation. The Trump admin will likely broaden the net and “de-Americanize” white Americans based on things like ideological views; they are already doing this on college campuses. I worry that we will see Kent State-like shootings.

Regardless of how scary this is, do not abandon people. It is important to stand up for everyone being persecuted and to acknowledge them as your fellow Americans, and to fight the state censorship that aids xenophobic propaganda. Don’t assume that everyone in the military will follow illicit orders. Help combat the political culture that contributes to the incentive to obey.

Marina: Why do educated white women support Trump/Musk?

SK: They don’t, on the whole. Both Trump and Musk are very unpopular with nearly everyone now, but also most educated white women voted for Harris.

Renee: Would you leave the US right now for a safer place?

SK: I’m not leaving. I don’t think there is a safer place when the US is collapsing and the mercenary networks are digital and transnational. But I’m also not leaving because, like the St. Louis abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy (who I wrote about here) I will not abandon my post.

Scott P: I'd love some reasons to be optimistic in this frightening time. Where are we making progress? Chris: Since the election and the inauguration (and before of course), the Democrats have, with too few notable exceptions, demonstrated their incompetence and inability or unwillingness to effectively combat authoritarianism and the oligarchy. Even though it wasn’t unexpected—you’ve told us for years they never or rarely hold Republicans and various criminals accountable—it was still boggling that they apparently didn’t do the most minimal planning between the election and the inauguration to try and counter the predictable actions and crimes of the second Trump administration. But at least in my particular social media bubbles, it seems more “Go Blue!” and strong Democratic supporters are starting to catch on that the Democrats are not a true opposition party. So that’s giving me some hope. Are you seeing this too, or no?

SK: I am back from a nine-city tour to a variety of places — everywhere from San Francisco to Tulsa — and what struck me is the clear-eyed view Americans have of their muddled situation. There is a widespread sense we are being screwed over and subjected to forces we don’t understand, particularly when it comes to political alliances with Big Tech. Musk’s overt swindle clarified that for a lot of folks, as did the Democrats’ acquiescence. Dem voters may have finally gotten past the denial stage, which held progress back for the last decade, and realized many of their own leaders are complicit and should be ousted.

There is more interest in mutual aid and other local community support networks from what I can tell, too. That’s hopeful, even though it’s in reaction to a top-down assault. The world as it’s presented on the internet and the world on the ground are increasingly split. I think it’s because people are terrified of being vulnerable online, and kindness and vulnerability often go hand in hand. We now see only a sliver of humanity on the internet, and it’s the kind of sliver that makes you bleed.

Judi B: I hear so many people say "the damage is done, we're cooked - no coming back from this." Others express hope that we'll dominate the midterms and start repairing the destruction and come out OK. My thoughts lie somewhere in the middle. What do you think, based on what you've learned from your research?

SK: I take the Han Solo “Never tell me the odds” approach. Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because you think you’ll win.

Richard D: What should Canada do to protect ourselves from Donald’s “51st state” ambitions? Also, we hope you’ll bring your new book tour to Canada.

SK: I would love to revisit Canada and I’m open to invites! My goal is to see all the provinces, so hit me up, Manitoba! I’m glad that Canadian leaders are standing up to the American government as a whole. But I wish they would not fall for the “red” and “blue” state fallacy created by political operatives in the 2000 election. When you boycott a “red” state, you are often boycotting the people in the red state attempting to overthrow their gerrymandered, dark-money GOP government. Similarly, when you support a “blue” state, you may well be giving legitimacy to Trump’s corporate base. This is very different than boycotting a company you know supports evil, like Tesla. I’d like more thoughtfully targeted boycotts. And please continue to use the free speech you have to keep calling out American corruption — we are increasingly losing ours!

Nicole G: I am curious to get your take on the Canadian and Australian elections. The systems are different, as people are voting for a party rather than a person. In both cases, a conservative party that embraced MAGA lost. Do you think that the situation is similar to the USA in that both major parties (obviously they have many more parties and independents) are supporting the same thing and just participating in kayfabe for the rest of us (which seems to be the situation in the UK), or do you think this is likely to keep these countries off the path that the US and UK are going down?

