Time flies.
It has been exactly one year and one day since I last posted a Torch Report. I have to admit, my little hiatus lasted far longer than intended, but the extended time away from the endless propaganda and maddening headlines has been good for the soul.
Rather than try to recap the bazillion-and-one “super important” events that have come and gone, or chase the various squirrels of conspiracy, today I’m going to cut straight to the chase: Personally, I feel utterly betrayed by Donald Trump.
And I know I’m not alone.
As one friend put it, “What in the hell happened to Trump?” As in, whatever happened to draining the swamp, no more wars, and putting America First?
Another friend recently hit me with this doozy: “So, Luke, how do you feel about Trump totally dividing his base and destroying the MAGA movement?”
Ouch. Honestly, it’s not an easy answer.
Friends, I’ve sat down to write many times over the last year. I’ve actually written several reports that addressed the gradual, disturbing drift I’ve been observing during Trump’s second term, but in the end, I didn’t have the heart to publish them.
Why not publish them?
Well, because there was an even more disturbing trend that seemed to be running parallel among many of my fellow patriots. Whereas in recent years most of the MAGA crowd held a sharp skepticism toward all things government, I began to see a disheveling sort of blind allegiance build around Trump’s ever evolving agenda.
In essence, whatever Trump said was “good” was good, and whatever Trump said was “bad” was bad. Critical thinking seemed to be suspended, or worse, usurped by sycophancy. Suddenly, the only measure of one’s patriotism was whether or not you accepted and agreed with whatever Trump was currently pushing.
Thus, we’ve stumbled into a twilight zone, wherein anyone who voted to Make America Great Again is now just expected to go along with whatever Trump says.
Examples abound.
We were expected to believe Trump when he farcically claimed the Epstein files were nothing more than a “democrat hoax.” We were expected to accept that Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” was a fiscal masterpiece, even though it actually increases government spending, adds trillions to the deficit, and didn’t do a damn thing to curb any of the rampant fraud and reckless spending uncovered by the Department of Government Efficiency. We were expected to support the sudden regime change Venezuela.
Unfortunately, rather than remain skeptical and ask questions, it appears the critical thinking of most conservatives has simply been swept away in the euphoria of all the so-called “winning.” Simultaneously, it appears that loyalty to Trump and his narrative has slowly become the only benchmark for determining what’s right and wrong.
If Trump says it’s right, then it’s right.
If Trump says it’s wrong, then it’s wrong.
Apparently only Donald Trump knows what is best for America.
We are expected to believe that his every action serves only to advance American interests—even if it seems impossible to comprehend his plan.
Horseshit.
Some people believe it, but I certainly don’t.
To illustrate this growing divide in the ranks, one night I asked a group of patriots why we were all of the sudden running military operations Venezuela, instead of say, addressing the well-documented government corruption right here at home. They looked at me like I was an apostate, which confirmed my suspicion that any dissent to Trump’s agenda was now considered taboo. Unfortunately, if you disagreed with any of Trump’s decision-making, you were no longer considered a patriot.
Quite disturbingly, blind allegiance now seemed expected in many MAGA circles.
All of this disgusted me, and it still sits heavy on my heart.
That’s ultimately why I failed to publish the previously written reports. I knew that most of the audience would balk and revolt against my skepticism of some of Trump’s decisions. I knew that I could not compete with the cult of personality and clever propaganda that was emanating out of the White House. So, rather than rock the boat, damage relationships, and cause division, I felt it was better to remain silent.
At the time, it seemed wiser to sit back and see how things played out. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe my friends were right. Maybe Trump was making the best decisions. Maybe he actually was advancing the America First agenda, even in Venezuela, despite my growing doubts and the mounting evidence to the contrary.
Maybe.
Then we went to war with Iran. Now, in just over a month, 365 service members have been wounded (including Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force casualties), and 13 Americans have been killed in action. Many more people have been killed throughout the region, including hundreds of children and thousands of innocent civilians.
We are told that this is all necessary and good—and we are expected to believe it.
But wait a minute here: why are we at war with Iran in the first place? Donald Trump campaigned heavily on a promise of “no new wars” and ending the “endless wars.”
What we are witnessing is the exact opposite of what he said he would do.
That’s a massive shift, so what is the justification for this war?
Does it matter that the Trump administration still can’t get their story straight?
More importantly, how do you think this is all going to play out? Do you think the Iranians are just going to give up? What are the chances that a jihadi terrorist cell seeks revenge on American soil? Do you honestly think Trump’s rhetoric is going to bring greater peace? Or, do you think it’s more likely to escalate retaliation?
For context, let’s consider Trump’s ever-so-inspiring Easter Sunday message:
Bomb power plants and bridges? Open the fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards?
Personally, I’m not impressed. That doesn’t strike me as particularly presidential, even by Trump’s fairly low standard, nor does is seem appropriate given the sanctity of the day. Indeed, I’d tend to agree with Tucker Carlson’s critical take on this one:
“You’re tweeting the F-word on Easter morning promising the murder of civilians? This is vile. This is evil. On every level. A promise to use US military to destroy civilian infrastructure that people use every day? That is a war crime. A moral crime. Innocent people will die. That is unacceptable. It is immoral. It can never be justified.”
