I grew up with two older brothers. The younger of the two was bigger and stronger. On occasions when the younger lost “the war of wits” to our older brother, he resorted to the rules of engagement to start a physical fight. The rule was that you could never start a physical fight, but you could hit back if someone hit you first. So, my younger brother would move excessively close to the eldest so that the slightest move that ultimately resulted in a touch would be used as the provocation he needed to punch our older brother. He once tried that tactic on me but was soon reminded that boys are never allowed to hit girls under any circumstances. Later he broke that rule. I was eleven and he was twelve when I beat him in a basketball shooting contest called “Around the World”. His ego was so bruised that in his rage he physically attacked me. Yes, I was happy about my victory, but no, I was not gloating about it. So, I was shocked by his reaction. Not only did he get in big trouble, but I never played that game with him again. In fact, I kept my distance for a while because I viewed him as both irrational and explosive. In his twenties he was diagnosed with a mood disorder. My brother’s behavior taught me a valuable lesson about how some people take a scorched earth approach to protect their ego, resolve conflict, eliminate competition or exert their will.
Donald Trump behaves like my younger brother once did. In 2016, we saw how quickly he evoked public insults, baseless accusations and embarrassing nicknames to exploit the insecurities of his competitors, forcing them to drop out of the presidential race. His scorched earth approach made him appear strong to a segment of the country who wanted to burn down a system that challenged the cultural, economic, and political domination of white “Christian” people. But he was repulsive to the rest of us who valued our diversity and the country’s movement toward fairness. We abhorred his indecent tactics and five million more of us voted for Hillary Clinton, but the electoral college gave Trump the presidency.
Exposed but unchallenged, his bullying continued to ravage the will of Republican lawmakers using public ridicule and threats of being primaried if they didn’t bend to his will. That gave him three seats on the Supreme Court and a good number of federal judges. That kept him from being removed from office twice after being twice impeached for his criminal behavior. Like my brother in childhood, his power of persuasion was never based on the merits of his argument, but on the threat of brutality. And he attracted a lot of people who lack a good argument, but love the 2nd Amendment and are willing to behave just like him.
As we’ve all seen, his propensity to tell big lies and to use threats to enforce his will has only ramped up since our Republican lead Senate and our own judicial system failed to hold him accountable for not only causing a violent attack on the Capital to stop the certification of the 2020 election, but for watching it happen without acting to stop it for hours. There was no shortage of enablers (including former attorney general Merrick Garland), a corrupt Supreme Court who ignored the disqualification clause in the Constitution and then granted him presidential immunity. Then there are the complicit MAGA loyalists who endorse the bullshit, the incompetence, and the bad policies. Perhaps worse is an apathetic electorate who don’t bother to vote. Working in concert, they encouraged and empowered the dangerous monster we are now dealing with.
It is evident to me that Donald Trump, his handpicked cabinet members, MAGA loyalists, and his newly minted ICE agents are itching for a fight. They can’t logically defend the long list of their unconstitutional, lawless, shortsighted, cruel, harmful and incompetent actions. It appears that breaking things and cruelty is the point. They began this term by firing government workers without cause. They shuttered agencies that provided food and medicine to poor nations, destroying loyalty and goodwill. They cut funding for scientific and medical research. They removed environmental protections, threatened the sovereignty of Canada, Iceland, Panama, and now Venezuela. They destroyed confidence in our public health system, gave tax breaks to the wealthy, rolled back the public safety net, attacked our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in a multicultural nation, and started a worldwide tariff war. With the blessing of the Supreme Court, they continue to kidnap brown people off the streets. They use mere allegations to deport non-criminals to prisons abroad without due process. They use the justice department and the FBI to seek revenge against anyone who tried to hold Trump accountable for his criminal activities. They bully businesses and universities into acting against their will, threaten judges, and shake down businesses. They force networks to contribute money or to fire journalists and late-night comedians by using the FCC to withhold approval of business mergers.