SK: People around the world are looking at the US and asking, “How the hell do we avoid that?” Which is mildly humiliating but entirely deserved. I’m glad that, if anything useful is to come of this nightmare, it’s showing other countries what not to do. Granted, we have quite a history, what with the Iraq War, the 2008 financial collapse, the covid response, the entire life of Donald Trump…but now folks are really catching on! I love my country but please do not emulate it. The only “American exceptionalism” the world needs is for America to be rare as an exemplar of corrupt governance. It’s not, unfortunately — we’re another mafia state — but the fewer following our current path, the better. As for whether Canada and Australia have kayfabe oppositions, I sure hope not, for your sakes. Folks should study the Biden administration to see what a kayfabe opposition looks like. Here’s a hint: they let seditionists sit in Congress!

Nora: What do you anticipate happening economically and with supply chains? I've been hearing reports of shortages soon due to tariffs as well as due to a shortage of farm labor. Also, do you anticipate hyperinflation?

SK: I’m anticipating stagflation. As I wrote in They Knew, we’ve revived all the crises of the 20^th century in the 21^st — fascism, a global plague, white mob violence, Iran-Contra, etc — so might as well add stagflation to the list!

Jeanine: Through your writing I see you as being someone innately more in touch with a much younger generation. With that being said what could possibly motivate our Gen Z future voters to get them off their screens and help them be interested in civic engagement and voting for themselves? I’m trying not to make this sound critical of them (although many are sensitive of the older generations). What may spark them into a civic minded involvement to their own future? I am truly concerned.

SK: I’m not sure I’m more tuned into Gen Z since my interactions are limited to my kids and their social circles in St. Louis, but I’ll try to answer. What I see are kids simply trying to survive. They have witnessed countless betrayals. This is particularly acute for Black kids who saw a renewed civil rights movement and a vicious backlash. Kids are worried their schools will be defunded and close or that their colleges will be captured by fanatics. They’re worried the economy will collapse even more, and since their parents have also never known a stable economy, they tend to not have faith in the system — deservedly. The Gen X-Gen Z parent/child dynamic is an interesting one.

Many Gen Z folks are sick of the internet, but covid upended face-to-face socialization and they’re still adjusting. People play down the momentousness of the pandemic for that generation — for all generations, but Gen Z in particular. If I had to make a generalized prediction, I’d guess this generation may end up very civically engaged but less engaged in electoral politics. I hope their engagement does not come because Trump brings back the draft.

I should also note that I’m not as attuned to what young right-wingers are doing — except that the effort to recruit them from the GOP camp is much more vigorous than Dem efforts to reach out to young progressives, in part because the Dem leadership hates young progressives. Biden paving the way for Trump’ attacks on college campus protesters is an example of their contempt in action.

Final note: Gen Z is the last generation to have had a childhood without AI. I feel a kinship with them since my generation was the last to grow up without the internet. I hope Gen Z rejects AI and is able to guide Gen Alpha (the youngest generation) who may grow up thinking that robots replacing critical thinking is normal.

Where You Are: If you could go back 10 years and think about bigger or different interventions, factors to divert the path the US has taken, is there anything you could share as being key for resisters in my country, now, to start/keep doing (and still relevant for the US?)

SK: Archive everything. You can’t solve a crisis without getting to the roots of it. The internet gave us a wonderful opening, but its utility was annihilated by tech oligarchs. It’s harder than ever to find information about events from just a few years ago. Insist on analog elections with a paper trail. Support initiatives to oust big money and dark money from politics, and stress that this creates unbearable conditions for ordinary people. Don’t let politicians excuse themselves. Don’t let them tell you to be patient: demand proof of action and accountability.

(Extra) Ordinary People: Have you been to the Oregon Caves National Monument? I read an article about the lodge being closed for renovations and possibly becoming a victim of the Trump regime's destruction of our national parks and public lands. It seems like it would be right in your wheelhouse.

SK: No, but I want to! Definitely in my wheelhouse and in my future plans.

Tom C: It seems that the United States has not heard a powerful poetic voice since Allen Ginsberg. Your thoughts?

SK: We have innumerable powerful poetic voices, but the best-known ones moved to writing songs instead of poems.

