Courage in the Age of Cowardice: A 2025 Year in Review

From JD Vance's Betrayals to Sarah Rogers' Petty Retaliation – Moral Bankruptcy at Home, Cruelty Abroad

As 2025 draws to a close, we face a year marked not by progress or unity, but by the erosion of moral courage in American leadership. Indifference has supplanted principle, betrayal has become routine, and cruelty is masqueraded as strength. Moral cowardice—exemplified by figures like Vice President JD Vance—defined those in power.

There are two types of courage: physical and moral. History honors those with both, from John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. to modern examples like Adam Kinzinger in the documentary “The Last Republican.” Elie Wiesel taught that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference to suffering and injustice. In 2025, that indifference dominated Trump’s second term: executive overreach, institutional retribution, and unchecked cruelty at home and abroad.

Domestic

• JD Vance, the Moral Coward: Vice President Vance epitomized personal and political betrayal, defending restrictive immigration policies at an October Turning Point USA event while publicly hoping his Hindu wife Usha—daughter of Indian immigrants—converts to Catholicism, thus prioritizing power over sacred family vows and his children’s heritage. He shrugged off a Musk aide’s call to “normalize Indian hate,” flipped from comparing Trump to Hitler, and posed with SEALs shortly after undermining his own family—demonstrating no physical or moral courage beyond self-advancement, poised to discard his interracial family for MAGA’s racist demands by 2028.

• The SEAL Myth and MAGA Cruelty: Seven Republican Navy SEALs serving in Congress display physical bravery yet profound moral cowardice and frequent corruption. Former SEAL Daniel Barkhuff incisively explains how media, capitalism, and masculine insecurity transformed elite warriors into political mascots glorifying rule-breakers like Eddie Gallagher, equating cruelty with authentic toughness. This distorted myth directly fueled a quarter-billion-dollar propaganda campaign exalting ICE’s brutality, as revealed in leaked emails.

• Erasing Black History: The administration systematically purged DEI references from federal websites, dismissed “woke” senior military officers, eliminated Black history content from platforms like Arlington Cemetery, condemned the Smithsonian for highlighting slavery’s horrors, and restored Confederate statues—intentionally whitewashing America’s foundational racial injustices and rewriting history to align with MAGA ideology.

• Mass Deportations: Deportation efforts intensified dramatically, deploying troops to the border, conducting courthouse arrests, and refusing to recall flights despite judicial orders; hundreds endured torture in El Salvador’s prisons, vocal critics faced detention, white South Africans gained preferential entry—revealing a deliberate policy favoring racial cruelty over basic human dignity and due process.

• Retribution Against Enemies: The regime fired Jan. 6 investigators, leveled baseless fraud accusations against Letitia James, coerced law firms and universities into lucrative “deals” to evade destruction, and heard Trump declare outright hatred for opponents during Charlie Kirk’s memorial—exposing a vengeful apparatus bent on punishing dissent and bending institutions to personal will.

• Government Dismantling and Enrichment: Mass resignation offers targeted two million federal employees; Elon Musk’s DOGE rapidly dismantled USAID in mere weeks, terminating critical global aid programs; Trump personally launched a $TRUMP cryptocurrency, accepted lavish foreign gifts like a Qatari plane, seamlessly merging public office with unprecedented family profiteering and glaring conflicts of interest.

• Economic and Military Chaos: Unpredictable tariffs triggered repeated market crashes and supply disruptions; the National Guard saw domestic deployments against protests; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth injected partisan cultural wars into the armed forces, demanding fitness compliance from generals while shattering longstanding traditions of military nonpartisanship.

• “Best Friends Forever” Statue Reappears: In a bold act of satirical protest amid renewed scrutiny of Trump’s Epstein ties, the anonymous collective The Secret Handshake reinstalled their 12-foot faux-bronze “Best Friends Forever” statue—depicting President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands and frolicking—outside Busboys and Poets on 14th and V in Washington, DC, in November 2025, with the venue’s full endorsement as protected free speech; the timing followed House Oversight Committee releases of thousands of Epstein estate documents, including emails referencing Trump, just months after the statue’s dramatic removals and reinstallations on the National Mall despite permits. As the year ends with growing voter regret—polls showing up to 14% of Trump supporters now wishing they’d voted differently, largely over economic handling—many Americans voice a longing for the stability and principles they associate with Kamala Harris.

• Trump’s Christmas Epstein Rant: On Christmas Day—hours after announcing U.S. strikes on ISIS in Nigeria—President Trump posted a Truth Social tirade wishing “Merry Christmas” to the “many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein,” accusing them of island visits and parties before dropping him “like a dog,” while insisting he alone severed ties early; the ominous message, amid ongoing Epstein file releases mentioning Trump hundreds of times, ended with “Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas!”—perfectly innocent deflection, of course.

• Calls to Terminate NDAs: Amid Trump’s Epstein-fueled Christmas outburst and escalating revelations from unsealed files, social media erupted with demands to void all NDAs tied to Epstein, Diddy, and similar scandals—arguing these agreements enable cover-ups through “shut-up money,” perpetuate lies, and erode trust morally and financially; as seen in the Giuffre v. Maxwell case where Virginia Giuffre’s settlement NDA with Epstein initially limited public disclosure yet was overridden by court orders, critics insist broader termination is needed to eliminate the chilling effect that still deters victims from speaking publicly, even though such clauses are void against public policy and cannot legally block crime reporting or law-enforcement cooperation.

