READ: Trump is coming after me. I have a one-word plan.

As the president ramps up pressure on DOJ to persecute his enemies, I have advice for others in the crosshairs.

President Trump is escalating his campaign of political revenge.

He spent the weekend ordering his attorney general to accelerate the prosecution of his critics — “we can’t delay any longer…JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED NOW!” he raged in a rambling post — demanding that his political foes be treated as criminals, evidence be damned. This came a day after Trump fired a top prosecutor for failing to charge one of his rivals, New York Attorney General Letitia James.

I am one of those targets, and I have no doubt where this is headed.

In April, the president went on national television and signed an executive order placing a check mark next to my name on his enemies list. The order — announced with great fanfare, for reasons I found out later — directed a federal investigation into me for what he called “treason,” the highest crime envisioned by the Constitution. Not a single law enforcement official had accused me of a crime, but Trump decided to use the power of the presidency to criminalize dissent anyway.

Legal scholars labeled it the first time in history a U.S. president has signed an order directing a federal investigation into an individual critic for constitutionally protected speech, or as Judge J. Michael Luttig put it, “the president’s most constitutionally corrupt Executive Order to date.” Article III of the Constitution defines the crime accordingly:

“Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

My crime, of course, was telling the truth about Donald Trump. And yes, I have committed that crime repeatedly. Over the past seven years, I’ve exposed Trump’s fantasies about maiming and murdering civilians at the border; his admiration for autocrats in Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang; his dreams of neutering the judiciary; his efforts to circumvent Congress; his efforts to block emergency aid to states that didn’t vote for him; his attempts to corrupt public officials by dangling pardons in exchange for illegal acts; and his obsession with using military and national-security powers against his own people, among other deranged directives.

I do not regret it.

If anything, the sitting president himself — who has explicitly called for the “termination” of part of the Constitution — appears to fit the Founders’ definition of treason far better than I ever could, even if I tried. But that’s a discussion for another time. For now, I want to focus on Trump’s escalating demands to arrest critics and to suggest how I think those “enemies” should respond.

The president’s weekend social-media post went on to say that opponents like FBI Director James Comey and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff were “guilty as hell.” Amidst this virtual rant, though, he let slip his real reason for wanting to see people thrown in jail.

“They impeached me twice,” he fumed, “and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING.”

I wish he’d been more specific. He was impeached and indicted for “nothing,” as in nothing more than attempting to rig an election, inciting an insurrectionist mob to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power, and stealing loads of classified documents. These acts put him in the pantheon of public corruption. But that’s also a conversation for another time.

Trump and his team are hunting for crimes, real or imagined. I know his enforcers are continuing to comb through my own life, background, and communications. Perhaps preparing raids. That’s the playbook. As The Wall Street Journal wrote, it’s a “fishing expedition… tainted from the start.” And the objective of that fishing expedition is not to deliver justice. It’s to find a way to deliver vengeance.

The president wants any excuse to make his critics suffer publicly, painfully, and preferably in handcuffs. To him, the end result must be a montage of mugshots featuring everyone who challenged him — a montage at least as big as the one compiled in recent years, displaying Trump and all of allies who were charged with actual crimes. He wants to put their faces up on a similar poster board.

Unfortunately, I suspect he will get what he wants. At least in part. He will arrest some of us. To him, it doesn’t matter what “crime” any of us is accused of. He just needs to find or fabricate one, and it needs to be just enough to get a police mugshot so he can gloat and post it online. I think it matters less to him if any of those cases hold up in court, as long as he gets to ruin lives in the process.

So what do we do? What should anyone in Trump’s crosshairs do, knowing the nation’s chief executive is so hellbent on their demise?

I have a one-word plan. It’s simple. And I would humbly submit that it should be adopted by any individual or institution on the receiving end of Donald Trump’s petulant bursts of authoritarian fury.

Defiance.

That’s it. We should defy his revenge campaign. If you need greater specificity on how to be defiant in such a situation, here is how I am implementing my own plan.

