Ex-Proud Boy leader wants millions for trying to destroy our democracy | Opinion

As I read the headline in last Wednesday’s Herald, “Proud Boys leader expects ‘tens of millions’ from Trump’s anti-weaponization fund,” I couldn’t help but think that our president – the one called to protect and serve the American people – might actually pay the people who assaulted our nation’s Capital on Jan. 6, 2021.

And with BIG money, too.

That day is still etched in my mind. It was my brother Adam’s birthday. I had called him to sing “Happy Birthday” to him and tease him about getting old.

As we laughed and talked, the regular TV programming was interrupted with “breaking news.” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: The images of violent men and women filled my TV screen.

I yelled through the telephone for my brother to turn on his television. And we watched, in disbelief, as Americans broke windows, invaded and rampaged the U.S. Capitol. And we watched as a lone police officer tried to lead our country’s lawmakers down a corridor to safety.

A woman rioter, Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran, was fatally shot that day by a Capital police officer as she tried to climb through a barricaded and broken window that led to the Speaker’s Lobby. Rioters attacked Brian D. Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer, with a chemical substance. He suffered multiple strokes and died the next day.

Four other responding officers from the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police departments in Washington died by suicide in the months that followed the insurrection. In addition, 140 other police officers were injured.

And the man responsible for the violence, the man who started it all, was Donald Trump, who was unseated as president after losing the 2020 presidential election to Vice President Joe Biden. Only he didn’t believe he lost the election and somehow convinced thousands of others he had won.

But wasn’t this the same man who was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2017, to protect our nation?

Yet, on Jan. 6, 2021, the defeated President Trump forgot his presidential promises to protect our democracy. On that day he acted like a crazed maniac, who had let the thought of taking back the presidency blind him to the truth.

Only he wasn’t brave, like his followers thought. He did what my mom used to say about cowards — he threw a [symbolic] stone and hid his hands. In other words, he watched from a safe space as his henchmen, Enrique Tarrio and the Proud Boys and thousands of others, led an insurrection that could have undone our nation’s democracy, a democracy that had taken nearly two centuries to build.

There was even a makeshift noose slung loosely over a post that was supposed to be the place where Vice President Mike Pence would be hung because he wouldn’t go along with Trump’s plan to rig the results of a free and honest election.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Right there on national television — and picked up internationally — were the images of an angry mob, made up of ordinary American people, clamoring to take down our government. It was a sad day in America – a day I never thought I would live to see. People died that day in our Capitol. Scores of others were injured, including more than 140 law enforcement officers.

Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison. He served three years before President Trump pardoned him in 2025, along with about 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol that day.

One of those found guilty – Pamela Hemphill, known as the “MAGA Granny,” apologized to the Capitol police officers who were assaulted during the insurrection. She spoke before a House hearing commemorating the fifth anniversary of the riot.

A former addiction counselor, Hemphill served two months in federal prison for her involvement. She rejected the presidential pardon, saying accepting the pardon meant denying the events of Jan. 6, 2021. She admitted her guilt and said she was stepping away from the conspiracy theories that she said had “brainwashed” her.

Hemphill did the right thing. But because she took a stand, her life and the lives of her family have been threatened.

Now, Tarrio says he will seek millions of dollars from the $1.8 billion fund the Justice Department set up to pay people who claim they were persecuted by Justice Department under the Biden Administration. Critics have called it a ‘’slush fund’’ for Trump’s allies, including the Jan. 6 rioters.

Tarrio believes the fund applies to him. How do you like that? A person can lead an insurrection on our nation’s Capital, where people are killed or are critically injured, including police officers, and can expect to be paid for doing what they should be spending the rest of their life in prison for.

I don’t get it, America. What’s going on here? If Tarrio is allowed to collect “tens of millions” for nearly destroying our democracy, what message are we sending to our youth? They are watching, you know.

These are sad times in America. Many people seem to love the darkness that is being slung in our faces, rather than seek the light and the truth. These thoughts come to mind as we talk about living on the moon and Mars. I am concerned that we haven’t done a good job of living together right here in these United States of America, not to mention other places on planet Earth. Let’s clean up the mess we’ve already created before moving on to cleaner spaces.

Meanwhile, just so you know, I believe in prayer and its wonder-working power. I know that many of you believe, too, because your emails tell me so.

Let us continue in prayer for President Trump and all who are in authority. Pray for the lord to touch the heart of those who are in power, that they will seek the wisdom of God as they lead our nation.

This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 5:30 AM.