1). “The Imminent Collapse of Your Healthcare: Why the GOP Plan Pushes Every American Toward Higher Costs, Weaker Coverage, and Unprecedented Medical Risk”, Nov 20, 2025, W.A. Lawrence, Glass Empires By W. Lawrence, at < https://substack.com/home/
2). “We Don’t Need More Lawsuits. We Need Handcuffs: Here's how we get it done”, Nov 21, 2025, Christopher Armitage, The Existentialist Republic, at < https://cmarmitage.substack.
3). “Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts: The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for the taxpayer-funded campaign”, Nov 14, 2025, Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski, Propublica, at < https://www.propublica.org/
~~ recommended by desmond morista ~~
Introduction: The Federal Government is now largely captured by the far-right who have made sure that all the resources possible are directed into their hands. This is discussed, specifically for healthcare where huge amounts of money are involved, at some length in Item 1)., “The Imminent Collapse ….”. The author points out that the ruling class is hollowing out the coverage, provided in ACA insurance. In Item 2)., “We Don’t Need ….”, Armitage the author points out that:
“Democratic state attorneys general can investigate and charge Donald Trump and his Cabinet for seditious, corrupt, and criminal conduct right now. They have the authority. They have the prosecutors. They have the jurisdiction. The power exists today. Now is the moment for them to use it in defense of our nation. (Emphasis added)
“Do any traditional accountability mechanisms remain? Republicans control Congress and will not impeach or investigate their own. The FBI and Department of Justice can no longer be relied upon to execute their duties in good faith or in the interest of the public. Trump fired seventeen inspectors general within days of taking office and gutted the DOJ Public Integrity Section that prosecutes government corruption, reducing it from approximately thirty prosecutors to fewer than six and transferring most corruption cases to partisan US Attorney offices. The Supreme Court is captured and will likely continue to grant Trump sweeping immunity claims. Traditional mechanisms have failed but we have powerful tools left at our disposal. State attorneys general have the precedent and power accessible to save America in this dark hour of federal corruption.
“The targets are everywhere. Trump himself faces potential charges for bribery, fraud, conspiracy, and sedition in multiple states. Force the Supreme Court to rule explicitly that presidential corruption falls within their standards of “official conduct.” Make them write the opinion. Make John Roberts explain in a published decision why selling government positions for cash deserves constitutional protection. Let that ruling stand as documentation of judicial complicity. (Emphasis added)
“Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, was recorded by FBI agents accepting fifty thousand dollars in cash from individuals seeking government contracts in Dallas on September 20, 2024. Six independent news organizations confirmed the details. Internal DOJ documents showed prosecutors believed charges were warranted. Trump’s political appointees shut down the investigation anyway. The evidence exists. Investigate and prosecute.
“Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, directed portions of a two hundred twenty million dollar DHS advertising campaign to a firm run by her spokesperson’s husband through subcontracting arrangements that bypassed competitive bidding requirements. ProPublica documented the scheme. Federal oversight that would normally catch this fraud no longer exists. State attorneys general can investigate contract fraud involving their state vendors and prosecute the conspiracy. (Emphasis added)
“Investigate them all. Trump, his Cabinet, every corrupt appointee, every member of Congress who committed crimes in blue states, every powerful criminal protected by federal complicity. Open those investigations immediately and prosecute aggressively when evidence supports charges.” (Emphasis added)
Item 3)., “Firm Tied to Kristi Noem ….”, this is the Propublica article referenced in the paragraph about Kristi Noem above. It goes into significant detail about this, only one of many corrupt operations carried out by Noem.
In The Existentialist Republic article posted today by Newest Beginning, Armitage points out that: “Elon Musk’s companies extracted over $15 billion in government contracts, subsidies, and loan guarantees. He spent $277 million buying Trump’s presidency. His reward: an unauthorized government position with authority over the agencies regulating his businesses and awarding him contracts. He used that position to systematically dismantle every oversight body investigating him. Federal law has banned government contractors from making political contributions since 1940 to prevent exactly this corruption.” (Emphasis added) (See, “We Means Test Food Stamps. Why Don't We Do the Same for Corporate Welfare? Christopher Armitage”, Nov 24, 2025, Newest Beginning, TCS, at < https://ongoingclassstruggle.
It is worth pointing out that Musk got back over $54 in cash and benefits, for each dollar he invested in Trump's Presidential Campaign, and that surely understates the actual magnitude of the financial and political goodies Musk reaped from this relationship with the President.
I don't know as much about these issues as Lawrence and Armitage do but it certainly appears that political and economic protection of our position in this society will work far better when applied to friendly Blue State Governments than to the already captured ultra-reactionary and blatantly fascist institutions of the Federal Government. One Rating of su bstacks (Best Sellers in U.S. Politics, at < https://substack.com/
The Existentialist Republic Data
Armitage posted this sage comment at Lawrence's site:
“If we want to defeat Republicans, we must understand something. I keep seeing a fundamental misunderstanding of his base. The same error Republicans made when they called him a conman in 2016. The same error being made now as he escalates the behaviors that got him here.