1. First, I will not shut up. No threat, no investigation, no retaliatory executive order will mute me. I will keep writing, speaking, and showing up, not in spite of the pressure, but because of it. Whether in this newsletter, on the airwaves, or on any stage I can find, I will keep telling the truth about what is happening to our country because of Trump and what’s at stake if we let it slide.

2. I will not apologize for telling the truth. Far from it. I will never say sorry for warning the public about Trump’s attempts to abuse his power, bribe government officials, or sabotage his fellow citizens. In fact, I will continue to hold up that mirror to his face, proudly, every chance I get.

3. I will not pretend this is normal. Trump’s allies will insist this is what the opposition did to him and that it’s just a consequence of politics. Nope. That’s a big and bombastic lie. What we’re witnessing isn’t politics, it’s actual authoritarianism, wrapped in the American flag. If we accept it as normal, then we normalize it; and if we normalize it, we lose the Republic.

4. I will not retreat into the darkness. Trump wants whistleblowers, truth-tellers, and critics to slink away, afraid and too ashamed to deal with being blacklisted by the White House. Autocrats don’t win by silencing everyone. They do it by convincing most people to silence themselves. So I won’t retreat. I will do the opposite. I’ll stand visibly and vocally in solidarity with others on the enemies list.

5. I will not back down in court. If Trump wants to put me on trial, then you can be sure that I will put him on trial with me. If I am charged, with anything by him, I will use the courtroom and all legal proceedings to expose the Trump-inflicted rot that now threatens the entire rule of law. If they indict me for telling the truth, I will indict the corrupt administration that enabled it to happen.

6. I will not be a piñata. Trump aides told Rolling Stone that I was targeted to “send a message.” A warning shot to others. That’s why he made such a show of signing the E.O. against me. Well, let me send a message in return. I won’t be a cautionary tale. I’ll be a counterexample and show how being targeted by Trump can be used as a way to get others to stand against him. Which leads me to…

7. I will not stop organizing. There is strength in numbers, which is why I’m doubling down on defending other whistleblowers, supporting crucial investigative journalism in this moment, and strengthening defense networks for others in the crosshairs. I’ll have more to say on this soon. But for now, Trump’s vendetta makes my mission clearer: build coalitions that outlast him.

8. Finally, I will not fear. Fear is the oxygen that fuels autocracy. I won’t give it to them. I’ve already been threatened, smeared, defamed, doxxed, stalked, harassed, and attacked. Now I’m being investigated by the federal government for protected speech. If I was going to fold, I would’ve done it a long time ago. The only ones who should be afraid are Donald Trump and his goons, because we have what they lose sleep over: truth and accountability. And it will not stop coming.

So that’s it. That’s my plan. I will defy this small and petty man until he is gone, and I will dedicate myself to undoing what he’s done to this country. To others on Trump’s enemies list, I say this: if we all embrace defiance, his plan will backfire spectacularly. Instead of intimidating his critics, he will inspire them and unite them into the fiercest opposition he’s ever faced.

P.S. WHAT’S HAPPENING ON TREASON

A few things to put on your radar screen this week.

1. Tomorrow / Tuesday (5pmET) - Alex Vindman fights intimidation - I’ll be joined on Substack LIVE by former White House national security official-turned-whistleblower Alex Vindman to discuss how to fight back against government-sponsored intimidation. This is a discussion everyone needs to hear, from the corporate board rooms of ABC News to the universities capitulating to Trump’s threats. You can join here.

2. Wednesday (12noonET) - Subscribers Only - Weekly Wednesday Coffee - Join me for another coffee. For an opportunity to win a signed book, bring your questions to ask in the chat. You can join here.

3. Friday (5pmET) - Sue Gordon is back! - Donald Trump’s former spy chief — Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon — is back on Substack LIVE with me this Friday to speak out about Trump’s most recent abuses of power. You can join here.

4. BONUS: Pieces you may have missed last week —

   1. CANCELLED: Trump revives cancel culture to cancel guy who called him a canceller.

   2. “This country isn’t the same,” say foreign visitors.

   3. Trump wants to label Dems as “terrorists.” Here’s what happens next.