Dictator Trump… Johnny Schaefer Speaks Out!

Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen

In this series I talk to various people and ask them their opinions about Trump’s first year in office, ICE, Tariffs, Corruption, Education, Greenland and more…

Johnny is 64 and a singer/songwriter. He lives in California.

KB: How do you view Trump’s presidency after 1,5 year in office?

As a musician, I am often cautioned to stay out of the political realm. I’m not very good at that, because the stakes have grown so high, and I truly believe my ability to live, love, and create as an individual in the United States is in jeopardy. As Martin Luther King stated, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Consequently, my music, my social media posts, and my daily interactions include engagement with the crazy world around me.

I was devastated the first time the now 34-time convicted felon took office. I had no idea I shared a country with so many people whose core values were in direct opposition to mine. I wrote songs in protest and worked hard to ensure that we put his dark reign behind us. I read all 920+ pages of Project 2025 in the summer of 2024 and warned everyone who would listen. Not many did, or if they did, they thought I was overreacting. I encountered a surprising number of people who felt that “both sides” were equally corrupt and that it didn’t matter all that much who won. So, I am not surprised at how quickly we have seen the destruction of our fragile, carefully constructed system of self-governance over the past year. I am heartbroken by the cruelty, the racism, the homophobia, the transphobia, the misogyny, the hate, and the callous indifference by so many around me—especially those who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus. I view “Christian” nationalism as quite literally anti-Christ, and as a cult.

KB: ICE on American streets: What is your opinion about this?

During the first Trump term, I wrote a song which asks how a person who professes to love and care for others can endorse cruelty towards refugees and hard-working people simply trying to follow the same dreams held by each of our predecessors. My sincere hope was that the song would become irrelevant.

I used to ponder how Hitler could possibly have happened. How could so many have gone along with abject evil? Sadly, I am now witnessing it in my own city and country. We are revisiting 1930s Germany. The absolute horrors of families ripped apart, sloppy violence, the disregard for the law, and the breakdown of checks and balances, that are supposed to prevent all of this, are devastating and infuriating.

To be clear, undocumented workers have a substantially lower crime rate than the general population of US citizens. It makes sense when you think about it. They are trying to stay under the radar and establish themselves as desirable neighbors. They pay nearly $100 billion in taxes annually, despite being locked out of most of the benefits. They pay into Social Security and Medicare but cannot use it. The battle cry of the original Boston Tea Party was “No taxation without representation!” We’re back to square one.

There are hundreds of Bible verses demanding that we welcome foreigners and treat them as our own. In fact, the only thing discussed more in scripture is lifting up the poor, which is yet another thing today’s Republicans refuse to do.

I hope that the cold-blooded murder of a wonderful mom of three (coincidentally, a Lesbian) and a male VA hospital nurse choosing to protect a neighbor will finally be the wake-up call. There have been many before, but the way in which the regime is propagandizing the murders and attempting to assassinate the characters of the victims is outrageous. People know what they saw. I superimposed a quote from George Orwell’s 1984 onto an image of Alex Pretti in front of an American flag. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

The mental gymnastics of the MAGA cult have never been more evident. For decades they have rationalized school shootings as a necessary price for the 2nd Amendment (conveniently ignoring the “well-regulated” part.) They put Kyle Rittenhouse on a pedestal and ignored the rhetoric of Charlie Kirk, while simultaneously grifting off of his murder at the hands of one of their own. But when Alex Pretti had a legally carried gun taken from his holster and was subsequently riddled with bullets despite not posing any threat to the thugs who murdered him, they began to declare that guns are not allowed at peaceful protests. When Renee Good was murdered for no reason, they tried to justify it by vilifying her. The same people who celebrated an insurrection on January 6, 2021, claim that US Citizens have no right to peacefully protest. It’s like everything. They want rights they want to deny people they don’t like. They want the freedom to marry the person they love, but they don’t want same sex couples to have that freedom. They want “freedom of religion,” but only for their specific brand of one religion, which they want to force upon everyone else. They want free speech, unless people are saying things that make them feel icky. They want to be free to live their lives the way they see fit but deny trans individuals the same right. They are often descendants of immigrants, but scapegoat people who come here the same way as their predecessors. Their selfishness, cruelty and bigotry are everything our founders tried to prevent.

KB: Trump’s corruption in broad daylight: Your opinion?

