This is a letter that a resident of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, wrote to her Republican representatives:
I am not writing as a partisan — I am writing as an American who is deeply alarmed by a pattern of events that I believe demands your attention, your courage, and your voice.
I will be direct with you.
(On May 18, 2026) the Trump administration finalized a $1.776 billion settlement in which the President — through his own Department of Justice — negotiated a payout with himself, creating an unaccountable fund with no congressional authorization, no transparency requirements, and no meaningful oversight. The money comes from the Treasury’s Judgment Fund. The commission overseeing it can be fired by the President at will. It can award money to January 6 defendants and to Trump-connected entities with zero public disclosure.
Legal scholars across the political spectrum have called this a likely violation of the Domestic Emoluments Clause, the separation of powers, and the constitutional principle that only Congress holds the power of the purse. As the federal judge overseeing the case herself noted, it was rushed through specifically to avoid judicial scrutiny.
“This is not a partisan issue. It is a constitutional one.”
But it does not stand alone. In recent months we have witnessed:
— The systematic firing of experienced military leadership — including the Army Chief of Staff, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Chief of Naval Operations — and their replacement with political loyalists, in the middle of an active war with Iran that was launched without congressional authorization.
— A war that has closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting roughly 20% of global oil supply, with no clear strategy, no exit plan, and no vote by the representatives of the American people.
— A visit to Beijing in which the President made significant concessions to China — including reversing his own administration’s ban on Chinese farmland purchases — with nothing concrete secured in return, while China’s leadership publicly signaled American decline.
— An Iran that has now formally proposed a bounty on the President’s life, creating a threat environment unlike anything in modern American history.
I understand the political pressures you face. I understand that breaking with a president of your own party carries real costs.
“History, however, is unambiguous about what it thinks of legislators who chose silence and self-preservation over constitutional duty at moments like this one.
History is also unambiguous about what it thinks of those who found their courage.”
I am not asking you to become a Democrat. I am asking you to be a Republican in the tradition of Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Reagan — men who understood that the Constitution is not a partisan document, that the military serves the people and not a person, that the public treasury belongs to all Americans, and that the rule of law is the foundation upon which everything else rests.
The 2026 midterms are approaching. Seventy percent of independents — the voters who decide competitive elections — disapprove of this administration’s direction. The voters of North Carolina, including those right here on the Outer Banks, are watching. They are watching who stood up, and who looked away.
I am respectfully asking you to:
1. Publicly call for a congressional investigation into the IRS settlement and the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
2. Demand a congressional vote authorizing — or ending — the Iran war, as the Constitution requires.
3. Oppose the continued politicization of military leadership during active combat operations.
4. Support judicial independence as the remaining functional check on executive overreach.
You took an oath to the Constitution, not to any individual. This is the moment that oath was written for.
I would welcome the opportunity to speak with your office directly. Please do not hesitate to contact me.
Respectfully and with genuine hope,
Toni Greene