I had this buddy I’d known for over twenty years, not inseparable but always orbiting, sharing memes, encouraging each other’s grind, he had a clothing brand, I did music and design, we weren’t close but we were connected and then outta nowhere I get this message: “Either denounce Trump and be a man… or delete me.” Just like that, an ultimatum from one grown man to another over a politician. Not where do you stand, not what do you believe, just surrender or disappear. And here’s the thing—I don’t idolize Trump, I just don’t worship anyone. I’m not a Trump fan, I’m just less of a fan of Biden, or Obama, or Bush, or Clinton, or any of these suit-wearing warlords smiling as they drop bombs on kids and kiss babies for press. I’m not waving a MAGA flag, I’m not slapping a Biden sticker on my bumper, and I sure as hell ain’t pledging allegiance to any of these motherfuckers, because until a president puts students before inmates, families before profits, progress before war, and children before systems, I’m good. Fuck them all equally.
That message from my buddy wasn’t political—it was a purity test, a loyalty checkpoint to see if I still fit in his curated little narrative, but if he actually listened to me he’d already know I don’t wear the jersey, I burn it, I don’t chant the slogans, I question the language, I’m not looking for a team, I’m looking for truth. I’m a nonconformist by design, and I’ll never trade my sovereignty for social approval or digital hugs. You want to talk about villains? Obama dropped over 26,000 bombs in a single year and somehow won a Nobel Peace Prize while bombing hospitals. Biden co-authored the 1994 crime bill that ripped fathers from homes and fed kids into the grinder. The “kids in cages”? Obama and Biden built those. Bush lied us into Iraq, killed half a million people, and now he paints watercolors and gets libraries named after him. But sure—Trump’s the problem, because he tweets mean things and makes brunch awkward.
What did Trump actually do? He didn’t start a single new war—rare as hell. Unemployment hit record lows pre-COVID, including for Black and Latino Americans. His administration brokered the Abraham Accords, real peace deals in the Middle East. He signed the First Step Act, actual criminal justice reform. He brought manufacturing jobs back, cut taxes for small businesses, punched the media in the mouth for lying—on camera—and exposed the theater by being too loud for the script. That doesn’t make him perfect, but compared to the buttoned-up butchers who came before him he’s just a busted speaker on a broken stage, and sometimes the noise is the message.
And look, I’m not a nationalist, I don’t romanticize flags or borders, but I lock my door and I lock my car because the world’s full of people who’ll take what isn’t theirs. I don’t want guns around kids, but I’m not gonna be the only poor bastard without one when it hits the fan. You can’t sing songs about unity while still paying rent to a system that hates you. If you’re still depending on the same machine you claim to fight, you’re not woke, you’re a renter in your own rebellion. And no, America isn’t a democracy, never was—it’s a constitutional republic run by lobbyists, billionaires, and PR firms. So when people say “Trump’s hurting our democracy,” I say you mean this democracy? The one run by Pfizer, BlackRock, the FBI, and CNN? Trump didn’t break the system, he just stopped pretending it worked.
And we don’t need a babysitter, we need accountability. Someone posted “stop putting pink ribbons on soda cans, take the cancer out instead.” Cool. Or just don’t buy it. You don’t need to boycott a corporation on sovereign soil, just stop funding the poison. We cry for more government while screaming about how corrupt it is. You want oversight and freedom in the same sentence? Pick one. You can’t be both sovereign and dependent. And let’s be real: modern Democrats act like 1990s evangelicals—blind faith, shallow virtue, cancel culture, guilt by association. I’ve had people say “Trump’s not racist, he helped my brother, but I still hate him.” Cool, but why? “Oh, just… everything.” That’s not politics, that’s dogma, that’s fear, that’s someone repeating a script they didn’t write just to stay in the cool kids club.
So here’s my denunciation: I denounce all of it. The cages, the bombs, the bought elections, the groomed outrage, the illusion of choice between two faces of the same beast. I’m not here to pick a team, I’m here to burn the fucking scoreboard. I want a world where children aren’t commodities in systems designed to fail them, where family court doesn’t profit off of pain, where mental health isn’t just another pharma pipeline, and where progress means something deeper than a rainbow logo in June. Until I see a president stand up and say “the war on American families ends today, we will fund students before prisoners, children before corporations, healing before headlines,” until then your tribe can eat a dick.
And the conclusion? Sometimes you just need a ditch dug and feelings get in the way. Fuck your feelings. America isn’t in the top 10 for education, healthcare, or quality of life, but we’re #1 in incarceration and a world leader in diabetes-related amputations. We’ve been around over 300 years, Trump was in office for less than five, and somehow he’s your endgame villain? You want to save the country? Start by turning off the damn TV, let your phone die, read a real book, or better yet—just stop consuming shit that hates you. You scream fight the system with a Marvel movie on repeat and a rainbow-labeled poison in your hand, then beg the government to regulate what you won’t stop buying. You’re not a revolutionary, you’re just a compliant, brand-loyal sheep too scared to look up, too soft to say no, too programmed to think. All shepherds want fat sheep—stay close, stay scared, fear the wolves, obey the shears, don’t ask questions, just keep walking right into the slaughterhouse. They’ll sell your skin before they’ll hear your story. They don’t love us, they love profits over people, control over clarity, and you think switching teams is the fix? Until a leader shows up willing to end the war on families, strip immunity from vaccine manufacturers and corrupt judges, rebuild from the roots, invest more into students than inmates, and speak truth without a handler in their ear—I’ll be over here, free, unbranded, unbothered, being the actual change through my actions. Signed, a free man with eyes open and no jersey on.
-Written by Steve Caprio
