Reporters and Progressives: Watch Your Words!

By Jessie Seigel / Washington, D.C.

Originally appeared in My Washington Whispers on Feburary 12, 2026

Pro-democracy leaders and mainstream media need to stop being so afraid to use language that plainly states the nation’s situation as it is. They simply must stop using euphemisms that suggest the Trump regime’s positions could have any legitimacy to be debated.

Accordingly, I issue the following directives:

Calling ICE “Federal agents?” –NO!

Stop saying that “ICE federal agents” are “untrained,” or “badly trained”—as if proper training would cure their lawlessness. Stop calling their actions “bush league policing”—as if they were incompetent rather than deliberately malevolent. Stop giving them the dignity of equating them with police. They are not. 

In fact, stop calling ICE operatives federal agents. Have they ever presented any identification—any proof that they have taken an oath of office? They certainly have not abided by any oath to the Constitution, which they violate at every opportunity.

Also stop saying that ICE has used “excessive force.”  “Excessive” suggests they have the legal right to use force but just used too much. ICE’s use of force is illegitimate; illegal; criminal. Those are the words that properly describe their actions.

They are thugs who have simply been given the title “federal agent” by the Trump regime.  They have been chosen to do exactly what they are doing: kidnap, imprison, beat and kill observers. And they do so while hiding their faces so they cannot be identified and prosecuted for their crimes. They are not legitimate federal law enforcement. They are Trump’s Brown Shirts, sent to wreak havoc and destruction.

For commentators to speak of poor training is to pretend that there is an intent on the part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to have its ICE operatives do a legal job in a legal manner. To pretend that is to aid and abet the Trump regime’s lie about their illegal purpose. 

“Overreach?” –Wrong Word.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, to “overreach” is to fail by trying to do more than you can manage, or to do more than your authority allows. But in the context of our nation’s current politics, to say the Trump regime has overreached is to suggest it will fail or be stopped—by the Congress, or the courts—and will correct its inappropriate misstep.

But Trump’s administration is not merely overstepping its authority. The Republicans who control Congress have refused to use their power to stop so-called overreach. And though some courts have handed down decisions against the Trump regime’s actions, it is going forward regardless of any court determinations to the contrary, legal authority be damned.

In the current situation, “overreach” is too mild a term.

Instead, state plainly that Trump and his crew are breaking the law. Crushing the law. Stomping on the Constitution as if it did not exist.

“Accountability?” –No. Investigation. Prosecution. Punishment.

What does accountability look like? Who decides? The word is too general. Instead, use the specific terms appropriate to the actions one is addressing. For example, if a lawyer’s ethical violations are in question, reference investigation for disbarment—not just “holding him or her accountable.”

If someone may have committed a crime, don’t call for them to be “held accountable.” Call for them to be investigated, prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished for the crime.

Miscellaneous Misnomers

One would hope, by now, that no pro-democracy speaker would be referring to lies as “alternative facts,” or disinformation as “misinformation” but I have heard some commentators use those terms. THINK. STOP. PLEASE.

Commentators also tend to wring their hands over the creation of “distrust in institutions.” But the problem is not the distrust in institutions. The problem is the destruction of institutions. Under such circumstances we should not trust our institutions. We need to correct the destruction so that they will again be trustworthy.

And as for the effect of events on the coming 2026 election…

Stop handicapping the horse-race. Stop weighing whether what Trump has ICE doing is “politically disastrous” or whether the “optics” are very bad—as if the important thing were not the evil actions, but how they look. The survival of democracy is not a sport. Stop treating it as if it were one.

---

Jessie Seigel’s journalistic career began with the political Washington Whispers column, written for The Insider. Since The Insider ended its run in 2023, Seigel has continued the column as My Washington Whispers,

www.mywashingtonwhispers.com. In addition, Seigel has had a long career as a government attorney, has received two Artist’s Fellowships from the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for her fiction, has been a finalist for several literary awards, and has had professional staged readings of her plays, Tinker's Damn, and The Three Jessies. More on Seigel can be found at www.jessieseigel.com.