“From 'Quiet, Piggy' to 'Democrats must be hanged for treason,' understand that saying things like this is precisely why Trump has so much support. (Emphasis added)
“He had 'grab 'em by the pussy' before winning in 2016 and Jan 6th before 2024.
“He says the quiet part out loud. He makes the dog whistle audible for everyone.
“He gives Republicans permission to hate openly and shamelessly.
“Do not expect deeply immoral people to suddenly become outraged and abandon him. These people were largely raised and trained on Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Alex Jones. (Emphasis added)
“They hate and they hate for real. They love Trump for his open and unabashed hate.”
Imminent Collapse of Your Healthcare
The health care system of the United States is being reconstructed by actors who understand the profit potential in a population stripped of real protection. They know what follows when oversight evaporates and when the cost of illness shifts from institutions to households with no leverage. Every contact point inside the medical system becomes a site of extraction. The plan moving through Washington is not reform. It is a revenue structure designed by donors and corporate strategists who invested heavily in Trump’s political apparatus because they know how rapidly margins expand once guardrails fall. Their involvement is documented across filings and disclosures. The design proceeds because the public does not yet grasp what has been removed or how little can be restored once this process is complete.
The Affordable Care Act fractures the moment enhanced subsidies expire at the end of 2025, because those subsidies have been the only force keeping millions inside functioning coverage. KFF analysis shows premiums doubling on average in 2026 if Congress allows them to lapse. When healthier enrollees are driven out first, insurers face a more expensive pool and respond with sudden premium spikes, market exits, and products engineered without essential benefits. State regulators approve plans that exclude maternity care, mental health treatment, preventive services, substance use care, and vital medications. The outer frame of the ACA remains in place, but the interior is dismantled and the protections that once defined it disappear.
Statutory protections for people with preexisting conditions remain in federal law, but the operational force behind them erodes as insurers shift from denial to benefit design that excludes the care high cost patients require. A cancer survivor can discover that the imaging needed to monitor recurrence is no longer accessible through the specialists who perform it. A person with Type 1 diabetes may find the insulin that kept their condition stable moved into cost levels that put it out of reach. People living with autoimmune disorders see biologics placed in benefit categories that make ongoing treatment unattainable. The right to coverage exists on paper. The ability to obtain the care that right was meant to secure collapses.
Medicaid is weakened at the structural level, and the damage reaches directly into the lives of those who rely on it for survival. The program sustains low income families, people with disabilities, children with serious medical needs, and older adults who depend on continuous support. The proposed cuts reduce the resources that keep these services functioning and impose documentation requirements that many beneficiaries cannot meet while managing illness or instability. As these barriers accumulate, eligible enrollees fall out through procedural failure. Once forced into the private market, they face premiums higher than earnings, networks that offer little real access, and medications that become financially unreachable. The break in continuity of care turns manageable disease into crisis.
Trump tells his supporters they are finally in control, that stepping aside from government protection proves independence and intelligence. The message is crafted to exploit ego. It flatters people into believing they are rising in status as protections are removed. The policy places them in the most vulnerable position in the system. Corporations profit when patients delay care, skip treatment, or abandon medications because of cost, and this framework ensures those losses fall precisely on the people cheering it forward. The promise functions as a trap shaped like praise. When they attempt to use the coverage they believed they controlled, they discover that the only part designed for them was the illusion.
Insurers move through this redesign like predators entering weakened terrain. They recognize the opportunity, and nothing in the plan restrains them. The structure hands them a direct path to extract maximum revenue while shifting the full weight of illness onto households with no bargaining power. High deductible products spread because they convert ordinary medical needs into unpaid personal debt and suppress corporate spending until the moment a patient is financially exhausted. Network cuts are marketed as efficiency, but the purpose is the removal of surgeons and specialists whose work threatens profit margins. Drug lists are rebuilt so that the medications that determine real outcomes are buried inside price levels meant to block access. Medicare Advantage expands because its payment formula rewards restricting care, and the companies involved know exactly how to engineer that restriction without triggering regulatory consequence. The outer surface of the system remains recognizable to keep the public calm. The interior is stripped to its wiring and rebuilt to route money upward and leave the patient with the bill.
Junk insurance pours back into the market as soon as guardrails weaken. These products are engineered to capture people pushed out of regulated coverage and convert their desperation into revenue while avoiding meaningful obligation to pay for care. The exclusions hide in fine print, and the design ensures the plan only functions until the moment a patient needs something expensive. Annual caps, waiting periods, and cancellations after diagnosis are not errors. They are the mechanism by which the product survives. As these plans spread, regulated markets absorb an older and sicker population, driving premiums higher and forcing more people into the very policies created to fail them. The architecture feeds on its own damage. Each exit from real coverage strengthens the conditions dismantling it.
