Olivia Troye - 5 Years Later: Courage Is Still Rare

Five years ago this week, I made the hardest decision of my career. Not only had I recently walked away from my job in the Trump White House and from my national security career, I went public with what I knew: that Donald Trump was unfit for office, and that his recklessness put our nation and lives at risk.

I knew the moment I spoke out, my life would never be the same. I wasn’t naïve about what would come next: the loss of my career in national security as well as in Republican politics, the smears on my character, the threats that would arrive in my inbox and follow me into my daily life. What I didn’t fully know was how much I would gain, too. The ability to finally tell the truth, to speak without fear, and to stand on the right side of history, even if it meant standing there alone.

The truth is, it wasn’t just a career move. It was a personal implosion. Everything I had built for years, the networks, the loyalty, the reputation within my circles and my political party, vanished overnight. Friends I had trusted disappeared. Others chose silence. Some of them slowly surfaced along the way, but then ran scared again when Trump returned to the Oval Office. And yet, in that silence, I found clarity. If people abandoned me because I told the truth, they weren’t really in my corner to begin with.

In the five years since, nearly everything I warned about when it came to Trump and his MAGA Project 2025 agenda has come to pass. The chaos, the corruption, the authoritarian instincts, the contempt for his enemies, and the glaring disconnect between the policies Trump boasts about and their damaging impact on working-class families like the one I was raised in, the very people he claims to represent. It wasn’t hyperbole. It was the reality I witnessed up close, day after day, in rooms where decisions about life and death, security and freedom, were treated as theater. Today, we are all living with the consequences of ignoring those warnings.

https://www.livingitwitholiviatroye.com/p/5-years-later-courage-is-still-rare