Prism: What is your take on the 50501 and Indivisible movements? There have been some good numbers and sustained protests, and also, the feeling is very different from anything BLM. I know that has to do with the whiteness of these protests. But I wonder — are these movements as effective as the Chenoweth article (3.5 percent of the population rising up) states?

SK: I don’t know the article you’re referring to, but anything that gives a percentage required for revolution — “If X amount rises up, we win” — doesn’t grasp the full crisis. Too much has been transformed in surveillance technology and mafia state governance for the past tactics to be expected to work the same way.

Protesting is good; it shows intolerance for abuse of power and helps build networks of dissent. The latest protests are likely whiter because this is a racist regime that uses brutal, lawless tactics and explicitly targets people who aren’t white. Also, many white people abandoned civil rights activism once Biden won, so I can’t blame non-white folks for feeling furious and betrayed and not wanting to join these particular protests. It’s a terrible feeling when the people who should have your back stab it.

Bill S: Today's shitstorm has deep roots in America's history…why is today any different than any other time in America's past, other than we're alive in this current moment and personally experiencing the short end of the stick?

SK: Three things: 1) Digital technology, especially the ubiquity of surveillance smartphones and the ease of creating fake video and audio 2) The ticking clock of climate change 3) The widening net of autocracy, which was always present in the US but selectively enforced. Now a tiny group of plutocrats, many of whom are not even US residents, is controlling America, and hardly anyone is immune — including the moderately wealthy white men who traditionally avoided being targeted. Otherwise, yes, it’s the worst of US history revived and exacerbated.

Rachael: What were some of your favorite questions (and answers) from the tour— and what was your favorite meal from the tour?!

SK: All the questions were great! I wish the book events were recorded because they’re lively and fun. I don’t have a favorite question, but I do have a favorite book tour restaurant, which is Chris’ Famous Hot Dogs in Montgomery, Alabama. Chris’ is a hot dog shack that is the platonic ideal of all that is great about America. It was started by a Greek immigrant, patronized by the civil rights movement (Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King ate hot dogs there while organizing revolution), and beloved by F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Hank Williams wrote “Hey, Good Lookin’” while checking out girls at the counter. This is as all-American as it gets: everyone was welcome. And the historic hot dog with chili sauce is delicious!

Neena: In the past you've said you look up to no current American politicians and basically don't put anyone on a pedestal, but what would you say to people who feel a leadership vacuum and who feel the need to look up to someone? Also, if you were 18 again in 2025, would you still follow the same career path?

SK: I still think it’s unwise to put anyone on a pedestal, but especially public servants, since they work for us. They should be doing their job without us having to pressure them, especially in times of crisis when the moral path is plain. I don’t have heroes, but if I did, politicians would not be among them. If you’re looking for inspiration, it’s more useful to think about what qualities you admire in others and try to cultivate those qualities in yourself. As for being 18 in 2025, I’ve thought about this a lot, because my daughter is that age. She witnessed more global calamities by 18 than I did by the time I was twice as old. As for me, I couldn’t have followed the same career path I did in the late 1990s, since the newspaper journalism I did then doesn’t exist, but I would still write. I would always write.

Kenneth: What do you think of medically assisted dying (MAD)?

SK: It’s the prerogative of the ailing individual and can be merciful, but I worry that recent promotion of MAD is linked to eugenicist objectives that treat the disabled as a social burden.

Roger: What brand of car do you have? I can picture you in a Subaru wagon with a kayak on top.

SK: I have a Honda that I’m driving until it breaks because I hate the computerized devices in newer cars. No kayak on top — I’m too small to lift it up and down alone!

SB: I've been wondering if there is a link between the Sam Bankman-Fried FTX scandal and the Trump administration effort to push crypto. A few years ago a lot of left-leaning writers with expertise in tech and crypto insisted it was nothing to worry about, and the FTX fall seemed to confirm that. But now....? Should we be worried? If anyone can connect threads here, it’s you.