The middle class becomes the pressure chamber for this redesign, because the system cannot shift its financial weight without breaking them first. The unraveling begins the moment subsidies expire and premiums surge beyond what ordinary incomes can sustain. A forty year old earning forty thousand dollars is pushed into a gold plan with a deductible that consumes five thousand dollars before coverage even starts. A couple earning sixty four thousand dollars absorbs more than thirty five hundred dollars in new yearly costs for bronze plans built around relentless cost sharing. Employer coverage offers no protection. Out of pocket ceilings rise past what most families will ever save, and copays convert into percentages tied to the full price of diagnostics and specialist care. In Medicaid expansion states, a family of four living on thirty three thousand dollars receives sixteen hundred dollars in added cost sharing under the GOP framework. The middle class moves through this system believing protection still exists. What they are carrying is the invoice.
Trump’s supporters are prepared from the outset to blame Biden or Obama when the system collapses around them, because the narrative they are given leaves no room for responsibility inside their own movement. Any premium spike, any denial, any loss of access is recited back to them as sabotage. The policy they endorsed is presented as the solution, and its consequences are framed as proof that Democrats broke something Trump tried to fix. The deflection is built into the messaging long before the damage appears. By the time families understand what they lost, the script for who they should blame is already in their hands.
The collapse advances through mechanisms designed to stay out of public view. Insurers revise benefits in ways that convert treatment into personal debt and shift financial responsibility onto households without announcing the change. Premiums climb as subsidies disappear. Deductibles expand as plans transfer more of the cost of illness to the patient. Coinsurance rises as categories of covered care are rewritten. Networks shrink as contracts eliminate high cost specialists. Medications rise through pricing tiers until adherence is impossible. The outward form of insurance remains. The protection is gone.
The redesign’s most powerful feature is its resistance to reversal. Insurers that exit a market do not return without significant advantage. Specialist networks that break apart do not reassemble. Formularies and cost structures harden into long horizon financial models. Administrative rules rewritten under this framework establish a baseline future regulators must fight for years to unwind. Corporate strategies built around higher deductibles and narrower benefits become permanent planning. Elections do not restore what has been dismantled. The system locks into a new shape, and repairing it requires resources and pressure the public does not yet know it must exert.
Medical vulnerability becomes a predictable source of revenue as protections lose force while the language around them remains intact. Complexity replaces access. Denial becomes routine management. Treatment becomes a financial threshold many households cannot cross. People understand the depth of the shift only when they attempt to use the coverage they believed would shield them. What looks like a functioning system on paper operates as an engineered structure of abandonment.
Stopping this collapse requires the public to accept that it is already underway and to refuse a system built on disposability. The structure is corporate controlled, and officials are stripping away the last safeguards that restrain it. The remaining levers are limited but still powerful, including objections to state insurance commissioners, pressure on governors and legislatures, support for litigation against unlawful denials, formal complaints that trigger investigations, participation in public comment periods, backing independent journalism that exposes the financial networks behind these decisions, joining patient and disability coalitions, and voting for candidates of any party who commit to restoring subsidies, safeguarding Medicaid, reinforcing Medicare, and banning junk insurance. These are the final points of leverage within a system already tilted toward corporate power.
A second line of defense lies in disrupting the practices insurers rely on, because appeals supported by written justification create records that strengthen legal challenges, collective employee bargaining prevents insurers from isolating individuals, network adequacy requests force regulators to investigate missing specialists, directing care toward providers who reject predatory contracts strengthens institutions willing to resist insurer demands, and public records requests expose rate filings and denial patterns. These actions weaken the financial incentives driving the redesign of the system and are essential to slowing further collapse.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
— James Baldwin
If this level of depth and originality matters to you, your support is what keeps Glass Empires alive. The annual upgrade is Twenty percent off and places you within the two percent of readers who uphold work that brings fresh analysis not heard elsewhere. If you want full access to insights you can’t find anywhere else, step into this inner circle that sustains it.
Sources
KFF
Politico
Washington Post
Fox News
Yahoo News
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reporter-presses-trump-logic-healthcare-014040931.html
Fierce Healthcare
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/elevance-health-centene-donated-trump-inaugural-fund
OpenSecrets
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?cycle=2024&ind=F09
Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/0ab138a5-76de-4371-8f20-3ca31f27e170
House Budget Committee
The Century Foundation
Manatt Health
https://www.manatt.com/insights/insight/how-the-trump-administration-may-change-medicare-advantage
Associated Press
https://apnews.com/article/54bf291135fa9efec7d0ad9672c850a1
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We Don’t Need More Lawsuits. We Need Handcuffs.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article is a 5-8 minute read. It looks longer because of the contact information for all 23 Democratic state attorneys general and governors at the end reference lists you’ll need when you’re ready to help put these corrupt political actors where they belong.
Bottom Line Up Front: This is it. This is the tool. State attorneys general working overtime investigating and prosecuting federal corruption is the opposition strategy that matches the threat. Not defense. Not lawsuits. Criminal investigations leading to arrests. The Interstate Anti-Corruption Compact. That’s what opposition looks like when you’re serious about taking back your country. Let’s get after it.
