Family Feud
And the weird, 22 year-old Trump appointee who is NOT Thomas Fugate
Welcome back, KTB readers.
KTB encourages readers to impose costs on MAGA, including the cost of social rejection, e.g. don’t bring MAGA to happy hour; lose their invites to your birthday party; block them on social; delete their texts; even go “no contact.”
That last form of social rejection was the topic of two recent op-eds. The op-eds discussed whether we should go “no contact” with MAGA family members.
David Litt wrote in the New York Times about why going no contact with his MAGA brother-in-law turned out bad for him and why going no contact is a bad idea for all of us. Sarah Jones responded in the Intelligencer that “it’s okay to go no contact with your MAGA relatives” and countered Litt’s arguments.
Both columns make good points. And both triggered defensive name-calling from right-wing pundits. (Greg Gutfeld on Litt: “This guy is kind of like a chick who dumps you and then out of the blue calls you up after you won the lottery!” Classy, Greg.)
KTB won’t pick a side in Litt and Jones’s debate because KTB wants costs imposed on the actual functionaries who turn Trump’s ideas into policy and action; KTB isn’t going after uncles who vote Trump and wear red hats to the dinner table.
Admittedly, both sets of individuals, MAGA functionaries and MAGA family, are responsible for Trumpism. But the former certainly bear more responsibility than the latter; and imposing costs on the former might help save American democracy, whereas imposing costs on the latter will affect only you and your family.
So go no contact with your MAGA family if doing so is good for you. It’s your decision to make because decisions that affect only you and your family do not also affect me. Your family is none of my business.
But preserving a free, democratic country is my business - and yours and everyone’s. Which is why KTB will call for action against Trump’s apparatchiks. Impose costs on Trump Administration appointees. Make all the behind-the-scenes, “back office” functionaries face consequences for serving their master.
Real consequences that compel them to abandon their servitude of Trump - which, in turn, would render him unable to break our country any further.
That is how we kill the body so that the head will die.
Superfan
Today, KTB is calling out a 22 year-old Trump appointee who idolizes Trump, has no real career experience, wears silly MAGA outfits - and is NOT Thomas Fugate.
KTB is calling out Dominick Lombardi who is an obsessive Trump fanboy.
Yeah, this guy is definitely Trump otaku - just look at how much he enjoys MAGA cosplay, with all his hats and sweaters and props!
Plus, Dominick’s words are as fanboy-ish as his pics:
I am a proud Trump Supporter, and I always will be! … He has been by far the best President this country has had in 40+ years. … He delivered economic prosperity, America First Agendas, and a renewal in the American dream. I will always be proud to support him and what he accomplished, and I will never back down for supporting him.
He inspired me in a personal way to get involved in politics and showed me how one should pride him or herself as a statesmen and NOT a politician. … His values of America First, Love of Country, and Never Giving Up will be with me my entire life!
Those are some of Dominick’s more rational comments. But, like many superfans, he breaks out the crazy whenever his idol is slighted. For example:
That was Dominick on Truth Social. So is this “make them pay” post:
Dominick even badgered the principal of his little brother’s elementary school about the school’s not having a portrait of Trump in its hallway - an incident Dominick actually brags about, enjoying the superfan cred it gives him.
Dominick is from suburban Connecticut. During Trump’s first term, he was still in high school, a member of Future Farmers of America tending what he calls his “gentleman’s farm” of a small backyard plot with a few animals.
Dominick graduated from high school in 2021 and went to Fairfield College. While still a college student, Dominick got himself elected Vice Chairman and then Chairman of his suburb’s Republican Town Committee.
Dominick leveraged his age and title into numerous interviews with right-wing media outlets. Usually, Dominick would chat about how kids like him can go far in Republican politics, and how most college kids would proudly identify as Republicans, if only liberal educators would stop hurting their fragile feelings:
Given the amount of liberalism associated with the education system, it’s not popular to be a Republican. … They are not going to be socially accepted, and it’s a shame. That’s the true sign that we’re in a third world country.
Dominick, who clearly has never visited a real third world country, also did the Congressional internship thing and volunteered with Trump’s 2024 campaign. He did fieldwork in New Hampshire; he became a bundler; he got to attend a Mar-a-lago party; he claims he danced to YMCA with Melania.
Then, after Trump won and returned to the White House, Dominick returned to suburban Connecticut - and sent his infamous letter.
In February, Dominick and the Republican Town Committee sent a letter to the local school board and superintendent. The letter accused the Amity Regional School District of violating its students’ civil rights. What had ARSD done?
In one of his interviews with far-right media, Dominick explained that local schools “were overtaxing citizens to afford programs like DEI and CRT.”
(You knew the DEI and CRT tropes were coming, didn’t you?…)
Dominick’s letter was basically a reworking of the “Dear Colleague letter” that Trump’s Department of Education had published days before. (KTB wrote about it.) That letter threatened to withhold federal funding from schools with diversity programs - a threat that Dominick coyly referenced in his own letter.
Dominick’s letter demanded that ARSD abolish two specific diversity programs (one of which was mandated by the state of Connecticut); and it commanded the school board and the superintendent to respond within 14 days.
The board and superintendent ignored Dominick’s deadline. They ignored Dominick’s letter entirely. But local residents did not: many castigated Dominick and the Republican Town Committee on social media and in op-eds.
But Dominick will not have to make things right with the neighbors. He has left town for Washington D.C. because, in June, the Trump Administration appointed him a Confidential Assistant at the Department of Agriculture.
Yup, Dominick is finally working his first actual job! An experience he got a local news station to do a puff piece on (“Local man shares experience working for Trump administration”). Less puffy were the comments of one viewer on YouTube:
Oh, this is one of the guys that the rural folks can scream at when their local hospitals close! Congratulations! I hope you have a very thick skin. Farms in Connecticut are nothing like farms in rest of the U.S.
I also went to Fairfield University. I’m embarrassed that one of my alumni would accept a job from the current administration. … Good luck, Dominick! You’re gonna need it!
Welcome to the real world, Dominick. Cosplay time is over.
Contact KTB
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“Confidential Assistant” sounds like a glorified coffee boy title.
Sure do hope you're able to devote the modicum of time needed to follow that little twidge's career fir the next couple years, & keep us informed of his 1st sexual harassment condemnation!