I worked for Trump. He wants you to be afraid.

What having a front-row seat to January 6 taught me.

When I was 25, I got my dream job. I became Deputy Press Secretary, working in the White House, helping the American people understand the president’s agenda each day. The only problem was, that president was Donald Trump.

I always had my reservations about working for someone as unstable as Trump. I came up admiring and working in the offices of the now-extinct normie Republicans who used to populate the party—people like former Sen. Rob Portman and former House Speaker John Boehner.

But despite my reservations, I took the job, believing that even a character as flawed as Trump needed good people around him who were fundamentally honest and interested in improving the country. After all—I told myself—if decent people don’t take these jobs, won’t they just go to liars and conmen?

I started in June 2020. Six months later, Donald Trump instigated the gravest attack on the US government in living memory. From months of lies about the election being “stolen,” to his speech at the Ellipse where he urged his followers to “show strength,” to his instructions to march to the Capitol, he was—to use Mitch McConnell’s phrase—“practically and morally responsible” for what happened on January 6.

We all know the events that unfolded on that day. Thousands of violent rioters, many of whom were armed, stormed the seat of government to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Windows were smashed, Congressional offices defiled, and police officers viciously assaulted. Ultimately five of them died and 17 were seriously injured.

As I watched the images unfold on the day, the only path forward was clear to me: Resign. I did so immediately. I expected many of my colleagues to do the same, and some of them did—people who cared more about telling the truth than preserving their influence inside Trump’s Republican Party.

But most of them didn’t. The vast majority of Republicans decided to take a wait-and-see approach. In almost no time at all, people like Kevin McCarthy were back bowing and scraping at Trump’s feet. January 6 conspiracy theories, like the idea that the whole thing was an inside job, took hold in the party. Many people decided to memory-hole the whole thing and act like nothing happened.

It was clear to me that these so-called leaders weren’t interested in getting at the truth of what happened that day. Worse, they were prepared to stand in the way of any good-faith efforts to do just that. So I decided to testify before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. It was the least I could do to try and make sense of the violence of that day, and to help ensure it never happens again.

In the years since, I’ve watched as the party I once loved has descended further into madness. I’ve watched Trump continue to trumpet the Big Lie, run again, and win. I’ve watched him preside over the most nakedly authoritarian administration any of us has ever seen. And, making all this infinitely worse, I’ve watched as our so-called elites and national leaders have done nothing about it.

From working on the inside, I can tell you one thing: Trump is a classic bully. He only responds to strength. The moment he senses weakness, or fear, or acquiescence, he seizes his advantage. His whole authoritarian project relies on America’s elected leaders, business people, and ordinary citizens rolling over for him. And sadly, so far during his second term, he’s gotten exactly what he wanted.

We’ve seen tech oligarchs rush to enable and enrich him. We’ve seen big law firms pay extortion fees when threatened with punitive executive orders. We’ve seen big media companies line up to kiss his ring so they can get their mergers approved. And through all of this, it’s been ordinary people who are getting screwed by Trump’s disastrous policies.

His DOGE cuts have cost thousands of hard-working people their livelihoods. His on-again/off-again tariff regime has left businesspeople high and dry, unable to plan for the future. His war on public health has left vulnerable Americans who rely on pathbreaking NIH research without anywhere to turn.

It’s time we said, enough. I spoke out during the first Trump administration because I refused to be part of something that was antithetical to my values as a conservative, and as an American. I’m doing so again during the second Trump administration for the same reason.

And if you’ve been hurt by Trump, we need you to speak up as well. The only way to check an aspiring autocrat like Trump is by speaking up, and making our fellow citizens aware of the full scope of the damage he is doing. Right now, doing that takes courage—courage that our so-called elites have been unwilling to show.

So we need ordinary people to step up. Join us here at Home of the Brave. If you’ve been hurt by Trump, tell your story. Refuse to be silent. Because I can tell you from experience, that’s the thing Trump fears most.

Sarah Matthews is an Advisory Board Member and Spokesperson for Home of the Brave. She was White House Deputy Press Secretary from June 2020 until January 6, 2021.