Democratic state attorneys general can investigate and charge Donald Trump and his Cabinet for seditious, corrupt, and criminal conduct right now. They have the authority. They have the prosecutors. They have the jurisdiction. The power exists today. Now is the moment for them to use it in defense of our nation.
Do any traditional accountability mechanisms remain? Republicans control Congress and will not impeach or investigate their own. The FBI and Department of Justice can no longer be relied upon to execute their duties in good faith or in the interest of the public. Trump fired seventeen inspectors general within days of taking office and gutted the DOJ Public Integrity Section that prosecutes government corruption, reducing it from approximately thirty prosecutors to fewer than six and transferring most corruption cases to partisan US Attorney offices. The Supreme Court is captured and will likely continue to grant Trump sweeping immunity claims. Traditional mechanisms have failed but we have powerful tools left at our disposal. State attorneys general have the precedent and power accessible to save America in this dark hour of federal corruption.
The targets are everywhere. Trump himself faces potential charges for bribery, fraud, conspiracy, and sedition in multiple states. Force the Supreme Court to rule explicitly that presidential corruption falls within their standards of “official conduct.” Make them write the opinion. Make John Roberts explain in a published decision why selling government positions for cash deserves constitutional protection. Let that ruling stand as documentation of judicial complicity.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, was recorded by FBI agents accepting fifty thousand dollars in cash from individuals seeking government contracts in Dallas on September 20, 2024. Six independent news organizations confirmed the details. Internal DOJ documents showed prosecutors believed charges were warranted. Trump’s political appointees shut down the investigation anyway. The evidence exists. Investigate and prosecute.
Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, directed portions of a two hundred twenty million dollar DHS advertising campaign to a firm run by her spokesperson’s husband through subcontracting arrangements that bypassed competitive bidding requirements. ProPublica documented the scheme. Federal oversight that would normally catch this fraud no longer exists. State attorneys general can investigate contract fraud involving their state vendors and prosecute the conspiracy.
Investigate them all. Trump, his Cabinet, every corrupt appointee, every member of Congress who committed crimes in blue states, every powerful criminal protected by federal complicity. Open those investigations immediately and prosecute aggressively when evidence supports charges.
The Epstein files represent the clearest test of whether state attorneys general will use their power. Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation occurred across multiple states. New York. Florida. New Mexico. The evidence documenting who participated exists. Flight logs show who flew on Epstein’s planes. Financial records show who received payments. Witness testimony identifies participants. The federal government has protected those names for years through selective prosecution, sweetheart deals, and sealed documents.
State attorneys general can break that protection. New York has jurisdiction over crimes committed in Manhattan. Florida has jurisdiction over crimes at Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach. New Mexico has jurisdiction over crimes at Zorro Ranch. Every state where Epstein operated can investigate and prosecute sex trafficking and conspiracy that occurred within their borders. The evidence is documented. The witnesses are available. The crimes are clear.
This goes beyond justice for Epstein’s victims, though that alone justifies action. This is about demonstrating that state prosecution can reach the most protected criminals in America, even when they hold public office. If state attorneys general won’t prosecute documented sex trafficking by powerful people when the evidence sits in public court filings, why would anyone believe they’ll prosecute anything else? The Epstein files are the test case. Prosecute those crimes and save your country.
The urgency cannot be overstated. We watched federal prosecutors drag their feet for four years with Trump and his January 6th Insurrection. That delay allowed him to win reelection and kill the prosecution. Jack Smith’s investigation died the same way. Every day state attorneys general wait gives Trump time to obstruct evidence, intimidate witnesses, and dismantle remaining accountability mechanisms. Speed matters. Indict quickly or lose the chance entirely.
The strategy requires launching hundreds of investigations simultaneously across twenty-three states, not betting everything on one case. Overwhelm them. California investigates financial crimes touching California institutions. New York prosecutes Epstein-related crimes that occurred in Manhattan and across the state. Illinois charges conspiracy involving Illinois banks. Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, every blue state plus DC running parallel criminal investigations of federal officials.
Every investigation forces corrupt officials to hire lawyers, sit for depositions, face subpoenas, testify under oath. They spend money on legal defense instead of enacting their agenda. They spend time in courtrooms instead of consolidating power. Some flip on others to save themselves. Fear spreads through the administration. Every official asks themselves whether they’re next.
The mechanism that makes this all possible is the Interstate Anti-Corruption Compact. Every participating state creates a dedicated task force with career prosecutors and full investigative authority. They coordinate across state lines, sharing evidence regardless of where crimes occurred. When California finds evidence of Noem’s fraud touching South Dakota, they send it there. When New York documents financial crimes involving Texas banks, they refer it to Texas. Every referral is public. Every declination by a red state AG is documented as protection of corruption.
