Timothy Birdnow

Orson Scott Card is the author of the wildly popular Ender's Game S-F saga:

Orson Scott Card

@orsonscottcard

Our current Civil War:

I must point out that in 2016 a President was elected who was immediately rejected by a certain portion of the population and by state and local governments. They brought criminal legal action against Trump and impeached him before he'd even had a chance to do anything, and accused him of being a dictator and the death of democracy — though it was they who rejected a lawful election and threw the Constitution out the window. Sanctuary laws in defiance of federal authority are in every case the equivalent of besieging and firing on Ft. Sumter.

When Trump won reelection in 2024, the rebels doubled down on their secession from the Union by passing laws against federal officers enforcing federal law within their sanctuary purview, all the time claiming that Trump was oppressing THEM by taking completely proper actions. So by rejecting the results of the election, they are in open rebellion.

And if you say "Trump is no Lincoln” you'd be right. Trump has not arrested and charged with treason the deniers and rejectors of federal authority, including mayors and governors who threaten to prosecute federal officers for enforcing the law. Trump has been far more restrained than Lincoln ever was — though the defiance of the Constitution is no less egregious. Sanctuary laws are exactly the same as secession — a declaration that the federal government has no authority here. They have declared war against the President and openly abused him as has not been done to a President since Lincoln. But the President has not sent federal troops to arrest those publicly guilty of sedition and treason, and take over the defiant government bodies and throw them in jail. They claim to fear Trump's officers — while they are the ones who suppress free speech and try to adjust campaign laws so as to prevent the candidates they oppose from being on the ballot. California doesn't even pretend to be a democracy anymore … but Trump stays his hand.

So, true — he is no Lincoln. He has been infinitely lenient in dealing with people and governments that are in open rebellion against the federal government because the wrong guy made it into the White House.

7:29 PM · Jul 2, 2026

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