Science fiction author Orson Scott Card put President Donald Trump’s ascension to the executive office in perspective with a post to social media platform X Thursday in which he called our current political climate a civil war.
The author of the best-selling “Ender’s Game” book series is a household name. The first installment and namesake of the saga saw him receive multiple awards after its release in 1986 before a movie adaptation hit screens in 2013.
Card isn’t one to narrow his line of vision, choosing to stay in his sphere as an author.
He’s been vocal over the years about his faith as a Latter-Day Saint, drawing criticism for his opposition to homosexuality.
Thursday saw him wade into the waters of politics, choosing to comment on a historical parallel — or lack thereof — between Trump and former President Abraham Lincoln.
“Our current Civil War: I must point out that in 2016 a President was elected who was immediately rejected by a certain portion of the population and by state and local governments,” Card wrote on X.
“They brought criminal legal action against Trump and impeached him before he’d even had a chance to do anything, and accused him of being a dictator and the death of democracy — though it was they who rejected a lawful election and threw the Constitution out the window,” he continued.
“Sanctuary laws in defiance of federal authority are in every case the equivalent of besieging and firing on Ft. Sumter.”
Our current Civil War:
I must point out that in 2016 a President was elected who was immediately rejected by a certain portion of the population and by state and local governments. They brought criminal legal action against Trump and impeached him before he’d even had a chance…
— Orson Scott Card (@orsonscottcard) July 2, 2026
It’s a salient point.
The Confederacy’s attack on Fort Sumter, commencing on April 12, 1861, was the beginning of the Civil War. The prior standoff that saw a garrison of federal soldiers taking refuge in the fort as the South demanded its surrender was precipitated by South Carolina’s declaration of secession following Lincoln’s 1860 electoral victory.
In other words, they refused to comply with the law, as Democrat officials are doing now with their sanctuary policies. Note that they too rejected the 2016 election results as the South rejected the 1860 results.
Card added, “When Trump won reelection in 2024, the rebels doubled down on their secession from the Union by passing laws against federal officers enforcing federal law within their sanctuary purview, all the time claiming that Trump was oppressing THEM by taking completely proper actions. So by rejecting the results of the election, they are in open rebellion.”
Resistance to immigration laws and federal enforcement has only gotten worse in Trump’s second term.
The comment about “Trump oppressing THEM” seems to be a nod to the misconception, advocated by Southerners post-war, that the Civil War was a “war of northern aggression,” meaning they were only defending themselves from the tyranny of Lincoln’s government.
Card concluded Trump isn’t pursuing the neo-Confederates as aggressively as Lincoln did the South.
“And if you say ‘Trump is no Lincoln’ you’d be right. Trump has not arrested and charged with treason the deniers and rejectors of federal authority, including mayors and governors who threaten to prosecute federal officers for enforcing the law. Trump has been far more restrained than Lincoln ever was — though the defiance of the Constitution is no less egregious. Sanctuary laws are exactly the same as secession — a declaration that the federal government has no authority here.”
For as much as Democrats loathe the presence of ICE, Card is right. This is tame in comparison to Lincoln’s use of federal forces to occupy the South.
One need only recall General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea in late 1864 in which his men looted, burned, and destroyed Confederate infrastructure as he made his way from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia.
“They have declared war against the President and openly abused him as has not been done to a President since Lincoln. But the President has not sent federal troops to arrest those publicly guilty of sedition and treason, and take over the defiant government bodies and throw them in jail,” he noted.
“They claim to fear Trump’s officers — while they are the ones who suppress free speech and try to adjust campaign laws so as to prevent the candidates they oppose from being on the ballot. California doesn’t even pretend to be a democracy anymore… but Trump stays his hand.”
This is another important parallel about democracy.
In 1860, Lincoln’s name was not even on the ballot in the Southern states, excluding Virginia. Moreover, he’s not tossing Democrat officials in prison despite their consistent law breaking.
Card concluded by ultimately saying Trump “is no Lincoln” in that the latter would not be so lenient.
Are we in a second civil war? The defiance of federal authority cannot be denied.
Democrats don’t deny they’re doing it.
This is something Trump deserves immense credit for — being reserved.
For as much as the left lambasts him as a fascist, he lets Democratic officials and their hordes of minions get away with more than Lincoln would.
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