TBR's Traitor of the Week
TBR Sunday Read
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “quisling” as a traitor. The Britannica dictionary offers a somewhat more specific definition: “a person who helps an enemy that has taken control of his or her country.”
You’d have to be pretty heinous to have a word like that named after you, but Vidkun Quisling, the Nazi collaborator who led Norway during Hitler’s occupation, deserved it. Tried in Oslo for treason and a shitload of other crimes, he was executed in 1945.
Norwegians might hate me for saying this, but I think it’s time to give “quisling” an update—because, right here in the United States of America, we have an embarrassment of traitors crying out for such enshrinement.
Today, I’m introducing a new TBR Sunday Read feature: Traitor of the Week. In addition to finding a replacement for “quisling” in the dictionary, I hope to provide an important public service.
When the current fascist regime ruling the US comes to an end—as all things do—there will be tribunals in which the worst traitors will be held to account, much as Vidkun Quisling was in Oslo. Winnowing the list of Trump’s many enablers will be arduous, time-consuming work. By shining a light on the most egregious of the lot, I hope to assist whoever is ultimately assigned that daunting task.
But first, a ground rule: a Traitor of the Week must be endowed with not just duplicitousness, but selfishness bordering on sociopathy. As the journalist Rosetta Miller Perry wrote in a 2023 opinion piece, a quisling is “someone who collaborates with an enemy occupying force for personal gain.” (FYI, Perry’s piece was entitled, “Vivek Ramasamy is the Ultimate Quisling.”) And so, as I choose candidates for Traitor of the Week, I will narrow my focus to people who are enabling this lawless regime out of ambition and/or greed—and not out of a sincere belief that what Trump is doing is good for the nation.
For that reason, someone like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will not be a Traitor of the Week. You can hurl a lot of insults at Marge, but one thing you can’t say is that she’s pretending to be dumb to suck up to Trump. In October of last year, for example, she claimed that Democrats were using technology to make hurricanes hit red states. “Yes they can control the weather,” she posted on X. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” You can’t fake that kind of stupid.
So, according to my ground rule, “greene” could never replace “quisling” in the dictionary. To make Traitor of the Week, you have to be someone who knows better—but has chosen to betray the United States anyway.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be rolling out Traitors of the Week for your consideration. It would be physically debilitating to attempt to profile all of Trump’s enablers, but I will do my best to highlight the worst of the worst. Once I’ve shared a number of these candidates, I’ll invite you to vote for America’s Top Traitor.
With that preamble over, it’s time to reveal TBR’s inaugural Traitor of the Week: