Rick Rosner: So, Carole doesn’t want me tweeting about Trump anymore. She doesn’t want me doing Lance versus Rick anymore either, because she saw a report today involving the U.S. Attorney General and the head of the FBI — Pam Bondi and Kash Patel — going after people.

Now, the deal with the Attorney General and the FBI is that they’re supposed to be independent organs of government — not personal lackeys of the president. But Trump intends to use them as if they are, and the people he’s appointed seem okay with that.

Carole saw a report saying that Trump wants a couple of people who were critical of him and of the 2020 election — since he still sometimes claims it was stolen — to be investigated and possibly prosecuted for treason. Just for holding a different opinion, or for doing investigative work that contradicted his narrative.

She’s afraid that if we leave the country and come back, customs might pull us aside — just because I’ve made pissy statements about Trump. So, I looked it up. U.S. citizens do have an absolute right to return to the United States, but they can be pulled aside by customs — not for “harassment,” of course; they call it “investigation” or “interrogation.” And yeah, they can hold you for a while.

But I’m not even in the top 20,000 Americans saying pissy stuff about Trump. I doubt they’ll be waiting for me. I doubt my passport would get flagged. I mean, what — 300,000 people across the country? Maybe more. Maybe a fucking million turned out to protest against Trump and the tariffs over the past few days. I don’t know. I just don’t think we’ve reached that point yet.

Not quite — at least not for citizens. 

Jacobsen: On some topics, yes, but not across the board. 

Rosner: Like, on Palestine. On Gaza. If you…

Jacobsen: Right — those are explicit deportation cases. Young people having it happen to them. 

Rosner: But not citizens. Those are people here on student visas or green cards — which grant the right to work and live in the U.S. as immigrants, but not citizenship. If you speak out in favor of Gazans — if you attend a protest, or even, in at least one case, just walk by a protest — you can get picked up by ICE and deported. But again, those are not citizens. We’re not at the “fucking with citizens” point yet.

I have one more thing. I feel bad self-censoring — it feels like that poem: “First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Communist…” You go through all the groups Hitler took away, and by the end, no one’s left to speak for you.

I feel like self-censoring is a form of complicity. I understand — my wife is super nervous. But I don’t know… What do you think? Should I, just to reduce her anxiety, go back to fun tweets? Like, wrecking a movie title by changing one letter — like we used to do in the old, happy days of Twitter?

Jacobsen: That’s an individual decision.

Rosner: Like, okay — change one letter, two letters… Dong with the Wind. 

Jacobsen: Or — Hong Kong edition — Kong with the Wind. I don’t know.

Rosner: I’m done. That’s all.

Photo by Valery Tenevoy on Unsplash

Rick Rosner is an accomplished television writer with credits on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Crank Yankers, and The Man Show. Over his career, he has earned multiple Writers Guild Award nominations—winning one—and an Emmy nomination. Rosner holds a broad academic background, graduating with the equivalent of eight majors. Based in Los Angeles, he continues to write and develop ideas while spending time with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for The Good Men Project; International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416); The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018-7399; Online: ISSN 2163-3576); Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066); A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ©Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use or duplication of material without express permission from Scott Douglas Jacobsen strictly prohibited, excerpts and links must use full credit to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with direction to the original content.