• Denial, Euphemism, and Mainstreamed Extremism: From DHS Secretary Kristi Noem denying veteran deportations until confronted with a Purple Heart recipient’s “self-deportation” under threat, to Elon Musk amplifying debunked “white genocide” claims in South Africa, and Stephen Miller championing “remigration”—a far-right euphemism for mass ethnic expulsion rebranded as policy—the administration and its allies repeatedly deflect accountability while normalizing once-fringe racist rhetoric.

Legal

• Christmas Day TRO Exposes Retaliatory Visa Sanctions: On December 25, 2025, SDNY Judge Vernon Broderick granted Imran Ahmed’s emergency TRO, blocking enforcement against the CCDH founder (U.S. green-card holder with American family)—ruling the administration’s visa revocations unconstitutional after they targeted him and four other Europeans for advocacy that fueled EU regulations and platform accountability on hate/disinformation.

• Sarah Rogers’ Personal Posts Drive the Retaliation Claim: Under Secretary Sarah Rogers—not content with official channels—personally authored the X thread announcing and justifying Ahmed’s sanction (citing CCDH’s “disinformation dozen” report and support for UK/EU laws), then escalated with a smug “Hey McSweeney—Merry Christmas” taunt at Starmer’s CCDH-linked chief of staff—conduct that directly evidences vindictive motive and ties her individually to the First Amendment violations.

• Rogers Faces Real Personal Liability—No Immunity Safety Net: As a self-proclaimed free-speech litigator turned official, Sarah Rogers enjoys no absolute immunity for these actions; her personal-capacity social-media posts (beyond core diplomatic functions) and involvement in viewpoint-based punishment of protected speech strip qualified immunity defenses, exposing her to Bivens-style claims, discovery, depositions, and potential personal financial responsibility—consequences that could chill even the most performative diplomats.

• European View: Assault on Digital Sovereignty: From Brussels’ perspective, the visa sanctions represent “authoritarian intimidation” and an attack on EU digital sovereignty under the DSA (making illegal content offline illegal online) and DMA (ensuring fair competition)—leaders like Macron condemned them as coercion undermining democratically adopted laws combating hate speech and disinformation, with the Commission “strongly condemning” the moves and warning of strained transatlantic ties.

International

• Transactional Diplomacy: Trump issued threats to forcibly seize Greenland and the Panama Canal, suggested ethnically cleansing Palestinians to develop Gaza as a luxury resort, publicly humiliated Zelensky in the Oval Office over mineral rights without offering security assurances, extended red-carpet treatment to Putin, vilified European allies, and openly questioned the United Nations’ existence—effectively dismantling the post-World War II democratic order in favor of raw power and profit.

• Ukraine Concessions and Putin’s Demands: In ongoing U.S.-Russia talks referencing August’s Anchorage summit, Putin insisted on full control of the entire Donbas region—including Ukrainian-held areas like the Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka-Sloviansk hub—while floating possible territory swaps elsewhere and joint U.S.-Russian management of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, excluding Ukraine. This stance, reiterated at his December 25 State Council meeting, underscores America’s weakening leverage and willingness to pressure Kyiv into territorial concessions without robust guarantees against future aggression.

• Upcoming Trump-Zelenskyy Summit: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a high-stakes meeting with Trump on Sunday (likely December 28) in Florida to finalize a 20-point peace framework—reportedly 90% complete—focusing on territorial disputes, security guarantees, reconstruction, and increased pressure on Russia, even as Russian attacks killed at least five and injured dozens in Ukraine over the past day.

• GPS-Denied Environment in Baltic Sea: Amid escalating Russian GPS jamming and spoofing across the Baltic Sea—widely attributed to electronic warfare sites in Kaliningrad and traced by researchers—Sweden’s Maritime Administration installed Racon radar beacons at ten coastal lighthouses (starting with Kapelludden on Öland, extending from Sandhammaren in Skåne to Gotska Sandön), enabling vessels to determine position via radar signals in GPS-denied conditions.

• Swedish Police’s Global Pursuit of Gang Leaders: Deputy National Police Chief Stefan Hector declared, “If the criminals go out into the world, we must do so too”—as Swedish authorities, in coordination with the government, launched international missions (including visits to Baghdad and Dubai) to persuade foreign partners to arrest and extradite high-priority Swedish gang figures; successes included the October 2025 extradition of Foxtrot affiliate Poya Shafie from Iraq, part of a broader effort yielding 45-50 arrests abroad this year amid around 800 Interpol-wanted Swedish criminals.

• Lithuania’s Democratic Crisis: Mass protests erupted in Vilnius against the Social Democrat-led coalition’s rushed amendments to ease dismissal of public broadcaster LRT’s director, seen as politicization threatening media independence; the governing party amplified distorted quotes from opposition figure Laurynas Kasčiūnas’ earlier podcast discussion on wartime sabotage, weaponizing pro-Russian narratives to demonize opponents amid Lithuania’s vulnerable position facing potential aggression.

• Military Overreach: Trump unilaterally authorized deadly strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats, claiming authority to classify crews as combatants and causing dozens of deaths in the Caribbean and Pacific; forces built up menacingly toward Venezuela; direct bombings targeted Iranian nuclear facilities in June, escalating risks without congressional oversight.

• ISIS Strikes in Nigeria: On Christmas Day, U.S. forces launched Tomahawk missile attacks on ISIS camps in northwest Nigeria, eliminating multiple terrorists in coordination with Nigerian authorities; Trump portrayed the operation as vital protection for persecuted Christians, while Defense Secretary Hegseth vowed further strikes, extending America’s pattern of unilateral military interventions.

2025 revealed moral cowardice triumphant: betrayals for power, institutions bent, suffering amplified under myths of toughness. Wiesel’s warning endures—indifference enables evil. We must reject it through resistance, truth-telling, and unwavering moral courage. America’s soul hangs in the balance as we enter 2026.