Congress authorized interstate compacts for criminal law enforcement in 1934. Under the Crime Control Consent Act, states can enter agreements for mutual assistance in preventing crime and enforcing criminal laws. All fifty states already use this authority to coordinate on probation, parole, and sex offender registries through the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision. The legal framework exists. States can use it to prosecute everyone in the Epstein files and every corrupt Trump official. They just need to decide to do it.
This is the counter-offensive. Not defense. Not resistance. Opposition. Assertive use of state sovereign power to enforce criminal law against federal officials operating within state borders. The Constitution’s Supremacy Clause does not grant immunity for bribery, fraud, conspiracy, sex trafficking, or obstruction of justice. Those are crimes, not discretionary federal functions or policy decisions. State courts can prosecute them.
Elections and civil lawsuits are not enough by themselves to stop the Project 2025 and Unitary Executive agenda’s. Still, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed forty-six lawsuits against Trump administration policies. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed multiple suits before Trump had her federally indicted in retaliation. Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, all filing civil challenges to executive orders and funding cuts. They’ve won cases and restored billions in federal money. That’s real work with real impact.
But civil litigation accepts the premise that Trump administration officials are legitimate actors operating within legal bounds who sometimes exceed their authority. Criminal prosecution asserts the truth: they are criminals who belong in prison. You don’t sue criminals. You arrest them.
State attorneys general are institutionalists. That’s how they got elected. They’re lawyers who rose through legal systems by following rules and respecting procedures. They believe institutions matter and norms constrain behavior. That worldview made sense when everyone operated within shared democratic constraints.
It doesn’t work against authoritarians. State AGs are playing chess while Trump pours gasoline on the board and lights a match. They’re filing briefs while he’s dismantling the rule of law. They’re appealing to precedent while he’s appointing judges who ignore precedent. This is what destroyed the Weimar Republic. German democrats followed procedures while Nazis abandoned them. By the time democrats realized the rules had changed, it was too late.
Most won’t realize fair elections are gone until several cycles of wildly corrupt results make it clear. We don’t have time to wait for a few stolen elections to occur before we decide to actually start fighting on every front available.
Yes, Trump will retaliate. He already indicted Letitia James. The cost of acting is high. The cost of not acting is democracy.
Fortunately, nobody is asking their state AG to do anything except use existing legal mechanisms to hold powerful people accountable. That’s it. By restoring lawful accountability to the federal government, we get our nation back.
The choice of remedy signals whether you understand what you’re facing. Historical examples of authoritarian consolidation show the same pattern. Democratic opposition uses procedural tools against actors who have abandoned procedural constraints. They file court cases that take years while autocrats move in days. They appeal to norms their opponents openly mock. They treat institutional collapse as temporary aberration requiring temporary resistance rather than permanent transformation demanding permanent opposition strategy.
The Existentialist Republic has nearly forty thousand subscribers on Substack. If half of you execute the full contact strategy below, that’s not just twenty thousand phone calls. That means twenty thousand calls, twenty thousand emails, twenty thousand public social media posts, thousands of contacts to governors, and thousands of social media notifications to national publications. That volume does more than just demand a response. It creates a political crisis that state attorneys general and governors cannot ignore, and a story that the media cannot avoid covering.
Here’s what you do. Contact your state attorney general through every available channel. Then do the same with your governor. Then contact the media. Make three specific demands everywhere you contact: First, create a Public Corruption Task Force with dedicated prosecutors and investigators focused exclusively on criminal activities among federal representatives and high level appointees . Second, join an interstate coordination agreement with other states to share evidence and coordinate investigations. Third, begin criminal investigations immediately of Trump administration officials who have committed crimes touching your state, including everyone implicated in the Epstein files.
Just another quick note: At The Existentialist Republic we are spending hours every day researching, creating activist training materials, and leading free training workshops on demand. All of this is to take power from authoritarians and put it back in the hands of the public. Consider supporting this work by picking up a bumper sticker, t-shirt, notebook, or our Intro to Soft Secession booklet.
THE FULL CONTACT STRATEGY:
Start with the easiest actions and work toward the ones requiring more effort. Even if you live in a red state, you can contact these officials on social media and tell them to step up and save our shared country.
We recommend putting the following scripts into your own words, research shows that results in your contact being taken much more seriously. If you want to maximize your impact then add emotion and authenticity into what you’re sending.
Step 1: Post on Social Media (Easiest)
Twitter/X: Tag your AG’s official account and post: “I’m demanding @[AGhandle] you create a Public Corruption Task Force and join in an Interstate Anti-Corruption Compact to investigate federal crimes in [State]. Trump officials are operating with impunity. #StateCorruptionCompact”
Facebook: Find your AG’s official page and post in comments: “Our state AG must join the Interstate Anti-Corruption Compact and begin criminal investigations of Trump administration officials who committed crimes in [State]. Federal accountability is gone. State prosecution is all we have left. #StateCorruptionCompact”
If you’re in a red state: Post on blue state AG accounts saying “I’m in [red state] where my AG won’t act. I’m demanding @[BlueStateAG] investigate Trump administration corruption. Someone has to enforce the law. #StateCorruptionCompact”
Step 2: Use Online Contact Forms
Find your AG’s official website contact form by searching “[State] Attorney General contact.” Write three to five sentences stating your demands clearly. Explain why this matters to you personally, because form letters get ignored while personal stories don’t. You can attach this article for more detail on the mechanisms. Request a written response.