I remember, plain as day, when Dan Quayle’s career essentially ended over a gaffe concerning the spelling of the word potato, I remember Gary Hart’s campaign being derailed by an extra-marital affair. I remember the many Republicans who did the right thing when Nixon’s crimes came to light. I remember the pearl-clutching by many around me when Michelle Obama wore a sleeveless dress, and when her husband wore (gasp) a tan suit. In the last decade there have been thousands of things that would have ended the political careers of anyone else, yet nothing phases the Maga cult, which has been inoculated by the Orwellian propaganda of their media machine against reason and truth. Someone close to me teaches AP History and Social Studies and says that we live in a Post-Truth America. Trump was absolutely right when he said he could stand in the middle of Times Square and shoot someone and his minions would still adore him. He and his billionaire buddies are fleecing America and are using the lack of education and profound bigotry of their followers to gain support.

KB: Are Trump’s tariffs a sort of blackmail in your eyes?

I don’t know that Trump is sophisticated enough to use them effectively in that way. I truly believe he was groomed to embrace tariffs by his puppeteers who simply told him it was a great way to make money. His family more than a billion dollars richer in one year, That’s all he cares about. That said, he is the most vindictive person I have ever seen, so I am sure that if he believes he can beat countries into submission with tariffs he will try.

KB: What is your opinion about invading a foreign country like Venezuela?

I am exasperated by the breakdown of the legislative branch of our government. Their abdication of their responsibilities as a separate-but-equal form of government is mystifying. Only Congress can declare war. Where are the people who become outraged when other countries invade sovereign nations for resources? The precedent will be embraced by China with Taiwan, and Russia with Eastern Europe. It’s appalling.

KB: Greenland belongs to Denmark and yet Trump wants to own it and doesn’t shy away from blackmail to get what he wants: Your view about it?

His lack of basic knowledge of laws, history, and ethics, combined with his cognitive decline, are a recipe for disaster. It’s all a game to him. He talked openly about all of it during the campaign. His antics are also a great cover for the billionaires, Christian Nationalists, and white supremacists working feverishly to force their will on a majority that is, in many ways, just waking up. Part of the game plan for them is to muddy the waters as much as possible. This is yet another distraction, though I do not put it past him to try it in light of what he has done in Iran and Venezuela, and it doesn’t seem like Republicans in Congress care to stop him. My dread is that they are convinced there either won’t be mid-term elections due to some manufactured crisis, or they will be rigged. They could be laying a foundation to attempt such an assault on a docile neighbor, though I can’t see Europe just allowing it.

KB: Why, in your opinion, did Trump dismantle the education department?

This began decades ago in red states, My friend, who teaches History and Social Studies, told me of a transfer student from Texas who came up to him in tears after class. When he asked what was up, she told him that she hadn’t been taught anything about the Constitution, the way government is supposed to work, laws, and actual US and world history. He asked her what they did teach and she simply stated, “Voter fraud.” Video after video about voter fraud, which Is actually extremely rare and has often been aimed at helping Republicans when it has been uncovered.

I firmly believe that if kids in red states had been taught what I was taught about the Constitution, our system of checks and balances, tariffs, the history of civil rights in our country, the rise and fall of fascism in the early 20th Century, critical thinking skills, and healthy skepticism of media, there is no way we would be in this predicament. It’s useless trying to carry on conversations with most of the people who still support this regime, because they do not understand any of it. They get offended when we call out their ignorance. I guess I can’t blame them-they don’t know what they don’t know. But the price of their ignorance could be the downfall of our democracy, just as we begin celebrating our 250th year as a nation.

KB: Trump seems to be doing everything to distract the attention from the Epstein Files. Is he in those files?

I don’t know anyone who doubts that he is all over the Epstein Files. There has already been enough to leave any question of that fact behind. I wish they had been released under the Biden administration, regardless of whoever else is in them. Anyone who participated should be in prison.

KB: Whose side is Trump on in the Russia/Ukraine War?

I don’t think he has any real loyalty to anyone. That is obvious in how he has treated his wives, Mike Pence, many former advisors, former allies, and former business partners. It’s all about him. Whatever side he thinks will benefit him at the moment is what he will play up. The Russians made it clear as soon as the election results were announced that he was their puppet. I think that he derives inspiration for invading Greenland from Putin’s antics in Ukraine.

KB: Do you think Trump is a dictator, a fascist, an authoritarian or all three and what else?

I think he aspires to all three and is no longer trying to hide it. Advisors in his first administration warned us about this. They were able to talk him down from his wild ideas, but they are gone. First and foremost, he is an oligarch and a grifter with no moral compass.

KB: Why is Trump getting away with everything?

