By Allan Stevo
January 24, 2026
I couldn't tell you how it all came together behind the scenes, but after a lot of prayer, I knew that I was supposed to be in Washington DC at this time last year.
I was pretty sure I was supposed to be a volunteer.
I was pretty sure I was supposed to say, "Yes!" to the most undesirable work.
I was pretty sure I was supposed to show up in icy Washington, DC that week, even if I had not yet heard from the Inaugural Committee whether I was going to be used as a volunteer.
I was pretty sure I was supposed to reject every offer to attend a press conference, black-tie gala, or muckety-muck get together offered to me - and many were offered to me.
Instead, I told almost no one I was in town (I think only two people), and stayed as far off the beaten path as possible.
Then, after I had come to town, the Inaugural Committee finally reached out to me.
Volunteering During Inauguration Week 2025
I accepted their invitation to show up at oh-dark-hundred. I think it might have been 3 am. They were not clear what we would even do.
I just knew I was supposed to volunteer for the jobs that no one else wanted. That's the attitude I knew I was to have my entire time in DC.
I was not an honored inaugural guest. I was a servant to all.
When the Volunteer Coordinator for the Inaugural Committee finally took us to our potential volunteer posts, she asked for volunteers for a job that gave her a cringe when she offered it - like she felt bad even offering the job to anyone.
My arm shot up.
I was picked.
I soon understood why it was the most undesirable.
In fact, about two hours after we started, my manager asked me to take over for him, said he'd be back soon, went inside, and never returned.
I was now the manager of the most undesirable shift. Soon local police officers were coming to me, asking me what to do. Secret Service was coming to me asking me what to do. Even Rabbi Shmuley (I kid you not) showed up trying to mooch a favor from me.
Volunteering On Inauguration Day 2025
The next morning, the Volunteer Coordinator put me there again. Many wonderful people came through. And I diligently did the work. It was not nice weather to be in all morning and all afternoon. I kept filling the other volunteers with coffee and hot chocolate that I bought at one of the local businesses inside the barricades that remained open. And then once the manager knew what I was doing, he started giving them to me for free, and bringing warm food, too, for the volunteers - out of the goodness of his own heart.
Eventually, my work was done. We were released from duty. I hoped to accomplish one more thing - to get my volunteers good seats inside at the inauguration. I couldn't get them all in one section together, but I got them decent seats inside where it was much warmer than outside. They would get a birdseye view.
And then something unexpected happened to me.
Secret Service found me. They noticed I had a Secret Service background check (required of all volunteers). They asked if they could move me to a different seat. I told them that I would be happy to do anything that would be helpful to them. For all I knew, they were looking to move me somewhere worse so VIPs could sit where I was.
But that's not what happened. And they needed to fill more seats too, so I offered to call about ten or fifteen volunteers if they wanted. They wanted. We filled those seats for them in no time.
These were better seats. And there was a red carpet lining the aisle alongside us.
I could not imagine what would happen next. Maybe an hour later, the event began. Comedian Rob Schneider sitting not far behind me, in a box seat, made the section laugh. "You can do it!" he yelled, as well as other funny things.
The event began; honored guests started to process down that red carpet three feet from me. And then the Vice President and his family. And then the President and First Lady.
And then my phone started buzzing. Someone from California sent me a photo of what was on their TV screen: Donald Trump, Melania Trump, and me, on their TV screen. It even looked like Donald Trump paused to talk to me for twenty seconds while entering (which he didn't, he was talking to the guy next to me).
I had come to DC that day, to pray over the happenings of the day, and to do the least honorable unpaid work in the entire city that day, and when that was over, I had been elevated into a seat next to the President as he came down the red carpet on Inauguration Day.
There hardly could have been a bigger honor paid to me that day. I showed up eager to serve and eager to stay out of the DC limelight. Surrounding me were volunteers I had managed that day, getting the same honor. That too was an honor.
Trump's Second Term
Trump has done more than I expected in office. Some of it I dislike. Some I like.
I have a phobia of those who turn rabidly on a candidate who they halfheartedly supported to begin with.
Trump, as I warned some 18 months ago, has been influenced by his biggest donors. I warned that Christians, conservatives, and libertarians weren't coming forward as donors. They were playing a wait and see game.
And it was already showing in his campaign.
Many of my donor-class acquaintances were half-hearted.
They were behaving as if they did not actually want the things they said they wanted in America.