Step 3: Email Your Governor
Use the same strategy as Step 2 with their official website contact form. Make the same three demands. Explain why this matters to you. Attach this article if helpful.
Step 4: Contact Local Media
Email your local newspaper, TV station, and radio station. Template: “I just demanded our state attorney general create a Public Corruption Task Force to prosecute Trump administration crimes. Federal enforcement collapsed. State AGs have jurisdiction and they’re refusing to use it. Tom Homan took $50,000 in cash from FBI agents and the case was killed. Why isn’t anyone investigating?”
Step 5: Make Phone Calls (Most Impact)
Call both your AG and Governor using numbers below. When you reach a staffer, say: “I’m calling to say three things: First, create a Public Corruption Task Force for federal crimes. Second, join in creating an Interstate Anti-Corruption Compact with other states. Third, begin investigating Trump administration officials who committed crimes in our state, including everyone in the Epstein files.” Add why this matters to you personally or why you are stepping up to take these actions. Ask what the AG or Governor is doing about federal corruption. Document the response.
CONTACT INFORMATION BY STATE:
Note: To find online contact forms, search “[State] Attorney General contact” or “[State] Governor contact” and look for “Contact Us” or “Constituent Services” on official state websites.
CALIFORNIA AG Rob Bonta: 916-445-9555 or https://oag.ca.gov/contact/general-contact-form or @AGRobBonta Gov. Gavin Newsom: 916-445-2841 or @GavinNewsom
NEW YORK AG Letitia James: 212-416-8000 or [email protected] or @NewYorkStateAG Gov. Kathy Hochul: 518-474-8390 or @GovKathyHochul
ILLINOIS AG Kwame Raoul: 312-814-3000 or @KwameRaoul Gov. JB Pritzker: 217-782-0244 or @GovPritzker
MASSACHUSETTS AG Andrea Campbell: 617-727-2200 or @MassAGO Gov. Maura Healey: 617-725-4005 or @MassGovernor
MICHIGAN AG Dana Nessel: 517-335-7622 or @MIAttyGen Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: 517-373-3400 or @GovWhitmer
NEW JERSEY AG: [Position currently vacant - Gov.-elect Sherrill will appoint upon taking office January 2026] Gov. Mikie Sherrill (takes office January 2026): 609-292-6000 or @MikieSherrill
VIRGINIA AG Jay Jones: 804-786-2071 or https://www.oag.state.va.us/contact or @JayJonesforVA Gov. Abigail Spanberger (takes office January 2026): 804-786-2211 or @RepSpanberger
WASHINGTON AG Nick Brown: 360-753-6200 or https://www.atg.wa.gov/contact or @AGOWA Gov. Bob Ferguson: 360-902-4111 or @GovBobFerguson
ARIZONA AG Kris Mayes: 602-542-5025 or @AZAGMayes Gov. Katie Hobbs: 602-542-4331 or @GovernorHobbs
WISCONSIN AG Josh Kaul: 608-266-1221 or @WisDOJ Gov. Tony Evers: 608-266-1212 or @GovEvers
MINNESOTA AG Keith Ellison: 651-296-3353 or @AGEllison Gov. Tim Walz: 651-201-3400 or @GovTimWalz
COLORADO AG Phil Weiser: 720-508-6000 or @COAttnyGeneral Gov. Jared Polis: 303-866-2471 or @GovofCO
MARYLAND AG Anthony Brown: 410-576-6300 or @BrownForMD Gov. Wes Moore: 410-974-3901 or @GovWesMoore
NEVADA AG Aaron Ford: 775-684-1100 or @AaronDFordNV Gov. Joe Lombardo: 775-684-5670 or @JosephMLombardo
OREGON AG Dan Rayfield: 971-673-1880 or https://www.doj.state.or.us/contact-us or @ORDOJ Gov. Tina Kotek: 503-378-4582 or @GovTinaKotek
CONNECTICUT AG William Tong: 860-808-5318 or @AGWilliamTong Gov. Ned Lamont: 860-566-4840 or @GovNedLamont
NEW MEXICO AG Raúl Torrez: 505-490-4060 or @RAUL_TORREZ Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: 505-476-2200 or @GovMLG
DELAWARE AG Kathleen Jennings: 302-577-8500 or @DE_DOJ Gov. Matt Meyer: 302-744-4101
HAWAII AG Anne Lopez: 808-586-1500 Gov. Josh Green: 808-586-0034 or @GovJoshGreenMD
MAINE AG Aaron Frey: 207-626-8800 Gov. Janet Mills: 207-287-3531 or @GovJanetMills
RHODE ISLAND AG Peter Neronha: 401-274-4400 or @RIAttorneyGen Gov. Daniel McKee: 401-222-2080 or @GovDanMcKee
VERMONT AG Charity Clark: 802-828-3171 or @VermontAGO Gov. Phil Scott: 802-828-3333 or @GovPhilScott
Execute all five steps if you can. Document your actions. Post screenshots showing you did it. Tag #StateCorruptionCompact so others can see and join. Make this overwhelming and unavoidable.
