Essays

A resistance sorta fairy tale

Beware that 'rogue' account behind the curtain - it may be disinformation

Cathi Harris

11 Jul 2025 — 6 min read

Photo by Jon Tyson / Unsplash

Do you remember this anonymous Twitter account from the early days of the first Trump administration?

I do.

It was called @RoguePOTUSStaff, and it joined a slew of supposed insiders secretly opposed to the president and all things MAGA, who claimed to be among the last holdouts of principled Republicans inside the Trump White House.

I, a lifelong Democrat, hit that follow button like it was the last lifeboat off a sinking ship.

I hung on every post, hungry for any tiny bit of hope that the great catastrophe of his election could be undone, that it would soon sink under the weight of its own hubris, hypocrisy, or incompetence.

POTUS has that bulging forehead vein thing going on. Something has hit a nerve. Should there be a rally in front of the White House soon?
— Rogue POTUS Staff (@RoguePOTUSStaff) February 15, 2017

But as those initial days gave way to weeks, I had the sneaking suspicion it was fake.

For one thing, nothing ever really happened. Most posts were just unverifiable gossip and mean-spirited digs at different individual West Wing staffers – plus frequent assurances that stuff was about to happen.

Periodically, the account also seemed to be trying to bait "the resistance" into specific actions, like urging a large-scale demonstration or protest. So, basically, trashy rumors with the occasional dash of provocation.

I decided it was either a budding novelist hoping for a book deal, a la Joe Klein.

*Primary Colors*, a fictionalized account of the Clinton presidential campaign, was first published anonymously in 1996.

Or, it was very skilled disinformation from someone very non-rogue who wanted to keep us occupied.

As the weeks and months dragged on, it became clear that – whoever was writing it – it would never be more than a distraction. It was just a fairy tale for depressed progressives.

I quietly unfollowed.

A twisted lullaby?

It was then that I remembered that disinformation can take many forms--it can be false information designed to enrage and provoke. But also false information designed to pacify and soothe. Really, all is well, look at how shabby this whole effort is! How pathetic! It surely won't last long, let's have a good laugh.

This is the first (and hopefully last!) time you will see me link to Fox News. But it shows there are many people who think that Twitter account was an organized disinformation campaign.

I feel the same way about a current Substack subscription I have.

I won't name it here, because this publication--written under an admitted pseudonym--already has thousands of followers. None of whom I particularly wish to engage with.

This writer began publishing in the early days of the second Trump administration. And, if I didn't know better, I would think it's the same person who was behind the Twitter account.

And, again, I was totally hooked.

At first ...

This person (I now suspect it's actually several people) is clearly educated, experienced, and knowledgeable. And they are writing all the things I want to hear. How all the policies are foolhardy--they will never work! How right we all are to be worried/appalled/outraged.

And the details!

He (the account, though anonymous, uses a stereotypically male English name and male-appearing avatar) claims to be a former national security staffer for several previous administrations--but he also happens to be extremely well-versed in global finance and economics, trade policy, foreign policy, as well as military strategy and readiness.

He publishes lengthy, 2,000+-word, well-researched, annotated, meticulously formatted essays about current events, with new memos going up every two or three days.

It's quite an output for one human person who, presumably, still needs to eat and sleep.

And, again, here and there, amongst all the feel-good self-righteousness, there's the sprinkling of something sinister.

I notice more mentions of distrust in traditional currency and financial systems, frequent use of the terms "sovereign citizenship" and "sovereign migration." For a writer who frequently criticizes the "neo-feudalism" of the "broligarchy," he sure seems to be promoting many of the same ideas and concepts.

Link to a featurette from the film, "Elysium." I highly recommend watching this movie about a potential human dystopian future.

The idea that certain people have this secret knowledge that can keep them safe when the rest of the world collapses - that you can't trust your neighbors or your community. That you have to — that you even can – become completely self-reliant. These are also core themes of techno-feudalism - a.k.a. neo-Reactionism, as well the Network State movement.

Not this again

In other words, I think this publication is another form of disinfo--a QAnon for the progressive side of the political spectrum. For people like me--educated, fearful, with a progressive political bent but prepper tendencies.

Ultimately, what this person or persons seem to be promoting is a real-life Elysium, where rich people can isolate themselves from the mess of those left behind in failed "outdated" nation states.

This is the same false promise of the Network States.

In a Guardian article about the time he was asked to advise a group of billionaires about how best to equip their Doomsday "bug out" bunkers, futurist Douglas Rushkoff wrote that they all rejected what he saw as their best bet.

"I tried to reason with them. I made pro-social arguments for partnership and solidarity as the best approaches to our collective, long-term challenges. The way to get your guards to exhibit loyalty in the future was to treat them like friends right now, I explained. Don’t just invest in ammo and electric fences, invest in people and relationships. They rolled their eyes at what must have sounded to them like hippy philosophy."

Like Rushkoff, I think history has shown us time and again that humanity best responds to challenges by cooperating and showing solidarity and finding common ground - not by embracing a twisted version of social Darwinism.

Lately, I have been reading and following some different – non-anonymous – voices outside the mainstream. Writers like Rushkoff (particularly his new podcast, Team Human) and Anil Dash, and journalist Chris Hedges (formerly of the New York Times, now the Chris Hedges Report).

In an age of overhyped AI panic and digital deepfakes, it's hard to distinguish what's real from what's not. And blind faith and adherence to any one person or dogma is never good.

But getting information from people who have documented knowledge and experience, and who stand behind what they share by putting their name on it and citing their sources, is a good starting point.

And in a time of pessimism, when there are so many bad things happening, these voices consistently remind us that there is still cause for optimism.

A recent episode of Team Human.

Astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson was once asked what he thought of future human attempts to colonize Mars in the event Earth became so degraded as to be uninhabitable.

His response was that human habitation on Mars would require such high degrees of "terra-forming" – building an artificial Earth-like environment – that it would make more sense to just support and repair the environment we already have.