Renee Nicole Good, a 37‑year‑old American woman, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis yesterday. I’ve watched multiple videos of the killing, different witnesses, different angles, and the experience was numbing. Then I listened to Kristi Noem, who immediately went on the offensive, branding the victim a “domestic terrorist.” She claimed Good “attacked” officers, “tried to run them over,” and that the ICE agent who shot her was hospitalized. Yet in at least one video, that same agent, after the shooting, can be seen walking toward Good’s car and later walking away from it, looking perfectly fine.
What came out of Noem’s mouth was a seamless string of lies, instant, confident, and delivered by someone who knows she’ll never be held to account. Truth doesn’t matter. The narrative is whatever she decides it is. And if you’ve seen even one of the videos, you know how grotesquely her story diverges from reality. Yesterday, Minnesota officials said they would fully investigate the killing. Today, we learn the U.S. attorney’s office has barred them from doing so.
This is the country I live in now, a government under Trump that doesn’t even pretend accountability exists. They’ve adopted a toxic attitude toward Americans and the world community: they have the power, and nobody can do a damn thing about it. The aftermath of Good’s killing makes that painfully clear.
The evidence of that attitude is commonplace within the government. Justice Department prosecutors are pushed to mislead judges, and when a ruling goes against them, they don’t argue, they sneer. The law is a standard to be bent or dodged. A man throws a piece of sandwich at a federal agent and suddenly he’s treated like a terrorist. It’s not justice. It’s a warning shot to the rest of us: any tiny act of defiance can be turned into a life‑destroying prosecution, simply because they feel like it.
You see the same contempt when Congress passes a law requiring the release of the Epstein files. The administration doesn’t openly defy it, they slow‑walk it. They blow past deadlines. Then they dump pages so blacked‑out they’re nothing but ink. They redact things that have nothing to do with national security. It’s a demonstration that they can hollow out any law they dislike.
And people like Pete Hegseth cheer this on. He treats overwhelming military power not as a constitutional responsibility but as a national entitlement – something to admire, flaunt, and use without restraint. In his worldview, America’s unmatched strength frees leaders from oversight. Restraint is weakness. Dissent is disloyalty. Civilian limits are inconveniences. The message is unmistakable: when you command the most powerful military on earth, you don’t need to justify anything. You act because you can. Who’s going to stop them?
Trump embodies that philosophy as well. He violates the Constitution openly. He treats congressional oversight as a nuisance. He slaps on tariffs unilaterally. He sends the National Guard into American cities like an occupying force. He turns immigration policy into a machinery of fear, tearing families apart. Why? Because he can.
The same logic was on display when he announced he was taking control of Venezuela and its oil, or when he floated “buying” Greenland and his staff insisted the U.S. could take it “peacefully or by force.” It wasn’t about feasibility. It was the message being sent: we can do whatever we want, and no one can stop us.
This is the culture they’ve built, a government that acts without explanation, without restraint, without shame. Every abuse of power becomes another flex. They’ve tasted impunity, and they have no intention of giving it up.
This is a strategy to make Amereicans feel small, outmatched, and powerless. The message is hammered into us with every action they take: We do what we want. You can’t stop us. And that message applies as much to foreign policy as it does to the killing of Renee Nicole Good, the lies from Kristi Noem, and the federal government’s move to crush Minnesota’s investigation.
If we don’t stand up to this, if we don’t reject a government that rules by daring us to object, we will wake up one day and realize the line between democracy and authoritarianism was erased slowly, by arrogant people who were certain no one would have the guts to stop them.
I believe we do. I believe we’re still a proud, stubborn people who refuse to be ruled by fear, and who will not let our country be taken from us by those who think they can do whatever they want with impunity. We can stop them.
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