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Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.
Opinion
This MAGA maniac's gang targeted me in my home — quitting Trump makes him no less scary
Tulsi “Hillary Told Us All About You” Gabbard was being grilled by the Senate Intelligence Committee and lied under oath yet again when being questioned by my Senator, Ron Wyden (D-OR). Senator Chutzpah here is the embodiment of “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” because he definitely stuck it to Tulsi.
It’s been fascinating to watch the MAGA reaction to Kent’s resignation unfold on Twitter, because Joe Kent wasn’t even on their radar before they were told what to say about him in their tweets.
The official message from the White House was, “Kent is a liar who was always weak on national security,” which is a weird thing to say about the person you hired to help oversee our national security. Another L for the world’s least successful businessman
Before Tuesday, Kent had been a MAGA darling and special favorite of Trump’s ever since they met at Kent’s wife’s Dignified Transfer in 2019, one of the few times Trump met the coffins of service people killed in action during his first term. Kent soon joined the Trump 2020 campaign and was a full-on America First MAGA mouthpiece, whom I dubbed “Rand Paul Lite” early on thanks to their resemblance in both looks and disregard for the truth.
After Trump lost the 2020 election, Kent positioned himself to run for Congress in Washington’s 3rd District — where I lived from 2001 until 2022 — to challenge then-Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), who had fallen out of favor with Trump after she voted for his second impeachment. Herrera Beutler famously testified that she was with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-FL, via Trump’s alimentary canal) in his office on January 6, 2021, when he called Trump at the White House and begged him to call off the MAGA crowd that was attempting to break into his office window.
“Well, Kevin,” Trump told him, “I guess some people are more upset about the election results than others.” And then hung up on him.
Ah, 2021, a time when Republicans quietly told the truth about Trump once he left office. That was a real thing that the media also fumbled back then.
In September 2021, I was writing for the now-defunct website Hill Reporter when I heard that then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was being dispatched to appear with Joe Kent in Vancouver to boost his campaign. The full story has been archived, and once you’re done here, I’d appreciate it if you could take the time. But I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes version here.
I’d arranged for an interview with both Gaetz and Kent for Labor Day via Kent’s campaign manager. We were set to meet at a coffee shop ahead of a planned private fundraiser, which would be followed by a rally at the Clark County Fairgrounds. The morning of the interview, I was told Gaetz wasn’t available, but Kent was still a go.
I was fully prepared, but Kent wasn’t ready for my competence. Kent, his tattoo sleeves partially covered by shirtsleeves even in the warm weather (SUS!), told me everything I needed to know about him by not answering the questions I asked him during our 40-minute interview, in which I repeatedly nailed him with these pesky things I brought with me called FACTS. We were only a couple of minutes in before he remarked, “Wow, I usually get softball questions.”
“Yeah, I don’t play softball,” I quipped.
My questions were enough for his campaign manager, who was furiously texting during the interview. Before the promised hour I’d arranged had elapsed, our conversation was cut short by Matt Braynard, a MAGA strategist and devoted J6er.
But I’d gleaned some very important info, mainly that there were already plans to challenge the results of the 2022 midterms, a full 14 months before a vote had been cast.
The fundraiser had been moved from a skate park (Matt Gaetz + teenagers = Bad Optics) to a private residence. Even though Kent had denounced the violence of January 6th in our interview, these were the kinds of bumper stickers on the cars of those who were welcome inside--unlike myself and my pal/bodyguard, Eugene.
There was also a heavy presence of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers at the very small rally, which wasn’t advertised, to both avoid protests as well as to keep the crowd to just “their” people--who threatened me.
Matt Gaetz quote-tweeted this from his then-official Congressional Twitter account. He used MAGA virtue signaling words like “triggered” and “Karen,” and then took his harassment of an American citizen even further by doing a segment about me on his “Firebrand” podcast. A sitting member of Congress used his platform to encourage his followers to “seek out” my social media, which they definitely did. What followed were weeks of targeted harassment, both online and off. Aside from getting multiple rape and death threats via every platform, there were calls and texts. Someone used Facebook Messenger to claim someone was on the way to film themselves killing me. Two hours later, a car was parked outside my apartment, and someone was taunting me from a burner phone, screaming, “COME OUTSIDE, TARA!”
Which I did not.
Law enforcement did nothing, not then and not when I reported being followed around town. House Ethics did nothing. The Florida Bar did nothing. Those tweets and two Firebrand episodes are still live.
Gaetz no longer has the protection of Congress, and I can only hope he’ll face charges for sex trafficking teenagers.
As for Joe Kent, keep your eye on him. Watch his friendship with Tucker Carlson. He’s still got those Nazi tattoos. He’s still dangerous, thanks to what he knows and what he believes. I’ve seen how he operates, up close and all too personal.
The US bombs kids so this guy can have nice things
I call your attention to Peter Thiel, founder of military tech company Palantir, who just last week visited with Japan’s prime minister last week and was dubbed “America’s shadow president” across Japanese media. I call your attention to Ethan Thornton, founder of Mach Industries, who is attempting to create dangerous hydrogen-powered weapons (and almost killed a coworker in the process). I call your attention to Rob Slaughter, cofounder of Defense Unicorns, whose company has “built the software backbone of the War Department” (and whose surname is rather apt). And I call your attention to Palmer Luckey, self-proclaimed “radical Zionist” and founder of Anduril, a military tech company that supplies the U.S. military with AI and autonomous weapons.
There are many more corporate executives selling weapons and making a killing off of killing. But today we are going to talk about Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, the Tony Stark wannabe who so very badly wants to believe he’s the good guy. Recently, after CODEPINK launched a petition calling him out for his crimes, he claimed that he’s actually saving lives.
