How We Exit Trump

The exit strategy for an unconstitutional presidency is written in the foundation of America.

Before the Revolutionary War, our colonial ancestors didn't immediately grab their muskets. They picked up their pens. For years, they petitioned King George III and Parliament through proper channels, documenting every grievance, pursuing every legal remedy. Only after these formal appeals were ignored or rejected did they declare independence and fight.

The Federalist Papers make this clear: the first response to government overreach must be through institutional channels. As James Madison wrote in Federalist #46, citizens must exhaust constitutional remedies before considering other action. We petition first, organize second, and only then explore other options.

We are at that petition moment now

Judge J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former federal appeals court judge, has issued a dire warning in The Atlantic: America faces a constitutional crisis that threatens our very system of government. His recent analysis reads like a constitutional bill of particulars—a systematic documentation of how our three-branch system is under assault.

"The Limits of Tyrants Are Prescribed by the Endurance of Those Whom They Oppress"

Judge Luttig's words echo Frederick Douglass, but they speak to our current moment. He writes:

"Until Trump exits public life altogether, it cannot be said either that America is a thriving democracy or that it has a government 'of laws, not of men.'"

"The president has provoked a constitutional crisis by defying orders of the federal courts in his efforts to send undocumented immigrants overseas."

"The arrest and prosecution of judges on such specious charges is where rule by law ends and tyranny begins."

The pattern Judge Luttig documents is unmistakable: systematic defiance of court orders (like keeping U.S. citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia imprisoned in El Salvador despite a Supreme Court order), weaponization of federal prosecutorial power against critics like Letitia James and former officials Krebs and Taylor, acceptance of a $400 million Qatar aircraft without required congressional approval, mass violations of due process, and direct threats to suspend habeas corpus.

The Financial Corruption Angle

Beyond constitutional violations, there's naked financial corruption: profiting from a $2.9 billion cryptocurrency empire while using presidential power to benefit those investments. The illegal component? Anonymous payments for Trump meme coins allow foreign nationals to bypass campaign finance laws and enrich Trump without disclosure.

Meanwhile, DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has systematically violated federal data privacy laws—accessing National Labor Relations Board data without authorization, attempting "unfettered access" to Social Security records (blocked by courts), and creating security risks through unauthorized Starlink installations that whistleblowers say gave Russian IP addresses access to sensitive U.S. databases.

As Luttig notes:

"The federal government could ever prove the charges against Judge Dugan. But that was not the point of the FBI's arrest." The message was intimidation, pure and simple.

The Constitutional Architecture Is Under Attack

Our founders designed a system where "ambition would check ambition" (Federalist #51). But when one branch defies the others, when judges are arrested for doing their job (Judge Hannah Dugan), when prosecutors are targeted for upholding the law—the entire system begins to collapse.

Ed Martin's Justice Department "Weaponization Working Group" has announced a "name and shame" campaign to publicly humiliate people they investigate but can't prosecute—breaking DOJ norms that protect the uncharged. As Martin said: "If they can be prosecuted, we will pursue charges. However, if prosecution is not an option, we will publicly identify them."

Luttig captures this perfectly:

"It is now entirely foreseeable that arrests of judges will occur in the federal courts across the country as well."

This isn't partisan politics. This is constitutional emergency.

Your Constitutional Duty to Petition

The First Amendment doesn't just protect speech and religion - it explicitly protects "the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This isn't a suggestion. It's a constitutional right and civic duty.

The petition clause exists for exactly this moment. When government violates the Constitution, citizens must create an official record by petitioning for redress. This isn't about getting immediate results - it's about documentation.

Every petition creates legal evidence that:

• Citizens demanded constitutional compliance

• Representatives were formally notified of violations

• Proper channels were attempted before other actions

When King George ignored colonial petitions, it justified independence. When representatives ignore your constitutional petition, it justifies escalation to other constitutional remedies.

This is something you can do today, in under 30 minutes. Download the template, fill in your information, send it to your representatives. You've just fulfilled your constitutional duty and created legal evidence that you demanded action.

Every American - old enough to write - has this duty. The founders didn't limit petitioning to adults, voters, or property owners. They said "the people." That means you.

Why Petition Now?

Because the founders' sequence still matters. Before the Declaration of Independence listed grievances against King George, colonial assemblies spent years sending formal petitions. The Stamp Act Congress, the Continental Congress, individual colonial governments—all petitioned for redress first.

"Just last month, an interviewer from Time magazine asked the president in the Oval Office, 'Mr. President, you were showing us the new paintings you have behind us. You put all these new portraits. One of them includes John Adams. John Adams said we're a government ruled by laws, not by men. Do you agree with that?' To which the president replied: 'John Adams said that? Where was the painting?'"

What History Shows Us

Every successful resistance to tyranny begins with documentation. The colonists meticulously recorded their attempts at redress. When independence was declared, they could point to years of ignored petitions as justification.

We're following that same path. Document the constitutional violations. Petition for redress. Create a record that all proper channels were attempted.

As Judge Luttig concludes: "The bill of particulars against him is already longer than the Declaration of Independence's bill of particulars against King George III and the British empire."

Your Role in History

Later today I’ll provide a petition template based on these documented violations—from the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case to DOGE's illegal data access, from the Qatar plane requiring congressional approval to the crypto empire enabling foreign payments.

It’s just a template : You can copy it, customize it, and send it to your representatives or representative body - registered mail creates a physical record of your complaint but email works.

You may say it won’t matter, no-one will read it, I don’t have the time, but history teaches us otherwise. This is the question I get asked the most: “what can I do?”this is an answer, it’s not the only answer, it may not be the most effective answer, but it’s an historically proven sequence that worked for our founders and they got the job done.

What I’m hoping to do is provide you with the tools to do something. Take the template, make it your own, share it with others, organize locally. Do what the founders did—follow the constitutional process.

The founders trusted that citizens would know what to do when institutions failed. They were right then. They're right now.

But first, we petition.