Vietnam Vets Crashed Trump’s Coast Guard Speech, Marine Calls Out His Slush Fund, and Republicans Ran From The Iran War Powers Vote
Plus, a Purple Heart Senator slams Trump
Today we honor the Americans who gave their lives so we could keep ours.
Vietnam Vets, a Marine combat officer, and an Army officer with two Bronze Stars showed Trump exactly who Memorial Day belongs to.
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CALLING OUT REPUBLICAN COWARDS
The Constitution says Congress—not the president—decides whether America stays at war. Last week, Democrats finally had enough votes to force a debate on ending Trump’s Iran war. Three Republicans had already broken ranks. GOP support for the war was collapsing.
Speaker Mike Johnson saw the math and canceled the vote. Rather than lose it, he sent everyone home for Memorial Day instead.
Thirteen American troops have died in this war. Republicans refused to vote on whether to bring the rest of our troops home.
Rep. Pat Ryan—a West Point graduate and former Army intelligence officer who served two combat tours in Iraq—was awarded two Bronze Stars.
He did not hold back: “These chickenhawk motherf**kers are gonna send us home for Memorial Day weekend, where I’m gonna honor my fellow Veterans that I served 27 months in combat with.” He added: “And they are gonna not even give an up or down vote on continuing this war.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth—a Purple Heart recipient who lost both her legs and nearly her right arm when an RPG hit the Black Hawk she was piloting in Iraq—was crystal clear: “From the moment this conflict began, the president has tried to shroud his incompetence behind the valor of our servicemembers.”
Two Bronze Stars. A Purple Heart. Thirteen dead Americans. Republican cowards ran from all of it.
THE MARINE CALLED IT OUT
Rep. Jake Auchincloss commanded infantry through Taliban-contested villages in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in 2012. On Monday, the Marine Veteran sounded off to call out what the regime had built: “These are taxpayer dollars being used to enrich friends, family and felons in service of Donald Trump.”
He’s talking about a $1.776 billion slush fund—your tax dollars—that could go to Jan 6 rioters who assaulted cops. Trump’s own Treasury general counsel, Brian Morrissey, resigned the same day the fund was announced. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.
Imagine what that money could have done instead. Funding for active-duty troops. Housing for homeless Veterans. Actually fully funding the VA. Instead, the regime built a slush fund for the people who beat cops on the Capitol steps.
Auchincloss called the fund “a brazen act of corruption” and demanded Morrissey be hauled in front of Congress to testify under oath about “all the gnarly details”—before a single dollar moves.
A Marine who fought in Helmand is doing today what so many Veterans did before him—standing between this country and the people who would sell it for parts.
“PLEASE REFUSE UNLAWFUL ORDERS”
Dave Grainger served 13 months in Vietnam. The 80-year-old held a giant sign reading “Please Refuse Unlawful Orders”—a direct message to the graduating cadets. Grainger called Trump’s war in Iran “an unending war in the Middle East that seems to be stalled, and the killing goes on.”
Nearby stood Steven Schimmel, another 80-year-old Vietnam-era Vet who called Trump’s draft-dodging “reprehensible.”
Hundreds of protesters joined Grainger and Schimmel to stand in 90-degree heat to protect this country from its own president. That’s what showing up looks like.
MOVING FORWARD
Memorial Day belongs to those who gave their lives so we could keep our freedom. It belongs to the soldiers buried in Arlington and other national cemeteries, and those who never came home. We owe them the same thing every generation has owed the last—the willingness to fight for a country worthy of their sacrifice.
Our fight is winnable—and this Memorial Day proves that momentum is on our side. The dam is cracking on Trump’s Iran war. Combat Veterans are ripping the regime’s lies apart. GOP leaders were forced to cancel their vote rather than lose it.
Our coalition has already organized 729,000 letters and calls to Congress since November 2024. Now we’re closing in on the midterms—where flipping the House and Senate is the ultimate way to end this war and stop the next one.
All of our work is reader-funded, billionaire-free, and getting louder every week. Every paid subscriber is another voice in the Watchdog Coalition Against Trump’s Corruption—and another brick in the wall we’ve built that the regime can’t get past. Join us as one today:
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Onward!
Scott
Are you honoring someone this Memorial Day? Tell us their name and their story in the comments to let us honor them with you.
🚨 NEW 🚨 Tell Congress: Block Trump's heist of taxpayer money for his felon-to-felon slush fund https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-block-trumps-theft-of-taxpayer-money-for-his-felon-to-felon-slush-fund/
🚨 Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have announced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act, legislation that would enact a reasonable pause to the development of AI to ensure the safety of humanity.
Learn more & support this bill in Congress here: https://bit.ly/4twnWMU
🚨 SIX OTHER URGENT ACTIONS TODAY
Pass Bill to Create 25th Amendment Commission https://tinyurl.com/44afaxvd
Stop Trump’s Illegal Plan to Destroy the US Forest Service: https://tinyurl.com/mrx8cvv7
Demand Acting AG Blanche release ALL of the Epstein files: https://tinyurl.com/2uc9vca9
Defend voting rights! https://tinyurl.com/3f3m728j
Stop Trump from deporting people with Temporary Protected Status https://tinyurl.com/yc8rfa7j
Vote NO on SAVE Act: https://tinyurl.com/ms977ec6