Snow falls on the North Lawn of the White House, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Official White House photo by Oliver Contreras)
Donald Trump is president again. Four years after his first term ended in an unprecedented spasm of lies, criminality and violence that threatened the very survival of constitutional government in the world’s greatest democracy, a convicted felon sits in the White House surrounded by a cadre of fawning enablers and extremists.
While there are obviously many Americans who welcome this news and see Trump as a victim, a hero, and someone who will somehow restore “greatness” to the nation, for tens of millions of others, fear is the chief emotion that Trump’s return brings. And contrary to the rants of Trump and his allies, this is not a fear born of concerns about loss of privilege or high status. Rather, for most, it’s a fear rooted in deep anxiety over what the country (and, indeed, much of the world) might come to resemble under an American president who embraces a brand of one-person, authoritarian rule the nation has never before experienced.
Now add to this, the genuine fear for their own personal wellbeing that millions more are now experiencing – immigrants, women of childbearing age, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, the people of Ukraine and other targets of authoritarian regimes — and it’s clear that we are entering dangerous and uncharted waters.
Indeed, given Trump’s persistent claims of grievance and vows of retribution against those whom he sees as enemies, there are those who oppose him who have nonetheless expressed the wish that he had somehow actually won the 2020 election and thereafter coasted through a lazy and listless second term. “At least we’d be through with him at this point,” goes the thinking.
As superficially alluring as such a fantasy might be, however, the hard reality is that Trump 2.0 is here, and caring and thinking people have their work cut out if they want to help blunt the worst of the coming authoritarian storm. Here are three key items for the to-do list:
Stay engaged every day — The temptation to tune out in the coming days and weeks will be hard to resist. The news on numerous fronts promises to be mostly dreadful and depressing as Trump issues a series of edicts and orders, while congressional lapdogs compete — at least initially — to see who can debase themselves the most when it comes to abandoning any semblance of independence or original thought.
But it’s also true that, despite his relentless braggadocio and noxious claims of supremacy and infallibility, Trump enters his final term in a comparatively weak position. Republican margins in Congress are narrow and quite likely to evaporate in 2026. The federal judiciary is much stronger than it was four years ago thanks to President Biden’s appointment of scores of new judges. Now add to this that Trump is the oldest person ever to be inaugurated, in questionable health, and notoriously undisciplined, and that many of his cabinet appointees lack experience in manipulating the arms of government, and the prospects for his agenda foundering sooner rather than later are high.
In such an environment, the potential for millions of active and engaged citizens to comprise a formidable and successful resistance is high.
Pay attention to state and local government — While the action in Washington will be important, many of the best opportunities to resist the worst of Trumpism will continue to be found closer to home.
State and local governments can act as accomplices in constructing a nation that favors billionaires over average people, abandons efforts to preserve our natural environment, and treats millions of hardworking immigrant families, women seeking to control their own bodies, and people trying only to live in their genuine gender identity as criminals and nonpersons. But they can also serve as powerful roadblocks.
Don’t give in to hatred and cruelty — Sadly, as millions of mostly anonymous emails and social media posts make clear, hatred and cruelty are two of the most important forces that have fueled Trump’s return. One need only spend a few minutes perusing sites like X to see how a noisy minority of fearful and unhappy people have come to play an outsized role in our national political and policy debates.
But, of course, the truth is that this does not come close to representing a majority of Americans — nor even a majority of Trump voters, many of whom dislike much about the president and his values but voted for him based on what they saw as pragmatic reasons.
Notwithstanding all of its many past sins and current problems, the United States remains better positioned than any other nation to help build a sustainable world committed to freedom, equality, diversity, and tolerance. And, while the temptation will be great in the days ahead to meet hatred and cruelty that’s coming with similar venom, the best way for caring and thinking people to build the kind of world and planet we need is to model it every day — no matter what the current temporary inhabitant of the White House or his supporters do or say.