What I saw in Trump’s White House

why I couldn’t stay silent

You’ve been with me from the start. You know that I blew the whistle on the White House’s incompetence and cruelty during Trump’s first term. I’m MAGA’s greatest enemy, and now, I’m running for Congress.

I witnessed the hatred and racism of the Trump Administration firsthand.

Trump’s personal henchman, Stephen Miller, called me at home to try to convince me we should bomb Mexico. He thought he could use my background against me.

I remember him saying something along the lines of, “I know you’re from the border, I know you care about the cartels.” He wanted me to demonize my own people.

I wouldn’t, and I never will.

I watched Donald Trump refuse to release disaster relief for California wildfires because it was a blue state. I was in the room when we had to pull voter data from Orange County to prove that some of his own supporters lived there, and that was the only reason he agreed to send help.

Not because Americans were losing their homes. Because some of them had voted for him.

And when a white supremacist opened fire in my hometown of El Paso, in a Walmart where my aunt was shopping for back-to-school supplies, I was the one who carried the shooter’s manifesto into the West Wing.

The gunman wrote about the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” The same language the president used. My aunt described the shooter to me over the phone. Twenty-three people died that day, including Mexican citizens who had crossed the border just to go shopping.

The president’s response to the situation disgusted me. This is not the country my mother worked so hard for and believed in.

So, when I couldn’t stop what was happening from the inside anymore, I resigned. They offered me a promotion to keep me in the fold. I said no. They offered to place me in a senior role at DHS. I said no to that, too.

Because I understood that if I took it, I’d never get free of the chaos, and I’d never be able to tell the truth about what I’d seen. I’d be culpable in their corruption.

Some of you have been with me ever since I made that choice. You were there when I went public, when my whole life changed overnight.

When the harassment campaigns started. When they lied on national television and said I’d been fired. When Trump’s lawyers came after me.

You didn’t flinch. You didn’t leave. And I need you to know that is the reason I’m still standing here today.

I couldn’t stay silent when I was inside Trump’s White House. I can’t stay silent now.

I’m running for Congress because this moment demands real leadership.

Because right is right, even when it costs you.

I’m not connected. I’m not rich. I have no famous last name.

I grew up on the border with a mom who hid her basketball shorts under her skirt so she could play and a dad who drove 18-wheelers across the country.

But I have the courage and the humble foundation they instilled in me. And I have an amazing team of supporters behind me, including you.

Every dollar you give helps us build a campaign that fights for all of us.

Will you make a founding donation to help power my campaign? My team set a strict $50,000 midnight goal, and I’m counting on my longtime supporters like you to help out. Anything you can chip in means the world to me. »

Let’s go fight for it.

Olivia Troye