Amateuristic Responses To Disobedient Politicians
In politics, you must promote your views in every possible way, and keep promoting. To turn against a candidate is amateuristic. "How do we change the direction?" "How to I leverage my influence?" These are the questions to ask - no matter who is in the Oval Office.
I'm not sure about those who turn rabidly against he who is more like them than the other guy. I'm not sure about those who insist that masons run everything so it's pointless to even try to do anything.
Neither are my experience of how politics works.
So, not only is it a lie, but worse.
It is a disempowering mindset. Once you've resigned yourself to believe that masons run everything, then you have resigned yourself to stop changing that which you can change.
And the reality is, you can change more than you realize about the world around you.
People Shaping The World Around Them
A clout-chasing zoomer and a boomer with a spreadsheet turned Minnesota into a hotbed of accountability this past month. "Oh but that's just a masonic conspiracy," you might say, "Otherwise it would have never been noticed."
Fine, have it your way. But then you are ignoring the powerful Nick Shirley Effect: all over the country people with social media accounts and spreadsheets are investigating local spending. This secondary effect is bigger than any direct impact Nick Shirley has with his videos. Re-awakening the American people to what it means to be a free people is more important than taking down 100,000 Somali pirates who have invaded Minnesota and are ransacking the state treasury.
Inconveniently, citizen journalists have turned on the welfare Hassids of New York. They have turned on the daycare centers of Ohio and Washington. And some are even asking why there is federalized childcare. Is that a constitutional use of taxpayer funds?
There are bigger fish to fry, and they aren't going to get fried until the American people start doing the frying. The American government isn't going to do it. This doesn't take a mass movement. It takes one person, surveying the landscape around him, and making that place a little more hospitable to what he wants.
I do not recommend the same route as Nick Shirley, but I also do not not recommend it. Do what seems like it will work best. But I recommend you get started.
One Important Thing That Trump Has Repeatedly Done Right
We are one-quarter into the Second Trump Administration. Trump has reliably done one thing right: taken a lot of flack, thereby taking pressure off the politically moderate, independent, conservative, and libertarian. He helps lift the fairly oppressive establishmentarian burden. This he has gotten right consistently from the time he came down that golden escalator in June 2015.
He has made himself the object of ridicule, thereby lifting some ridicule (and tyranny) off others. Has he intended that ? I do not know. Nor does that matter to me. From June 2015 to December 2020, there was no better time for a commoner to effect change in the world around him in America with limited resistance, and again today. 2020 brought a new set of circumstances, but even then, Trump left considerable room for protection against the cultural and political coup that took place and that made its way into nearly every American home.
I'm not trying to defend Trump. I'm not trying to defend Nick Shirley. I'm trying to ask you, what have you done for humanity lately ? What have you done to flip the script lately ? What have you done for freedom lately ? What have you done for your country lately?
Your Actions Matter So Much, And This Moment Matters So Much
Leftists are caught in groupthink. They can't break free. They can't even define gender, nor identify what's unique about America. I pray that someone will help them from that mess, because America is better with functioning, competitive parties responsive to citizens.
That groupthink, means this moment largely comes down to you. What will you who are right of center or even moderate do to unshackle the increasingly enslaved existence around you?
Be creative. Break out. Make it effective. Push with maximum effort.
Now is the time.
No one is promised tomorrow. This period in American history might end tomorrow. You might only get one more day of Trump. You might only get one more year of Trump. You might only get three more years of Trump.
No matter what happens, the building you do today will make you more effective at what comes tomorrow, no matter what it is.
As for the defeatists who say nothing must be done because the masons will soon enslave us all in FEMA camps, I look forward to spitting in your face alongside you in that camp. Your defeatism will not keep us out, but it might help get us in. You who perceive the enemy as omnipotent is a greater threat to America than the Kool-Aid haired trigglypuff shrieking during exceptional moments in history.
Please make this next year, a year that really matters.
Please make this next 24 hours, a day that really matters.
Start that next effort today; carry it forward for six months; pause and evaluate then. How did it go ? What should I change ? Should I abandon it entirely ? But please don't give a project less than six months. It has a number of curves it must go through for you to even know how it is going, and usually by six months, you have gotten on the other side of those curves.
I do not come to defend Nick Shirley. I come to encourage you to make use of the Nick Shirley Effect and the space that creates for you to generate more freedom.
I do not come to defend Donald Trump. I come to encourage you to make use of the Donald Trump Effect and the space that creates for you to generate more freedom.
These people are not perfect. Nor am I. Nor are you. And you have this moment in history, a time like no other, to effect change in the community around you for the better.
How will you do that?