The Post-Midterm Glow Will Fade, Demands for Accountability Cannot.
I want you to remember the hope that you've experienced the last couple of days. The elation that existed as Dr. Abdul El-Sayed told JD Vance off in his victory speech. The tears of joy as minority candidates swept the board, creating firsts in Governorships and Congressional offices. The high that you felt knowing that there might be an end to the rampage Donald Trump has been on for the last almost two years.
There has to be something after the post-midterm glow fades. There have to be consequences to the war crimes, corruption, and blatant illegality in the actions in the Trump regime for the elections to not be in vain.
The heartwrenching moments as the world watched Renee Good and Alex Pretti be executed in the streets deserve to remain in our memories. The moment when you watched a little boy in a bunny hat being held by ICE agents, worried for his safety. The fear that gripped the immigrant communities, wondering who might be next.
Trump has expanded executive powers to enact sweeping policies that have led us to this point. ICE agents have been given free rein to behave however they please without repercussion, causing fear and uncertainty in immigrant communties. In a saner timeline, the agents involved would be awaiting trial or at least under investigation for their conduct. Instead they were reassigned to another region to continue to terrorize our neighbors while being actively shielded from the local governments that seek to bring justice on behalf of those impacted.
There were 160 children who were killed in the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in a missile strike that the Trump regime refuses to take responsibility for. There has been an indiscriminate loss of civilian life that has occurred across Iran as a result of the war no one asked for. Not to mention the vast civilian infrastructure that has been destroyed in their pursuits.
In a just world, the US military would still be operating under the Geneva Conventions and not committing sweeping war crimes that have cost countless lives. Yet here we are, watching as we continue to violate international law and create humanitarian crises in our wake. Furthermore, Trump continues to bend the rules of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to avoid scrutiny and accountability around the Iran War at large. Meanwhile the UN has been demanding a release of the report that the US government continues to hide behind while they attempt to dismantle the ICC.
The people of Gaza cannot be forgotten; the children of Gaza cannot be forgotten. The West Bank is targeted still and will continue to be targeted even though Israel appears to have ousted Benjamin Netanyahu from his position. Over 21,000 children in Palestine in the last three years will never grow up, let alone many more in the years prior.
The Leahy Law explicitly prohibits the US government from providing military assistance to nations if there is credible information that the country receiving the assistance has committed gross violations of human rights. Israel has no regard for the human lives that lie in its wake, yet the US remains complicit in its atrocities.
There are at least 243 people across over 70 strikes in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea that have been killed extrajudiciously and without clear evidence of crimes being committed. Clear war crimes that no one has seen justification for when there were alternative actions that could have been taken. The “double tap" strikes against unarmed and defenseless survivors of the initial strikes. Their families are demanding and deserve to know what happened to their husbands and fathers that never returned home.
International law dictates that extrajudicial killings without due process violate the victims' right to life. Their claims of national security risks are morally grey, especially with the lack of evidence. These strikes are blatant murder and clear crimes against humanity. Some of the aircraft used in the strikes were painted to appear to be civilian in nature, a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions.
On top of the horrific war crimes and acts of savagery is the blatant unfettered corruption being committed by Trump, his cabinet, and his family that cannot be tossed aside. Trump increased his net worth by more than $2.2 billion in 2025 alone, more than tripling his reporting of $622 million from 2024 filings. A lawsuit in late October 2026 alleges that the United Arab Emirates purchased $2 billion in World Liberty Financial tokens, one of Trump's cryptocurrency ventures, in exchange for access to advanced AI chips. World Liberty Financial is in addition to two other ventures, Celebration Coin and American Bitcoin Corp, all of which continue to net him massive returns and are attributed most of his financial gains in 2025.
Perhaps the most notable grift that Trump has perpetuated, the Trump T1 phone, continues to be a sore spot for those that attempted to purchase it. Announced in June of 2025, the phone promised a quick release date that was met with shipping delays well into 2026. Its marketing as "Made in the USA" was quickly found to be counterfactual as it was designed in Taiwan and manufactured in China; they quickly rebranded to "assembled in the USA" after backlash.
The pay-to-play scheme for pardons continues to be evident and blatant grifts to amass fortune. The fraud convictions he has pardoned in total far surpasses any “waste, fraud, and/or abuse” his administration has claimed to uncover. For example, Changpeng Zhao was pardoned after pleading guilty to multiple money laundering charges, including facilitating hundreds of millions in transactions involving sanctioned entities and individuals in Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. Another significant pardon was Joseph Schwartz that withheld more than $38 million in employment taxes from the IRS while operating a nursing home conglomerate.
Schwartz and Zhao were both reported to have paid $1 million each to lobbying groups close to the Trump family for their pardons.
The quid pro quo such as the $400 million Qatari jet while their government received a guarantee of longevity of the Al-Udeid Air Base and their status as an ally. Not to mention the gold bar worth $130,000 that accompanied a Rolex watch, in return for reduced tariff rates for the Swiss government that provided the items.
Trump continues to choose his own vanity projects, such as the ballroom or the triumphal arch, instead of finding a way to decrease the costs of consumer goods. The country tumbles into financial and diplomatic disarray while he picks out tacky gold-painted trim for the Oval Office. The same Oval Office that he used an Executive Order to turn it into a landmark this week. A grossly pathetic attempt at preserving any sort of legacy in perpetuity.
Our hearts and minds needed the break, but the world is waiting for us to show them that the midterm elections weren't merely a show. We must keep that fire burning and use that against the tyranny we voted against this week. Trump and his allies cannot simply walk off into a lame-duck sunset without repercussions or accountability.
The relief we experienced on election night was a well-earned respite, but it cannot mark the end of our struggle. If our outrage softens in the post-midterm glow, we will continue to witness the historic corruption, extrajudicial violence, and systemic war crimes that have plagued recent history. Our representatives must be driven by our unrelenting demands for subpoenas, investigations, and widespread accountability, or this week's glimmer of hope will amount to nothing more than a temporary solace from ongoing societal collapse.
Our victory has not yet been earned; it has only just begun.