Military Veteran and Retired Federal Air Marshal Russell Jack on the Mistaken MAGA Movement

My Favorite Mistake: Navigating Business and Career Pitfalls for Leadership Growth and Innovation

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #252 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Russell K. Jack. He’s a retired US Senior Federal Air Marshal, working in that role from 2002 to 2022. Russell previously served five years as a Federal Police Officer. And previously served five years in the Colorado Army National Guard and was deployed in Saudi Arabia (Desert Storm).

He is also a first-time author — his book is titled, Is MAGA a Terrorist Movement?— available now. He hopes this book will promote critical thinking about protecting our democracy and just how precariously close we are to losing it forever. He writes this book out of a sense of duty to the American people.

In today's episode, Russell shares his favorite mistake story from his time working as a security officer for a major health system. Why did a Black man think he was being racially profiled by Russell? And what did Russell learn about that interaction?

We also dive into important topics from his book — the lessons learned and the implications for 2024 and beyond.

Questions and Topics:

• Did you get to share that lesson with others in law enforcement?
• How often do you think racial profiling does occur?
• What’s the definition of “terrorist”?
• Death threats are an example of terrorism?
• Fascist? What does that mean and what’s the implication if MAGA wins in 2024?
• It’s a mistake that we don’t have a clear definition of “Insurrectionist”?
• Who is the audience for the book? The already convinced, or the convincible?? Your hope for the book?
• You write you’ve never convinced anybody to stop being MAGA. Do you expect this book to help?
• Do you run across people who now think it was a mistake to previously support or vote for Trump?
• Does MAGA think they made mistakes in early 2021 that they wouldn’t make again in early 2029??
• If Trump were to die tomorrow, what happens to MAGA movement?