Tucker created a 2-hour YouTube video titled Trump’s Desecration of Easter and a Warning to Christians Everywhere, and he goes on to suggest the unthinkable:
“Desecrating Easter was the first step toward nuclear war.”
Obviously I hope he’s wrong, but then again, if you start connecting the dots…
Let’s zoom out.
Why do I feel betrayed by Trump?
I voted for him three times. I was a Trump-endorsed delegate to the Republican National Convention. I’ve been a fan of much of what he has done, and I’ve been content to “agree to disagree” whenever I’ve had a difference of opinion.
In short, the good has far outweighed the bad—until things started to change.
When Trump declared that the Epstein documents were a Democrat hoax, it was a massive red flag for me. While campaigning for re-election, Trump had suggested that he would release the documents, presumably because holding high ranking pedophiles accountable for their predatory child sex trafficking was a critical issue for the vast majority of his base. Go figure. But then he flipped the script.
Why is anyone even talking about this Democrat hoax anyway? Idiots.
Much to the chagrin of millions, there hasn’t been a single person arrested. There has been zero accountability for documented crimes against children. We’ve been told to look the other way and stop bringing it up—and again, we’re expected to play along.
That same story holds true for the documented fraud during stolen 2020 election, the orchestrated fedsurrection on J6, the various crimes against humanity perpetrated during covid, and so on. There is a pattern here that is plain to see: what is important to the American people, i.e. accountability for documented crimes and sticking to campaing promises, is clearly not what is most important to Donald Trump.
Thus, rather than prioritizing election integrity, criminal accountability, eliminating gross amounts of already exposed government fraud, or imposing any sort of fiscal restraint—all of which are absolutely critical to Making America Great Again—Trump has instead made a steady march toward increasingly inexplicable actions that do nothing to address these massively important issues.
Now, am I wrong for pointing this out?
“Oh but Luke, what about the border security? What about rounding up all the gangbangers? What about Trump’s impressive list of accomplishments? Surely you cannot deny all of that!”
HERE’S THE THING: I am not denying that Trump has accomplished many things.
I am not saying that everything Trump has done is bad, or that his every decision is wrong. I am not suggesting that Trump is inherently evil, nor am I suggesting that he has intentionally deceived us—though at this point, that is an open question.
However, just as it is fair to acknowledge his many accomplishments, it is also fair to acknowledge that some things don’t add up, is it not?
When Trump campaigned so heavily on “no new wars,” I took him at his word. Clearly he has broken his word. In my mind, sending the U.S. military into Venezuela for a rapid regime change and quick capture of their oil reserves was the first blow. We were told that this was necessary to stop the flow of drugs into America, but I believe that is an insult to the intelligence of any clear minded person.
Then, when Trump started sending American troops to die in Iran and told us that it was for our own good, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Why in the hell are we going to war with Iran when we have so many major issues right here at home?
At first, Trump first tried to justify this war by claiming that Iran was an “imminent threat” and we needed to destroy their nuclear capabilities. Evidently he had forgotten that just last summer, in July 2025, he was taking a victory lap and bragging that his administration had already “completely destroyed” Iran’s nuclear sites.
FACT:
So much for the imminent threat justification, right? And, just in case there was any doubt, let’s not forget what Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, recently told congress in her 2026 Annual Threat Assessment (March 18, 2026):
“As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. The entrances to the underground facilities that were bombed have been buried and shuttered with cement.”
It seems to me like Trump and Gabbard are on the same page—and that Iran did not pose any sort of “imminent threat” to America. Perhaps that’s why the story changed.
Now we are being told, and expected to believe, this war is really all about peace— that all of this bombing and destruction is to ensure “freedom” for the Iranian people:
Again, I’m not buying it.
Besides, what about freedom for Americans?
You know, freedom from a corrupt, overbearing, and bloated bureaucracy? Freedom from the burden of billions upon billions of dollars wasteful spending and government fraud? Freedom from the tyranny of stolen elections? Freedom from the relentless propaganda and gaslighting that is tearing apart our country?
What about putting American First?
What’s happening right now is nothing of the sort. In fact, it’s just more of the same. It’s endless wars and regime changes. It’s wars for oil and geopolitical dominance.
Meanwhile, our own beloved Republic is rotten to the core.
The corruption continues unabated, undaunted, and unphased by Trump’s 2nd term.
It makes me want to puke, almost as much as the day I watched Trump praising the CEO of Pfizer, in the White House no less, calling him “one of the great, great people.”
No mention of Pfizer’s toxic injections killing and maiming millions of people, the subsequent turbo cancers, myocarditis, or any of that nonsense. Just raw praise for the man who helped make Operation Warp Speed one of Trump’s greatest achievements.
Please note that Trump is still proud of pushing these injections, recently calling them “one of the greatest achievements ever,” even as they continue to kill people.
Seems kind of evil to me. Maybe there was a reason Trump refused to put his hand on the Bible during his swearing in afterall? Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?
Eh… I’m sure that’s all just a coincidence.
Until next time…
RESIST WE MUST!!!
