January 25, 2026

In early 1974, as he awaited his fate for writing about the horrors of the Soviet penal system, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn decided to take on the authoritarian regime’s most potent tool: lies. “In our country,” he wrote to Western journalists, “the lie has become not just a moral category, but a pillar of the state. In breaking with the lie, we are performing a moral act, not a political one.”

Several weeks later, on the day he was exiled from his country, he explained the connection between government lies and state-sponsored violence against citizens:

When violence bursts onto the peaceful human condition, its face is flush with self-assurance. It displays on its banner and proclaims: “I am Violence! Make way, step aside, I will crush you!” But violence ages swiftly. A few years pass — and it is no longer sure of itself. To prop itself up, to appear decent, it will without fail call forth its ally —Lies. For violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies, and lies can only persist through violence.

Fifty-two years later, the Soviet Union is gone, but Solzhenitsyn’s words have taken on new power in our own country. Over the last year, we have seen this administration use violence against its citizens with self-assurance. They have, in effect, conveyed the message: “I will crush you.”

But as Solzhenitsyn predicted, the violence we are witnessing every day in Minneapolis and elsewhere has proven deeply unpopular. It is indecent, arbitrary and cruel. Its tactics violate our rights as Americans to protest our government. Its purpose violates our moral conscience as human beings.

As a result, that violence has quickly required the support of lies to perpetuate itself.

Donald Trump is an infamous liar. He has lied his way through business, law and politics. The movement he built is based on lies — lies about the economy, immigration and crime. But its most important lie — the Big Lie — is about democracy itself.

Trump abhors democracy because it allows ordinary Americans to reject his lies. Even worse for Trump, it allows us to reject him.

When voters did exactly that in 2020, he responded with more lies — lies in court, lies in the media, and lies to his supporters. On Jan. 6, 2021, those lies turned into violence.

Yet, as Solzhenitsyn suggests, that was not the end of the story. The violence itself then required more lies — about the Capitol Police, the Department of Justice, election workers, judges and his political enemies.

But something has changed in recent weeks. The lies are no longer about shadowy figures wielding great power and influence. They are now targeting everyday citizens — people standing in their own communities, in front of their homes, protecting their neighbors. 

In their most grotesque form, these lies have smeared a mother who was shot in the face while turning her car. They have labeled an ICU nurse who was beaten and shot dead in the street a domestic terrorist.

Shortly after the killing on Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi — whose job is to protect the rights of U.S. citizens — sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. In it, she tied restoring the rule of law to Minnesota’s compliance with the Trump administration’s demand for the state’s unredacted voter rolls.

The implicit message is clear: The violence aimed at Minnesota citizens could stop if the state gives the administration the tools to subvert the next election — effectively trading one set of lies for another.

News of this letter spread rapidly online last night. Anyone who has followed Trump closely knows that he does not care about the killing of U.S. citizens protesting his government. He will enable it and lie about it if it suits his needs. But Trump cares enormously about rigging elections — and lying about it.

In that sense, Solzhenitsyn’s formulation is not entirely correct. In America today, the lie is both a moral category and a pillar of the state. And in breaking with the lie, we are performing both a moral act and a political one.

Nevertheless, his prescription for resisting authoritarianism remains sound. We must combat lies in every way we can. It is not enough to condemn the violence and protest it; we must also condemn the lying and resist it.

Regardless of the risk or the sense of futility, we must commit ourselves to bearing witness to the truth and proclaiming it to anyone who will listen:

• Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

• Renée Good was shot in the face while trying to turn her car and leave.

• Alex Pretti was beaten by six federal agents and then shot and killed.

• The federal government is violating the constitutional rights of its citizens.

• Trump and the DOJ are violating federal law by refusing to release the Epstein files.

• Trump and the GOP are preparing to subvert the 2026 election.

Solzhenitsyn lived the next two decades in exile until the lies of the Soviet Union led to its collapse. His campaign against the lies in his country proved prophetic. He taught us that authoritarianism prevails not because people stop believing the truth, but because they stop saying it aloud. If we wish to remain free, we must refuse that silence.