SK: Both Sam Bankman-Fried and crypto should be rigorously examined. The lack of deep investigation speaks to both the demise of investigative journalism and the demolition of useful search engines in recent years. Or perhaps the answer you seek is there, but paywalled, so no one sees it, including me. Yes, we should be worried. Anyone that wealthy and corrupt who moved so easily at a young age into bankrolling powerful officials should be scrutinized. Bankman-Fried reminds me of a young Jeffrey Epstein, and not only because he hired the same defense attorney as Ghislaine Maxwell and socialized with some of Epstein’s clients. In 2022, he became the second largest donor to the Democratic party at a time where the Democrats refused to investigate corruption. He is also allegedly a dark money donor to the Republicans.

Bankman-Fried was (or is) part of a broader cohort that seeks to implement a digital surveillance currency in place of the dollar. Crypto has long proven useful for wealthy criminals seeking to dodge scrutiny. Now that political extremists control the Treasury through DOGE, crypto can be used to create digital bars around regular Americans and their freedom of speech and movement. There are many more threads to connect here, but I’m not the one best tying them — keep looking.

Tim W: I’m curious how you navigate all of this being both a parent and one of the few truth-sayers of democracy. Do your children know how important you are to democracy, how you fight for it/them? How much do they know, and when do you feel it is important for them to become aware of all that you have written about over all of these years? How do you prep your kids for what is to come?

SK: My kids see me as their mom above all, but they know what topics I research and the toll it’s taken. They’ve unfortunately witnessed the death threats I’ve gotten over the past decade. They are aware I say things that anger powerful people. They’ve also read my most recent book and know that what I do, I do out of love for this country and a desire to protect people and places. They rightly see me as just another American. My work may be important, but as an individual I am no more important than anyone else — except to them, as their mother.

Julie C: Curious to know if you or your publisher considered including any of your travel photos in The Last American Road Trip. The images you include at the end of your newsletter posts are often breathtaking.

SK: Thank you! I wanted photos but knew this was unlikely because it’s costly to print them. That’s why I’m glad I have this newsletter to compensate! I also wanted simple black and white maps and I am disappointed they did not allow those or add an index. An index of all the places and people in The Last American Road Trip would be fantastic and hilarious in its variety.

Monica: I just got Covid for the first time, after trying so hard and so long to avoid it and feel very dispirited. I also feel a pressure to…accept it…in a way that might give me peace, because it seems to have given others peace! But is accepting that I or my loved ones may die from the effects of this disease at any time the same thing as cheapening life? Because it sure feels like it is. Especially since that’s exactly what the technofascists want: for all of us to consider ourselves disposable.

SK: Oh Monica, I’m so sorry! I know you tried very hard to avoid it. You should accept that you tried and not blame yourself. That’s very different from shrugging and not caring if you infect others. You’re not disposable and you know it, and you never treat others as disposable either, and that does not change because you caught covid. Think of it as covid caught you, not vice versa. Not your fault!

Claire P: Do you think AOC will be President in 2028? How do we come back from this? It's pretty clear how much we need government funding of so much for our safety, well-being and sanity.

SK: I’m more worried we will not have fair and free elections than who the candidate is. That’s how I’ve felt since 2016, for good reason. There is no reason to think that elections are being run fairly when everything else is being run through corruption. You can’t vote out the mafia. That said, the smaller the election, the better the chance at transparency and fairness — concentrate on local races.

Shalane: What books (in addition to your own) would you recommend adding to a home library before they start disappearing from bookstore shelves?

SK: History books! Also, support independent bookstores; they are less likely to bow down than publishers or places like Amazon.

Bob L: What are your favorite road trip snacks?

SK: The greatest road trip snack is Dots. You can buy them, open the box, leave them in the car for months, come back, eat them, and they taste just the same!

DaveinNH: If Elon Musk actually does relinquish his acting presidency, it looks like Stephen Miller is poised to become Trump's new éminence grise (I think that's French for "big greaseball"). Is there any way to stop this cycle of people waiting in line to try to influence our nominal president? Is there any way to get the deluded 40% of the population to see how weak and subject to manipulation Trump is?

SK: What I’d like to know is when the officials who refused to hold a criminal regime accountable will be held accountable themselves — at the least, in the court of public opinion. Officials could have ousted Miller in 2017 due to his security clearance violations. But none pursued it after an initial inquiry. As a result, we are stuck with a youthful fascist in yet another Trump administration, since officials wouldn’t hold Trump accountable for his crimes either.

