The Real January 6, Part II: Sabotage Was the System
The "Tonya Harding" political hit on Trump...
The ruling class narrative has been this: January 6, 2021, threatened to demolish democratic norms.
But the real institutional attack?
It came years earlier—and not in a riot of ruffians. It took place in a high-rise office, carried out by men in suits who spoke the vernacular of national security.
On January 6, 2017, President-elect Donald Trump sat for a national security briefing at Trump Tower. James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper, and Mike Rogers walked in with the gravitas of public servants fulfilling their constitutional duty.
But it wasn’t a briefing. It was a setup.
They delivered a single, carefully selected piece of absurd opposition research—the “salacious” detail from the Steele Dossier—and presented it privately to the president-elect with the full weight of the US intelligence community. Within hours, CNN broke the story. BuzzFeed published the full dossier. The political operation was underway.
It wasn’t just a leak. It was a handoff.
They tagged him — you’re it — and passed him a political grenade. Pulled pin, live fuse. The goal wasn’t just exposure—it was detonation. Trump wasn’t merely under suspicion; he became radioactive. Anyone who got too close risked catching the fallout.
Breitbart Saw It Coming
Years earlier, Andrew Breitbart warned of a growing power structure—one not led by a candidate, but by the convergence of media, bureaucracy, and culture into a single, unaccountable machine. “The media is no longer a watchdog,” he wrote. “It’s a narrative machine.” This nefarious machine does not need to hold shadowy meetings of co-conspirators. Instead, their interests align, and their perverse incentives make their dishonest tactics clear.
At the time, it sounded alarmist. But what happened at Trump Tower wasn’t a glitch – rather, it was the system functioning exactly as intended.
The Tonya Harding Strategy
This op wasn’t opposition. It was sabotage—Tonya Harding politics. Smile in public, swing the crowbar backstage.
Obama and his team didn’t try to block his inauguration. They wanted him to enter office hobbled—branded by scandal, boxed in by legal threats, and tarnished by suspicion before he ever stood on the Capitol steps. It was the political version of kneecapping him before he took the ice.
Why did they fear him?
Because he threatened to expose:
Revolving doors between media, bureaucracy, and intelligence
National security choreography used as political theater
The unspoken club rules of bipartisan self-preservation
He wasn’t corruptible. He was disruptive.
To the system, that wasn’t just inconvenient—it was an emergency.
From Information Op to Operating System
This wasn’t a one-off. It was a prototype. Trump Tower was the opening move in a broader play—one that depended on aligned media, compliant tech, politicized prosecutors, and risk-averse Republicans.
The network behind it wasn’t just institutional. It was also social. These players serve on the same boards, hire each other’s spouses, and move seamlessly from agency to anchor desk to think tank. It’s not a conspiracy—it’s choreography. Everyone knows their step.
The Real Insurrection
In the Sabotage music video, the Beastie Boys dressed as 1970s TV cops, mocking the performance of authority. That’s what the Trump Tower meeting was: a performance. A ritual of legitimacy disguising a political hit.
The real insurrection didn’t happen at the Capitol. It happened four years earlier, when elite institutions protected Permanent Washington from scrutiny.
This wasn’t chaos. It was sabotage—planned, televised, and rewarded.
Now comes the reckoning.
Steve Cortes is president of the League of American Workers, a populist right pro-laborer advocacy group, and senior political advisor to Catholic Vote.
He is a former senior advisor to President Trump and JD Vance, plus a former commentator for Fox News and CNN.
I've criticized Steve in the past. He isn't perfect. In fact, when I read Steve today I, as the victim of a classical education [for which I hope I can be forgiven], recall another imperfect warrior: Lancelot of the Lake. There were times Lancelot betrayed the King, occasions where he lost battles ---but, throughout, he was that best thing you can say about a man--- ready to rise to the moment. Steve's last half dozen posts rise to the moment. And this one is not only powerful, but fricking brilliant. It says everything you need to know about the situation we're in....how we got there, what it all means ....and what needs to be done about it.