She Was Right Then, and She Is Right Now: For Everyone Who Got Trump Wrong, This Is Your Chance to Repair Your Prior Ignorance
- john raymond
- Jun 9
- 3 min read
In 2016, Hillary Clinton stood on a debate stage and did something few politicians have ever done with such clarity: she told the American public the truth, even when she knew most wouldn’t believe her. She looked Donald Trump in the eye and said, plainly, “You are a puppet.” He snapped back with juvenile bravado—“No puppet, no puppet, you’re the puppet”—but she had already pierced the illusion. She was calling out a national security crisis hiding in plain sight. And for doing so, she was ridiculed, dismissed, and doubted—not because she lacked evidence, not because she was wrong, but because she was a woman daring to name the danger.
Nearly a decade later, there is no excuse left. Donald Trump has returned to power and wasted no time proving, again, that his loyalties do not lie with the American people. This week, in an unprecedented act, he deployed the National Guard to California without the request or consent of its governor. As demonstrations remained largely peaceful, the move was seen by many as an overreach of federal force. It wasn’t just a tactical decision—it was a message. Chaos, not safety, is the point. And Hillary Clinton, once again, called it exactly what it is: an authoritarian power play aimed at destabilization. “Trump’s goal isn’t to keep Californians safe,” she wrote. “His goal is to cause chaos, because chaos is good for Trump.”
These aren’t the words of someone scrambling for relevance or lobbing partisan grenades.
They are the words of someone who has studied power, suffered from its abuses, and learned how the strongman state is built—not in a day, but in the silences and cowardices of those too afraid to call it out. If you didn’t believe her before, the question now is simple: What exactly are you waiting for? What more do you need to admit that she was right—not just about Putin’s influence, not just about Trump’s character, but about the entire infrastructure of lies and complicity that allowed him to rise?
Let us not mince words. The reason so many failed to listen in 2016 is not mysterious.
Clinton was a woman. She was methodical, prepared, assertive. And in a culture still steeped in sexism, those qualities are not read as leadership but as threat. Many chose to see her as manipulative or shrill rather than accurate. She was telling us something deeply uncomfortable: that a foreign adversary had found a willing accomplice in a man seeking the presidency, and that American institutions were too compromised, too weak, or too sexist to do anything about it.
If you are one of the many who scoffed, minimized, or ignored her warning, this moment is not too late—but it may be your last opportunity to do the right thing. The facts are no longer hidden behind classified documents or partisan noise. They are out in the open.
Trump obstructs bipartisan sanctions against Russia. He echoes Kremlin talking points. He sabotages domestic stability to advance his personal power. He governs not by allegiance to the Constitution, but by allegiance to his own mythos—and that mythos has long been crafted with the help of foreign actors who benefit from America’s decline.
You may have been wrong. But you do not have to stay wrong. You can repair your prior ignorance—not with platitudes or selective hindsight, but by standing up now and saying what should have been said from the beginning: Hillary Clinton was right. She saw it clearly. She named it. And she has never stopped warning us. She was not hysterical. She was not reaching. She was not “overreacting.” She was being braver and more honest than most men in public life ever manage to be.
It takes humility to admit you got it wrong. But this country needs that humility now more than ever. There is still time to join the truth. Not for Hillary’s sake. Not even for the sake of vindication. But for the survival of a republic under siege.
She was right then. She is right now. And if you see that now, say so. Out loud. Publicly. With the same force that the lie once carried. Because the lie won’t end until the truth is spoken just as boldly.
Comments