This is how war profiteers have always tried to sell war to people. It’s for the greater good! If we don’t kill them, they will probably try to kill us at some much later date! As much as they want us to believe that their pre-emptive wars of aggression are necessary, the truth is we don’t need to security dilemma ourselves into functioning like soulless robots; we’re actually evolved humans who can participate in dialogue, the great human superpower. It’s not a hard conclusion to draw: murder is not the solution to a disagreement with your neighbor, just as systematic murder is not the solution to a disagreement with another nation.
Besides, we all know war isn’t about saving American lives. Instead, American lives are spent carelessly to accomplish elite agendas, and then veterans are discarded like broken utensils. Tell us, Luckey, whose lives were saved by slaughtering civilians in My Lai in 1968 or in Haditha in 2005? Whose lives were saved by taking out every hospital in Gaza? Whose lives were saved by bombing 160+ school children in Iran?
No, murder is not about saving lives, just as war is not about accomplishing everlasting peace. It’s about men in safe, cushy offices far away from the battlefield amassing as much wealth as possible before they have to join the rest of us as dirt in the ground.
You can tell our petition bothered Luckey, because a few minutes later, he tweeted this:
It’s certainly an odd argument to make — that Anduril should never have had the opportunity to exist. It’s almost a direct admission of guilt, if you think about it. A shrugging of responsibility for Anduril’s existence, as if Luckey didn’t build the company himself from the ground up. It’s the world’s fault for needing Anduril, right? He’s just another cog in the machinery of fate. Helpless, unable to withstand his destiny of building murder machines. It’s funny how these war profiteers want all the recognition for what they make until they start getting recognition for the consequences of what they make. Well, we should never have existed anyway!
Luckey also wonders why the media thinks he wants tech to be more involved in the military, as if those words haven’t repeatedly come from his own mouth. He’s been rather urgent about advocating for advanced military tech to counter Russia, China, and Iran, even going so far as to actively prepare for a “simultaneous conflict” by developing advanced, rapid-production military systems. He’s an especially big fan of war on China, and instated a “China 27” strategy, which states that Anduril won’t design and produce any new weapons that won’t be ready by 2027 — the date the War Department set on war with China.
Last year, Anduril secured a $99 million US Air Force contract for autonomous software and a ten-year, $642 million Marine Corps contract for counter-drone systems. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited Anduril’s headquarters, where he proclaimed: “We are rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom.”
Anduril, now valued at nearly $31 billion, was named after the Lord of the Rings sword, “Flame of the West,” a fitting title for a tool of the imperial West’s perpetual exploitation and murder of innocents abroad. The company is also responsible for the “border protection system” of lasers and identification software, inspired by Trump’s dream for a border wall, and has released new wearable headsets that Luckey claims “turn soldiers into superheroes.”
Fact of the matter is, Luckey likes to think of himself as a type of superhero or Lord of the Rings character, bumbling through an adventure, taking down bad guys, and stacking up points. But in doing so, he’s treating reality as a sort of faraway game, entirely detached from human suffering. It’s not all that different from what the White House is doing—just check out this recent White House tweet, which compared the bombing of Iran to a Wii sports game.
War profiteers like Luckey are all the same. They exist in some fantastical bubble, getting high on the idea that they’re helping save-the-world, while the government takes their fresh-baked drones and missiles and sends them to schools, hospitals, and residential buildings to take out unsuspecting families, destroy infrastructure, and wreak widespread destruction. But the truth is — even if it’s deep-deep-down in the dark voids of their souls — Luckey and friends know exactly which part they’re playing and choose not to care.
What does Luckey do with his blood money other than enthusiastically participate in a “B-boys club” group chat (B as in billionaire)... Well, he has amassed quite the collection of vehicles, including a 1969 Ford Mustang, a Tesla Model S, a 2001 Honda Insight, a 1967 Disneyland Autopia car, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, a 1985 ex-Marine Corps Humvee, a Mark V Special Operations Craft, two submarines, and multiple motorcycles, among many others. … I wonder if we converted USD to human lives, how many people had to die for Luckey to afford each vehicle?
It’s a simple equation: more war means more money for war profiteers. So it’s really no surprise Luckey is hellbent on war with China, which would make him billions and could afford him another few submarines for his imaginary underwater adventures. The U.S. has invested trillions of dollars into preparing for war on China ($3.4 trillion to be exact, a number larger than the total amount spent on 20 years of war in Afghanistan). Every incremental increase to the War Department budget is justified with the same reason: we need to counter China, we need to counter China, we need to counter China. China has become the ultimate war budget enhancer, and all the slippery politicians and war profiteers have taken advantage of it.
Unfortunately, war is the main driver of U.S. technological advancement. So instead of developing advanced technology to improve infrastructure, build high-speed railways, and raise the standard of living, the tech industry is creating headsets for soldiers to optimize killing during battle. They are making autonomous robot drones that pick their next targets according to data sets, rather than valuing human life. They are using AI to draft battle strategies and risking escalation to unforeseen, unredeemable heights.
Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, China… These nations are not the enemies of ordinary people in the U.S. Our enemies are internal: the war profiteers, the ruling class, the “B-boys club” members, and the military tech founders. It is the ruling elites who drive war, all for profit. And it is always the people who suffer. Even now, we suffer as all our taxpayer money is funneled into new contracts with companies like Anduril instead of supporting the health and well-being of the American people. And so overseas, children are murdered, so guys like Palmer Luckey can add to their rare car collections.
Instead of pointing at manufactured enemies overseas, we must confront all the war profiteers in the United States, driving us into more war. Their power rests solely on one thing: convincing us that they are the good guys, and that innocent people in Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela, China, and elsewhere are bad and deserving of death. Let’s make sure Palmer Luckey knows that we will never let him get away with profiting off murder.