David Pepper Profile picture
Aug 24 13 tweets 2 min read Read on X
🚨 🚨

A Note from Abroad

A 🧵

Much of my early life was spent abroad.

So this note from a family friend living abroad truly hit home:

“[T]here has been a tectonic shift in how we Americans are regarded abroad...

1/
Having lived outside the US since finishing my MBA in '93, my expat life has spanned five presidents.

While I choose to not discuss my political views except with my very closest friends, expatriates (especially Americans) nevertheless…

2/
are engaged in current event conversations by people wherever we go….

Starting 2025, I have, for the first time, been consistently met with what I can only describe as incredulity.

Few can understand why we would RE-elect the person we did.

3/
The actions our country’s leadership has taken against our longstanding allies, the befriending of multigerational dictatorships and the unilateral business threats that have impeded international commerce

4/
with all of our trading partners baffles virtually everyone I come in contact with abroad.

When I say, everyone, I mean business people who read the Economist and WSJ as well as farm workers and truck drivers who might passively hear some news on the radio, or not at all.

5/
But the observation that strikes me, the reason I’m sharing this with you, is that while everyone is perplexed why Americans chose to re-elect this person, it is the Eastern Europeans and South Americans who recognize (recollect) exactly what is going on.

6/
The consolidation of decision making power in a single branch, the vilification of the “the media,” the unprecedented images of US military and unidentified masked

7/
“enforcers” co-existing on American streets so familiar to everyone from Hollywood movies.

They have seen this before.

Hungarians and Russians see it every day.

8/
The conclusions that everyone seems to be making as I travel abroad and live here in Croatia is that, for lack of a nicer way to put it, the United States is no longer regarded as an aspirational country.

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While we may still be a hegemon thanks to our military, currency and economy, we have lost the goodwill of much of the world. And, I'm afraid, their respect.

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It breaks my heart to experience this. I have always felt that, no matter why I am abroad, my role as a person was to leave a good impression on those with whom I interact.

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A big part of that identity is my nationality as an American. Mom used to say, “you never know if you are the first American that someone has ever met, so be a good ambassador.”

It's becoming harder to do that….

12/
All I can do is to continue reinforcing my own American values (however “old school” they may be) within my team, among my friends and those with whom I come into contact. Ever the ambassador.”

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More from @DavidPepper

Aug 19
🚨 🚨

As Speaker Johnson takes aim at Newsom’s effort to counter the Trump effort to steal the 2026 election, let me introduce the Speaker to somebody.

This gentleman came to power from what is arguably the least accountable statehouse in the nation…

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This gentleman reaped the benefits of that broken system when he wasn’t even an incumbent.

In early 2015, when the state representative where he lived ran for another office, this man ran for the vacancy.

2/
Incredibly, even that first run for office was unopposed. There was no election for either the primary or the general!

So he initially assumed power without ever having faced the voters in an election.

3/
Read 17 tweets
Aug 8
🚨 🚨

Election Interference Deja Vu

A 🧵

JD Vance flies to Indiana.
In the wide open, he and other federal officials pressure state leaders to rig Indiana’s map to help seal House elections outcome 15 months in advance.

1/ Image
Specifically, by giving themselves two extra seats in the House, and eliminating all Democratic seats in the Hoosier State.

2/ Image
In one twisted way, JD’s visit and open pressuring of state officials to hand him those House seats is helpful.

Because it makes perfectly clear that we are watching November 2020-January 2021 all over again—Trump’s just doing it before the 2026 elections rather than after.

3/
Read 21 tweets
Aug 7
🚨 🚨

When’s the last time that the person with the highest job approval rating in Ohio was…..

the Democratic candidate for Governor?

A long damn time.

But it’s actually the case right now!

1/
A brand new poll shows that, at + 10, @amyactonoh has the highest job approval rating in the state.

By a lot.

2/ Image
Combine that with the fact that Vivek Ramaswamy has unusually high negatives (basically accomplishing this all on his own 👀) and this race for Governor is tied even in a sample that decisively voted for Trump.

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Read 6 tweets
Aug 5
🚨 🚨

A 🧵 on the need for actions to match words

Thank you to those Texas Democrats taking their courageous stand, and thank you to those supporting them in Texas and beyond. Standing up to the anti-democratic tactics of Trump and state leaders

1/
like Abbott is absolutely critical at the moment.

In fact, there is no choice.

As a matter of strategic action, and as a matter of message.

In fact, if our actions don’t match our words, we lose!

2/
For good and for bad, we project powerful messages way beyond the words we use. Drew Westen calls it our “meta-message”— what we communicate from our action or inaction, and the urgency with which we act.

3/
Read 28 tweets
Aug 4
🚨 🚨

Much bigger than employment data

Quick 🧵

While Trump fired the leader of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he was angry about the accurate reporting of his poor job numbers, the BLS oversees far more than just monthly job growth and unemployment.

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That far broader array of economic data is critical to the country, to a wide variety of federal programs, and—as Trump no doubt is thinking—politics. And that makes the move that much more dangerous.

2/
Here’s a snapshot of the specific data the BLS tracks, analyzes and publicizes:
•the Consumer Price Index (inflation)

•the Producer Price Index

•Import/Export Prices

•Data on Wages (including by occupation, by demographics, by industry,

3/
Read 12 tweets
Aug 2
🚨 🚨

Sweetheart Deal of the Century

A 🧵

@NOTUSreports clued me into a story the other day that bears amplifying.

It really is a stunning revelation: the sweetheart plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein,

1/ Image
reached by then U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, that Ghislaine Maxwell hopes will set her free (via her current Supreme Court petition), isn’t just of great interest to her.

2/
That plea agreement years ago actually included an eye-popping additional clause—that the “United States also agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein.”

Here it is:

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Image
Read 13 tweets

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