I ask myself that question every day. The only thing I can think of is that his handlers have been able to convince many in Congress and the Senate, many in the Judiciary, and corporate heads that he has it sown up and that they will want to be on the winning side. George Lakoff, in his informative book “Don’t Think of an Elephant”, articulated the well-orchestrated psychological use of words to manipulate the masses. The cult has a stranglehold that is tough to overcome but, as Heather Cox Richardson points out, they are also profoundly inept.

Republicans sort of stumbled on a blueprint for all of this when Karl Rove realized they could tap into the ennui of white, evangelical “Christians” and identified scapegoats they could target effectively, like immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and feminists.

KB: Trump and the Iran War: Your opinion?

Donald Trump has a privileged little boy’s view of the world. Kids play with army men and play violent war games that have zero consequences in the real world and he is so detached and insulated from it that he sees it all as a big, fun game in which he is just trying to get his initials at the top of the leader board at the end. He doesn’t have to buy gas and goods and doesn’t send his kids into battle. He holds anyone he decides is an enemy in disdain and strips them of humanity so their deaths mean nothing to him. Long ago, he informed us that “he likes soldiers who don’t die,” so he just conveniently sees the American soldiers he puts in harm’s way as “losers” if they are killed or injured. He views great leaders of history as being conquerors and assumes that he has such a powerful military that Iran will bend to his will and everyone will praise him and build commemorative arches in Washington. He truly doesn’t understand our complex world and has gotten rid of anyone who would have kept him in check. The Republicans in the legislative branch are entirely culpable. They could have stopped most of this and rolled over instead.

KB: How do you see the upcoming mid-terms?

The 2026 mid-terms are our last chance to get out of this mess. As long as draconian Republican efforts to subvert fair elections don’t succeed, the Democrats should get back one, if not both of the houses of the legislature. I personally believe that part of what got us here is that Democrats forgot who they are and haven’t offered much other than, “We’re not as evil as Trump.” But we’re the party of FDR, not Mitt Romney. My Dad called himself a “Card-carrying Republican” in the 60s and 70s and was a staunch advocate as a Lutheran minister for things today’s progressive Democrats want. That’s how far to the right we’ve strayed. It’s time for the pendulum to swing back. Far.

KB: How do you see the 2028 election?

I don’t think it makes sense to talk much about 2028 until after the mid-terms. If we don’t get back to the checks and balances our forefathers painstakingly put in place to prevent the very thing that’s happening now (a fascist authoritarian dictator,) we wont have elections in 2028 and the Project 2025 Republicans have said as much.

I also think it’s premature to talk about any one candidate for President. I will say that what I’ll be looking for is a true Progressive. Again we’re the party of FDR, not Mitt Romney. I’m tired of milquetoast Democrats who offer nothing of value. Marianne Williamson and Bernie Sanders were ignored and suppressed, to our peril. The Democratic Party elite should foster real dialogue, not squash it. I won’t support a candidate who doesn’t champion universal health care, paid family leave, free meals for all kids during the hours they’re required to be in school, a guaranteed living wage, and government-subsidized housing, all quite easily paid for by taxing the 1%. We have failed as a society by ever allowing individuals to accumulate that much wealth. The nonsense coming from the right about “communism” is ludicrous. These are all moderate positions in healthy industrialized nations around the world where people are much happier than they are in the US. But right now, it’s all hands on deck for the mid-terms First things first.

I am cautiously hopeful that we will have free and fair mid-term elections in 2026. If we do, I feel that Democrats will take back the House and Senate, as well as many state houses. I do not want Schumer and Jeffries in leadership positions. If you have not listened to the speeches of James Talarico, who is running for the US Senate in Texas, I encourage you to do so. He is a way forward. We need to answer oligarchy with free, universal health care, free college tuition, a minimum income for everyone, a living wage, paid family leave, a ban on corporations and hedge funds purchasing single family residences, and a complete reversal of all of this regime’s policies. All of this is easily paid for by a return to pre-Reagan tax levels on the 1% and corporations. In the last 50 years, more than $79 Trillion dollars has transferred from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. No one needs billions of dollars while anyone else is struggling. We need to take money completely out of politics. We must break up corporate media monopolies (I blame Bill Clinton for signing the Telecommunications Act.)

I am encouraged by the amazing display of love and positive resistance on display in places like Portland and Minnesota. If we survive all of this, I believe their bravery will be noted in history books. It comes from a place of pure love for humanity, freedom, justice, and the US Constitution.

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