Trump may never recover from this breathtaking backfire

US Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is one of six Democrats with national security backgrounds who released a video last week reminding military personnel they are obligated by law to refuse to obey illegal orders.

The reaction by the Trump regime is a distillation of animating force that has driven America to its current crisis: the impunity of elites.

First, the president suggested the Democrats should be executed for sedition, which is not only a lie but an incitement to violence. In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, Trump accused his enemies of domestic terrorism. But what’s good for them isn’t good for Trump.

Then, the US secretary of defense threatened to prosecute Kelly under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for the fact that he and the other Democrats quotedfrom the Uniform Code of Military Justice in their video urging members of the military to refuse to obey illegal orders.

The president gave Pete Hegseth an illegal order. Hegseth obeyed. And now they’re mad about Kelly and the Democrats calling them out on it.

But impunity is only half the story. The other half is contempt.

Or it should be.

That’s why I was pleased to see Kelly’s appearance on Rachel Maddow’s MSNOW show this week. At the end, she asked how he was doing — if the stress of the president’s threats were getting to him and his family.

Kelly is a decorated combat pilot. He flew close to 40 missions during the first Gulf War. He was an astronaut. His wife survived an attempted assassination. To my ears, his reply was contemptuous — not of Maddow’s question, but of the idea that Trump can intimidate him.

“I’ve had a missile blowup next to my airplane. I’ve been nearly shot down multiple times. I’ve flown a rocket ship into space four times … My wife, Gabby Gifford, meeting her constituents, shot in the head, six people killed around her. A horrific thing. She spent six months in the hospital. We know what political violence is and we know what causes it, too. The statements that Donald Trump has made are inciteful. He’s got millions of supporters. People listen to what he says more than anybody else in the country. He should be careful with his words.

“But I’m not gonna be silenced here. Is it stressful? I’ve been stressed by things more important than Donald Trump trying to intimidate me in shutting my mouth and not doing my job. He didn’t like what I said. I’m gonna show up for work every day, support the Constitution, do my job, hold this administration accountable – hold this president accountable when he is out of line. That’s the responsibility of every US senator and every member of Congress. He’s not gonna silence us.”

The written word can do a lot but it can’t carry the emotion in the sentences above. Listen for yourself. What I hear is contempt.

That’s what this country needs to hear. That’s what this country needs to hear from men like United States Senator Mark Kelly. America needs more contempt for impunity for the law, morality and decency, and for one more thing — untouchable elites, like Trump, who never grew up.

Last week, when Trump met New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, he met a man who, like Kelly, could not be intimidated. The reaction from the president, according to Bruce Fanger, was “that strange little-boy energy, the hero-worship vibe, like he’s suddenly standing in line for an autograph from someone who embodies a version of power he’ll never actually possess: calm, earned, rooted.”

You could say Trump’s behavior with Mamdani was obsequious, Fanger said, but there’s more to it. There’s “that schoolboy glow — ‘Notice me. Approve of me. Let me stand near your seriousness so I look serious too.’ It’s the emotional posture of someone who’s been trying to cosplay adulthood for 50 years and gets starstruck by the real thing.” (My italics).

Trump has lived a long life believing he’s the exception to every rule – that he will never face the consequences of his choices, not even the seemingly heinous, like association with known child-sex trafficker.

Only the little people are accountable, not this One Special Boy.

That deserves contempt, or at least righteous anger, which is what D. Earl Stephens heard in Kelly’s voice when I asked him. In any case, Earl said, it’s amazing that everyone isn’t feeling one of those emotions.

Earl is the former managing editor of Stars and Stripes, a newspaper covering the military and military affairs. He now publishes the newsletter Enough Already. Like me, he’s a regular contributor to Raw Story.

“Either we are a law-abiding country or we aren't,” he told me.

Here’s my short interview with Earl.

JS: Rachel Maddow asked Mark Kelly if he was stressed by the president's attempts to intimidate him. Kelly's answer dripped with contempt. Is that the spirit we need to see from the Democrats?

DS: I didn't hear contempt. I heard righteous anger, and I just don't know how everybody isn't angry at this point right now.

Pete Hegseth talks endlessly about "warriors." Yet by his words and deeds, he's a fool. This is evident to the personnel inside of the military, isn't it? Or are there too many people willing to play along?

Sorry to say, there are far too many people willing to play along. Hegseth speaks to far too many young, immature white men, who are angry and aren't even sure why. They are led by their emotions, which is why we lean on them to do most of our fighting.

Ruben Gallego put it in terms of manliness. What's your view?

This is 100 percent correct, and goes to my earlier point of immaturity.

Am I right to say Kelly is going to get more famous thanks to Trump that Trump will look at him the way he looked at Zohran Mamdani?

You are. The more people get to know Kelly, the more they will be impressed by him. “Patriot” is a word that is tossed around too much, but Kelly fits the definition.

Is accountability the direction the Democrats need to go on? Whether it's the cabinet or ICE thugs?

I just don't see another direction. Either we are a law-abiding country or we aren't. This all should have been nipped in the bud with urgency following the attack on January 6. For whatever reason, Joe Biden and/or Merrick Garland dawdled, and allowed Trump a second wind.

We damn well better learn from that.