This can work. Ten thousand people executing this full strategy creates overwhelming pressure that forces institutional response. State attorneys general operating collectively with coordinated criminal investigations represent the only remaining check on an administration that has dismantled federal oversight. They have hundreds of career prosecutors. They have subpoena power. They have jurisdiction. They’re choosing not to use it.
Make them choose differently. Multi-platform contact from thousands of constituents forces every attorney general to calculate whether the political cost of inaction exceeds the risk of Trump retaliation. It makes Trump administration officials wonder if they’re next. It shifts the psychology from impunity to fear. It generates media coverage that amplifies pressure. It creates momentum that builds on itself.
This is it. This is the tool. State attorneys general working overtime investigating and prosecuting federal corruption is the opposition strategy that matches the threat. Not defense. Not lawsuits. Criminal investigations leading to arrests. That’s what opposition looks like when you’re serious about taking back your country. Let’s get after it.
REFERENCES
Dilanian, K. (2025, June 3). Firings, pardons and policy changes have gutted DOJ anti-corruption efforts, experts say. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/firings-pardons-policy-changes-gutted-doj-anti-corruption-efforts-expe-rcna200571
Dilanian, K., Fitzpatrick, S., & Rohde, D. (2025, March 11). Justice Department office that prosecutes public corruption slashed in size, sources say. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-department-office-prosecutes-public-corruption-slashed-size-so-rcna195928
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Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.”
Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the “national emergency” at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption.
The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.
No firm has closer ties to Noem’s political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.
The Strategy Group’s ad work is the first known example of money flowing from Noem’s agency to businesses controlled by her allies and friends.
Government contracting experts said the depth of the ties between DHS leadership and the Strategy Group suggested major potential violations of ethics rules.
“It’s corrupt, is the word,” said Charles Tiefer, a leading authority on federal contract law and former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that the Strategy Group’s role should prompt investigations by both the DHS inspector general and the House Oversight Committee.
“Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer,” Tiefer added.
Federal regulations forbid conflicts of interest in contracting and require that the process be conducted “with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none.”
“It’s worthy of an investigation to ferret out how these decisions were made, and whether they were made legally and without bias,” said Scott Amey, a contracting expert and general counsel at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight.
The revelations come as the amount of money at Noem’s disposal has skyrocketed. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill granted DHS more than $150 billion, and Noem has given herself an unusual degree of control over how that money is spent. This summer, she began requiring that she personally approve any payment over $100,000.
Asked about the Strategy Group’s work for DHS, McLaughlin, the agency spokesperson, said in an interview, “We don’t have visibility into why they were chosen.”
“I don’t know who they’re a subcontractor with, but I don’t work with them because I have a conflict of interest and I fully recused myself,” she said. “My marriage is one thing and work is another. I don’t combine them.” Her husband, Strategy Group CEO Ben Yoho, didn’t respond to questions.
In a written statement, DHS said, “DHS has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors.” They added that the Strategy Group does not have a direct contract with the agency, saying “DHS cannot and does not determine, control, or weigh in on who contractors hire.”
Contracting experts said that agencies can and do sometimes require that subcontractors be approved by officials. It’s not clear how much the Strategy Group has been paid.
This is not the first time that the Strategy Group has gotten public money through a Noem contract. As governor of South Dakota in 2023, her administration set off a scandal by hiring the Ohio-based company to do a different ad campaign, paying it $8.5 million in state funds. While the state said the contract was done by the book, a former Noem administration official told ProPublica that Noem quietly intervened to ensure the Strategy Group got the deal. ProPublica granted some people anonymity to discuss the deals because of their sensitivity.
The firm also paid up to $25,000 to one of Noem’s closest advisers in South Dakota, previously unreported records show. (The adviser, 28-year-old Madison Sheahan, now serves at DHS as the second-in-command of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sheahan didn’t respond to questions about why she was paid.)
The DHS ad that the company filmed at Mount Rushmore has aired during “Fox & Friends” in recent days. Executives from the Strategy Group traveled to the shoot and hired subcontractors to fill out the film crew, according to records and a person involved in the campaign. The ad’s aesthetic sits somewhere between a political campaign ad and a Jeep commercial as Noem tells would-be immigrants to “come here the right way.”
“From the cowboys who tamed the West to the titans who built our cities,” Noem says, as images of Trump Tower in Chicago and Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt last year flash on the screen, “America has always rewarded vision and grit.” Noem continues: “You cross the border illegally, we’ll find you.”
