Not A Lobbyist

DC living. Twitter slaying. OK I'm really not that funny. (she/her)

[Carter Christensen @CarterChristens]

VEEP couldn't write this.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@Rebel01The6m @Phil_Lewis_ He’s threatened to demolish it because his name isn’t on it, my dude. Stop letting the media lie to you and read the court filings.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@stockmom Though we didn’t welcome everyone lol. We denied a lot of people and detained entire teams for funsies. So glad so many are having fun but this false bullshit takes the fun out of it.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@FreddyLA7 You did it! I’m so glad you went to NOLA! 😂 We throw beads because we live to celebrate life and it’s funnnnn!

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@FreddyLA7 Tiger Stadium is a whole experience. Glad you got to see it! The other one is the Big House up in Michigan. Some games at each of these feel like earthquakes!

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@fiago7 Come visit DC! It’s full of monuments and history. For all the ugliness in American politics (especially right now), it’s still a stunning place filled with dedicated people trying to change the world.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@RepSuhas They live in La La land and will always take the corporate side over the neighbors. Not only are the utility costs rising, but home values are being trashed with so many data centers being built so close to neighborhoods! It’s awful! Thank you for standing up for us!

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@FreddyLA7 You might want to add New Orleans since you’ll be passing almost by. Such a unique American city! Eat the food, ignore Bourbon street lol

[GOP Ls @GOP__Ls]

🚨Trump is now single handedly responsible for 27.7% of the national debt.

This is dramatically more than any President in American history.

[Ben Meiselas @meiselasb]

You are seeing in real time why Trump companies went bankrupt so many times. Set aside your politics. This guy is incapable of making a deal or meaningful decision and it follows the same cycle. Big flashy announcement (Epic Fury). Adversity hits (Hormuz closed). Defraud stakeholders (promise two week solution). Freeze up (endless two week cycle loop). Compound the problem (resource depletion). Final chance to save face rejected (what you’re seeing now). Bankruptcy strikes and blame others during chaos. Rinse repeat.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@Mahsa_Amini20 @ChrisMurphyCT We shouldn’t start wars for no reason, lady. Murphy’s been fighting China and Russia for longer than you, especially Russia given you spew their misinformation. We surrendered when we elected Trump as president.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@KinnisonRobertW @ChrisMurphyCT Trump was bad to start it and thus, cannot negotiate an end we can tolerate. I’d rather take the loss now than after more Americans die from this stupid, ill-conceived attack.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@MeghanMcCain Feels like the communist takeover was the one they did NOT let the voters make the decision, but sure.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@MeghanMcCain The right circulated media campaigns alleging she passed hundreds of new taxes out the gate. All of which were proposed in the legislature and hardly any passed. She was attacked by a smear campaign from the jump. You’re adding to it, Meghan. Do the work.

[Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinger]

Ok. Here we go

Ari, you know better than this. You’ve been inside the room. You understand how alliances actually function, not just how they’re talked about on cable hits.

NATO was never meaningfully consulted here. Not brought in as partners. Not treated as allies whose buy-in mattered. Instead, for years they’ve been publicly dressed down, threatened, and told outright that they’re on their own. When the President of the United States repeatedly questions the value of the alliance, floats walking away from Article 5, and even talks about things like taking Greenland, you don’t get trust—you get hedging.

So now there’s a major war raging on their own continent, and those countries are being asked to stretch even thinner for an operation they had no role in shaping, led by a president who has made clear he views alliances as transactional at best and disposable at worst. Of course they’re cautious. Of course they’re calculating risk. And yes—of course they’re worried they’ll be left holding the bag when Trump inevitably changes course or loses interest.

That’s not freeloading. That’s rational behavior in response to uncertainty we created.

You’re right that some European countries have underinvested in defense. That’s been true for years, and many have started correcting it—especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But let’s not pretend this moment exists in a vacuum. Trust is cumulative. And it’s been burned down repeatedly.

And the idea that this is about “refusing to help the U.S. rid the world of Iran” ignores the bigger strategic picture. European nations are dealing with an active land war, energy insecurity, domestic political strain, and the very real possibility that U.S. commitments to NATO could evaporate overnight. You don’t expand commitments under those conditions—you consolidate.

You know this, Ari. And I think you know why this argument doesn’t hold up.

But somewhere along the way, you traded that understanding for applause lines. You’ve sold yourself at the altar of popularity instead of leveling with people about the complexity here.

Alliances aren’t maintained by ultimatums and public humiliation. They’re maintained by trust, consultation, and consistency. We’ve offered too little of that lately—and now we’re seeing the result.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@capitalweather

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@NRights1 @AP Trump is Putin’s puppet. He’s a stooge to attack our country. Trump was his tool to undermine our national stability and shocker, it worked.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@HawkCryptoTech @jefftimmer Sure. Ok. Or the interns are just idiots who think because the declaration was signed in 1776 that the revolution began then.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@MeghanMcCain He used coded language to keep his coalition together. You can’t glaze over that because he was trying to win. He chose Sarah Palin not because she was someone he could lead with but because she kept those extremists in the coalition. Your dad was respectable - but not innocence.

[Not A Lobbyist @SwampSayWhat]

@MeghanMcCain Calling out the early versions of this that were emerging in the Republican Party, which your father led as he assumed the nomination, isn’t what caused the rise in the first place. The alt-right found home in the GOP. Your dad isn’t to blame, but they were there then. And loud.