I have detailed some of the DOJ and Democratic networks that enable GOP and Trump criminality. The way to stop corrupt political heirs is to cut them off at the roots once they are first caught in violation of the law. That’s what officials should have done with Miller — or with Trump in 1973. Instead, they sought to streamline a mafia state. Folks should examine who installed and protected Miller from investigation. They can start with his recently deceased mentor, David Horowitz.

When a mafia state becomes entrenched, it is imperative to investigate the failed investigators. When you do that, you can often find common backers and points of leverage — or at least, a sense of what no longer constitutes leverage. Leverage no longer lies in elections, so I blame the people who voted for Trump far less than I blame the officials who allowed Trump to run for office again after he committed and confessed to a multitude of crimes. As for pushing back, it’s hard to determine where power lies nowadays, but documentation is a potent weapon — which is why the Trump administration is trying to erase recent history and rewrite the distant past.

Karen: Is Trump in cahoots with Putin? Xi? Both? Neither?

SK: Trump is in cahoots with everyone! BTW, I’m stealing “cahoots” for the next time the lawyers come at me saying that the felon president did not commit “crimes”. Fine, fine — just lootin’ and cahootin’…

Erin: Thoughts on protesting genocide under both major parties? And the sickening horrifying allegiance between the US and Israel whereby our governments continuously gaslight all people with an onslaught of propaganda to continue the genocide?

SK: The country that influences US politicians most, through donations and pressure, is Israel. The US is emulating Israel’s political progression while funding their genocidal wars. The Netanyahu-Bennett-Netanyahu pattern was replicated in Trump-Biden-Trump: the figureheads switched, but the big picture did not change. It only became more bleaker, crueler, and more overt. The ties between the Kahanists in Israel and the far right in the US need to be examined more — though it was under Biden that the Kahanists, once banned both in Israel and the US, were taken off the US terrorist list and gained greater power in Israel than ever before.

It is disturbing that unconditional support of Israel, as Israeli soldiers mass murder Palestinians and invade neighboring countries, is the only thing that Congress agrees on, with the exception of one or two representatives. It is mind-boggling that Americans can criticize the US as much as we want (and we should!) but laws are being put forth to make criticism of Israel, a foreign state, illegal. It’s disgusting how both Biden and Trump refer to Israel as the “real country” of Jewish Americans, putting their own spin on a hateful old “dual loyalty” trope by accusing Jewish Americans of being disloyal to a foreign country, as if Israel is supposed to be where their loyalty lies instead of the US. And of course the violent attacks on protesters are sickening to witness, and consistent under both administrations.

Most protesters have reasonable requests: for the slaughter of Palestinian civilians to stop, unconditional US funding for Israel to end, and genocide to be investigated in an international court of law. A disproportionate number of victims in Gaza are children, whom doctors describe as being purposefully targeted by Israeli soldiers. Of course protesting the murder of children, and US funding of that murder, is the right thing to do! Defending the right of Palestinian children to exist does not make you a supporter of terrorism. It makes you moral at the most rudimentary level. That this is controversial is an indictment of our government.

Joseph M: What happened to Kilmar Abrego García scares the shit out of me. Are you afraid of being disappeared? You are one of the strongest voices of the resistance, and I pray for your and your family’s safety. And speaking of the resistance, I think you and your kids would enjoy the series ‘Andor’ on Disney.

SK: I’ll answer the fun part first: my son loves Andor and wants me to watch it, so I probably will. As for worrying about being disappeared, I’m much more worried about others at this point, namely immigrants and green card holders. And after that, Muslims and other ethnic and religious minorities already targeted by this administration. I do worry about myself, but I wrote what I wrote, and it's wrong to stop speaking out when atrocities are happening.

MakeTheWorldSafeForDiversity: Do you think you could have the experiences you have in your last book if you weren't white?

SK: That’s a great question, and one that St. Louis journalist Aisha Sultan asked me when she interviewed me about the book. No, I would have had different experiences. In The Last American Road Trip, I discuss the limitations of Route 66 historically for Americans who aren’t white, and it’s true today too. I can blend into white majority conservative regions easily, and to the degree politics comes up (it usually does not), people assume I’m conservative. Folks often open up to me because I look like a local.