Watch the DHS Ad Filmed at Mount Rushmore
The ad is the latest in a campaign that Noem debuted in February, just a few weeks after she took charge of DHS. “Any delay in providing these critical communications to the public will increase the spread of misinformation, especially misinformation by smugglers,” the agency wrote, explaining why it was skipping the competitive bidding process normally required for government contracts. The initial ads featured Noem thanking Trump for securing the border.
The contracts total $220 million so far, leading the DHS ad budget to triple in the most recent fiscal year, according to Bloomberg. The lion’s share of ad contracts is typically used to buy TV airtime or spots on social media. Advertising firms make money by taking an often-hefty commission. Federal records show the contracts have gone to two firms. One is a Republican ad company in Louisiana called People Who Think, which has been awarded $77 million.
But the majority of the money — $143 million — has gone to a mysterious LLC in Delaware. The company was created just days before it was awarded the deal.
Little is known about the Delaware company, which is called Safe America Media and lists its address as the Virginia home of a veteran Republican operative, Michael McElwain. McElwain has long had his own advertising company (separate from the Delaware one), but there’s little evidence that firm could handle a nine-figure federal contract on its own: It reported just five employees when it received COVID-19 relief money a few years ago.
How, where and to whom Safe America Media doled out the $143 million is unknown. Any subcontractors hired to do work on the DHS ads are not disclosed in federal contracting databases.
The office funding the ad contracts is listed as the DHS Office of Public Affairs, which is run by McLaughlin, contract records show. McLaughlin married Yoho, the Strategy Group CEO, earlier this year.
In its statement, DHS said the agency does its contracting “by the book” and the process is run by career officials. “It is very sad that Pro Publica would seek to defame these public servants,” DHS added.
Asked about why the agency chose Safe America Media, DHS said, “The results speak for themselves: the most secure border in American history and over 2 million illegal aliens exiting the United States.” McElwain and People Who Think didn’t respond to questions.
Yoho was still in college when he first served as campaign manager for a U.S. congressman. Now, at 38 years old, he’s a national player in the cutthroat industry of political advertising. Federal election records show tens of millions in payments to his firm during the 2024 election cycle, coming from dozens of Republican congressional candidates. And Noem has proved a particularly lucrative client.
Lewandowski brought Yoho into Noem’s inner circle back in South Dakota, according to two people familiar with the matter, putting the young consultant in charge of the ad side of her 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign. Noem had a more than $5 million advertising budget for the race, records show. After she won in a landslide, Yoho, who has called Noem a friend, came to South Dakota to attend her inauguration ceremony. He sat off to the side of the stage, next to Lewandowski. (Lewandowski didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
By then, Yoho’s next big project with Noem was already in the works. In late 2022, Noem was quietly preparing to launch another sprawling ad campaign — only this time, the money would come from state coffers. The stated goal was to encourage workers to move to South Dakota. The upcoming contract opportunity wasn’t public yet, but Yoho was already involved in planning the campaign, according to records first reported by Sioux Falls Live.
Then on Jan. 12, 2023, Yoho’s company registered to do business in South Dakota under the name Go West Media. The next day, the contract opportunity went live.
Seven companies submitted proposals for the project. Then the pressure from above set in, according to a former Noem administration official involved in the process.
The former official said a top Noem aide told them the governor would be angry if Yoho’s company didn’t win the contract. “He was very direct: ‘She wants to do it,’” they said. Contemporaneous text messages reviewed by ProPublica corroborate that senior Noem administration officials pushed for Yoho to get the contract. Eventually, he did. (In its statement, DHS denied that Noem influenced the process.)
Noem starred in Yoho’s ads herself, dressing up as a dentist, a plumber and a state trooper as she touted her state’s growing economy. Exactly how much Yoho and the Strategy Group made off the $8.5 million deal is unclear. Some of the money was used to purchase spots on Fox News, including one during a Republican presidential debate. Some of the money appears to have gone back to South Dakota — into the bank account of another of Noem’s top advisers.
Sheahan, now the second-in-command at ICE, was paid up to $25,000 by Go West in 2023 for “consulting,” according to a financial disclosure document Sheahan later filed. At the time, Sheahan was serving as both the operations director for Noem as governor and the political director for Noem’s campaign work, according to a copy of her 2023 resume obtained by ProPublica. Her responsibilities included coordinating “daily logistics and operations” for Noem and her team, the resume said. She also managed the “relationship with high level donors” to American Resolve, Noem’s network of outside political groups.
As his firm received millions from the South Dakota state government, Yoho separately continued to work for Noem in other capacities. He worked under Lewandowski on the publicity campaign for Noem’s 2024 memoir, according to a person familiar with the matter. (The book became famous for including an anecdote about Noem shooting her dog.)
The Strategy Group also received a stream of payments for social media consulting and media production work over the last few years from Noem’s American Resolve PAC. Federal election records show the PAC made its last payment to Yoho’s company this February, a couple weeks after Noem took her post as the head of DHS.
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