Trump, Gabbard, and Obama
A meeting that should happen
[Setting: The Oval Office. Mid-morning. Present are President Trump, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, and former President Barack Obama. Two aides stand quietly in the background but do not speak.]
Trump:
Tulsi, thank you for coming in. President Obama, I appreciate you making the time. Let’s get to it.
Gabbard:
Mr. President, thank you. I’ll be direct. The declassified materials speak clearly. There is a documented sequence—briefings, internal memos, suppressed findings, and then a pivot to the Steele dossier. The legal exposure for several senior officials in the prior administration is serious.
Obama:
I’ve read the summary. I won’t dispute the facts that are now on paper. But you and I both know how these things play in the public square. Are you saying prosecutions are likely?
Gabbard:
That decision lies with DOJ, not with me. But I have forwarded the documentation under classified seal, and I would be surprised if a special counsel is not appointed. The evidence points to deliberate manipulation of intelligence during a presidential transition. That is not a policy disagreement. That is a structural threat to the republic.
Trump:
So you’re telling me this leads to Brennan, Comey, Clapper—who else?
Gabbard:
At minimum, McCabe. Possibly others. But this is not about vengeance. It is about restoring the principle that our institutions serve the Constitution, not political convenience.
Obama:
I’m not here to defend every decision made in late 2016. I had concerns about Trump—many did. But if this process becomes a televised tribunal, it risks becoming another national fracture. And I suspect neither of you want that.
Gabbard:
Which is why we asked you here. Not to threaten. But to offer a choice.
Trump:
Go on.
Gabbard:
Mr. President Obama, this country would be better served if the truth were acknowledged voluntarily. A brief public statement, accepting that mistakes were made, that intelligence was misused, and that lines were crossed that never should have been. It could change the temperature overnight.
Obama:
You want me to admit to a coup?
Gabbard:
No. I want you to admit that decisions made under your watch contributed to the politicization of national security. Call it a misjudgment. Call it a failure of oversight. But own it. Doing so would allow Congress to focus on reform rather than spectacle. It would send a signal to the next generation of public servants that integrity matters more than control.
Trump:
You do that, Barack, and I’ll say so publicly. You take that step, I’ll match it. No gloating. No victory lap. Just the truth.
Obama:
Let’s be honest with each other. If I say anything, it will be seen as weakness. As betrayal.
Gabbard:
Or it could be the most important act of statesmanship in your life. You can still be the first president in this era to break the cycle, not reinforce it.
[A long pause. Obama looks down, then slowly stands.]
Obama:
Let me think about it. If there’s a way to acknowledge the line was crossed without tearing the country further apart, I’ll consider it. I owe the office that much, at least.
Trump:
Fair enough. We’ll give you space. But the timeline is moving.
Gabbard:
And history is watching.
I applaud your advocacy for mercy rather than choosing to join the chorus baying for blood. However, any clemency must occur after a thorough disclosure of the facts and a legally valid determination of what crimes were committed and by whom—without fear or favor.
The aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis and the way hundreds of white collar criminals avoided any consequences for their crimes should be a clear lesson not to ever again allow a whole class of wealthy, powerful and influential criminals who betrayed the public trust to escape the legal consequences of their grievous crimes.
In the case of the Bush / Clinton / Obama and Biden Administrations America came too close to losing our unique Constitutional liberties, and too many innocent people have suffered grievously in the machinery of criminally and unconstitutionally weaponised legal and intelligence systems, to permit a preemptive (and obfuscating) “mistakes were made” approach. Even if the prosecutions are limited merely to the events of 2016 - 2024 the truth must be disclosed and severe legal consequences must be imposed.
There will be no national healing, and no realistic possibility of securing our precious Constitutional liberties as Americans for ourselves and our posterity, until the political, economic and cultural power of the Deep State is revealed publicly and utterly destroyed as a factor in the lives of American citizens.
The destruction of these lawless institutions will require the just punishment of many of the individuals who operated within them. They are usurpers and oppressors of their fellow American citizens.
To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
Mr. Dodson, I very much appreciate this preferred method that you have posited. But I do not think that will happen…ever. Not that it would be beneath Gabbard to make that offer to Obama, and for Trump to capitulate to it…that part seems perfectly plausible to me. But for Obama to admit that ‘mistakes were made,’ or, especially, that ‘lines were crossed?’ Never. He has too much hubris and arrogance to ever do that. I’ve been watching this man’s every move (at least the ones we could see) for years now, and I don’t think he has one shred of decency or love for this country or its citizens to care about not fracturing this nation or trying to save it. That has been their goal all along, to destroy this country and the people who live in it. Obama cares about one thing: Obama. Oh, and also the entity that he worships, which is the enemy of God…