Conversely, in other regions, people are often wary until I show I’m not a bigot. This was my experience in the Black Belt of Alabama, which I didn’t cover in the book. (My one regret about the book is that I did not have a chapter on the Deep South, but some of it ended up in this newsletter instead.) In Native American regions that are not frequently touristed, there was also understandable wariness — though everyone is nicer when you travel with kids. Generally, folks everywhere were friendly and kind, but I try to imagine how I look through their eyes, and behave accordingly, following local rules and showing proper respect. As to your main question, I wish everyone could have the relative ease of experience I had driving around the country, instead of worrying about discrimination and attacks. That’s the America I want to live in.

Valeria: 1) Have you heard that this administration is in "talks" to suspend habeus corpus? Do you see this as a likely thing that will manifest or no, and why or why not? 2) How and when do you anticipate what people are predicting as "empty shelves" will begin to impact Americans.

SK: They are throwing out the possibility of suspending habeus corpus to test public reaction. They want to know how military and government officials will respond, and how ordinary citizens will too. Because we all record our thoughts in surveillance devices, they have a wealth of information to use should they intend to implement this plan. I don’t know if they actually will.

I worry about empty shelves — and it is remarkable that Trump is reviving the 2020 covid economy with no pretext, just destruction for its own sake — but I think that’s another thing they are testing by continually changing the tariff policies. They are seeing how we react to the possibility of various crises because that will make it easier for them to manage our reactions to new crises they create in the future.

The Falconer: Are there any good resources to review all of Trump’s pardons?

SK: This Wikipedia is a treasure trove. I wish someone would create a podcast or series of articles devoted solely to pardons and commutations, starting with Rubashkin in 2017 and continuing to the present. It’s very revealing.

JacQui: I am so worried about the lack of due process and the far reach of the department of homeland security and FBI. They lie and do what they want. Will the Supreme Court uphold the rule of law?

SK: Trump packed the Supreme Court so that they would abuse their power to protect him and give him the immunity he desired for decades. The question is whether SCOTUS loyalty extends to another GOP regime or is limited to Trump with his blackmail trove. I expect this SCOTUS to remain anti-freedom for a very long time, but they may become less corrupt on certain issues when Trump is out of power.

Nina M: Going back to the 80’s and 90’s, when the FBI had moments of focus on protecting the US from Russia, any new insight into what led to an agreement between Trump and the US govt re: his not paying taxes?

SK: I discuss this in Hiding in Plain Sight here and assume it had to do with streamlining Trump and his network’s organized crime ties into government, but the Czech allegations are so specific that it’s strange even by Trump standards. Stranger still that no one in government bothered to investigate it.

Sabrina: I’m beginning to think we won’t be able to overthrow the GOP without outside help from other countries. Do you think that’s even possible, or have we pissed off our allies so much they’ve written us off?

SK: Our allies are understandably angry, but I’m worried that both state and non-state actors are going to take advantage of US chaos and decline. One of the fundamental fights in this battle is sovereignty — which Trump and his backers do not respect — so I’m cautious about any foreign interference in our political system, even if it’s well-meaning. One of the best things foreign states could do is openly document what is happening here, since censorship will grow. Remember when the US had all those now-closed NGOs tracking the loss of freedom in autocracies? The US needs to be documented that way now.

Cody: I bought The Last American Road Trip in hardback so I could have an autographed copy, but I bought all of your other books from Amazon in ebook form. I have a huge Kindle library of books I have purchased. Can they be taken away from me? I am mostly worried about books by you and by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Do I need to buy paper copies?

SK: I would recommend paper copies of books like mine and Ta-Nehisi Coates, because we are likely to get censored. I am worried that even if they don’t remove the books, they will alter text or remove chapters without my permission or knowledge.

Susan P: Is your family planning the next leg(s) of your American Road Trip? What places are calling to you?

SK: All I want now is a good old Ozarks float trip! I’m adjusting to being back and am still exhausted from the tour. Traveling through the forest on a canoe would be heaven.

Jasper County, Missouri. This is the actual location of the fictional town in Road House where Dalton worked at the Double Deuce!