Their behavior and their policies are wildly unpopular because they are unlawful, corrupt, shortsighted and often criminal. Trump is known to exaggerate claims and to fabricate lies to justify his actions. Like how he characterizes Mexican immigrants as rapists, murderers, drug dealers or insane. Like accusing Haitian immigrants of eating people’s pets. Like the time a few protestors in downtown Los Angeles set fire to three driverless vehicles and he said the entire city of Los Angeles required the National Guard and the military to reign in the violence. He regularly publicizes unsubstantiated allegations to punish his perceived enemies. He just used our military on two separate occasions to kill people in fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela, claiming without evidence that they were heading to the U.S. with illegal drugs.
All this matters because innocent lives are lost or threatened by his reckless disregard for the truth, his greed, his need for admiration, his need for revenge against anyone who tries to hold him accountable, and his determination to remove anyone who thinks differently from him. His behavior is blatantly criminal and abhorrent, and his policies are so unpopular that he must appease white “Christian” nationalists who want to usher in a Taliban-like theocracy run by white males. Theirs is a marriage of convenience that can’t last because Trump is not a Christian by their own standards (and neither are they by Jesus’ standards). The white “Christian” nationalists are using Trump to destroy the country and break the will of the American people so that they can rebuild it to their liking. Project 2025 was their playbook and because it was unpopular, Trump publicly disavowed it to get elected. Even though lying is what he does, many were still fooled into believing he wasn’t going to follow it. But he is.
Like an unhinged and shortsighted child, Trump wants the entire world to endorse his madness as brilliance and to obey in advance or face his brutality. Let’s refuse. He fakes ignorance of the sneers for smiles, the boos for cheers, and the silence for agreement. He’s aware that forced compliments aren’t actual admiration. The problem is that he is petty and that he enjoys watching haters being forced into submission. The whispers of disgust behind his back and the desire to be rid of him as soon as possible only fuel his resolve for retribution. Like other autocrats before him, his behavior destroys trust, actual loyalty, and undermines the strength of the nation. He simply creates more haters.
Our resistance to Trump must be unified and beyond his reach. Corporations are running scared of him when they should be running scared of us. Target and now Disney are learning this. We are the ones who buy corporate products and keep them in business. The brightest brains are simply leaving the country or no longer coming to our universities. Innovation and productivity come from the people. Blue states are setting up their own public health care systems. Ultimately, we are the ones who fuel this economy. It’s pretty clear that his supporters are not the smartest people, though a few are the richest. I’m convinced that collectively, we can out-think, out vote, and withhold our spending in ways that shape future decision-making.
As Trump extends his takeover of corporate media outlets, what if we simply stop watching corporate media? I already stopped getting my news from them. When he plugs and silences one media outlet, we like a stream of water forge a new path. Our resistance must be loud, clear, and ubiquitous. We can no longer sit on the sidelines. Yes, the trolling and truth telling using creative media, songs, speeches, sermons, skits, cartoons, artwork, and independent podcasts and independent news outlets must continue to grow and spread. I’m fond of sharing creative content to help reach a broader audience. It’s the least I can do.
In addition to online content, boycott participation must spread, and the peaceful street protests must continue largely without black folks because our presence alone will be provocation for state violence. Trump and the white “Christian” nationalists who support him need to see lots and lots of white people. Only then will they truly understand that they are not the majority and that their views are unpopular. Make it shameful and embarrassing to be MAGA without confronting them directly. Simply ignore them.
The lawsuits must also continue, and we must financially support the organizations and law firms behind them like Democracy Forward, the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense. We must use our voices, our talents, and our pocketbooks to defend our country against the white “Christian” nationalist and the childish bully who have joined hands against us. I suggest taking the funds from cancelling Disney Plus or from that Starbucks coffee and applying them to the legal defense of our civil rights and our democracy.
In these perilous times, cowardice, apathy, and silence are not an option. We must be smart and unified in our resistance as we support all the various efforts to defend what is Constitutional, what is lawful, what is decent, and what is good for our nation. We must not engage in the violent fight they are itching for. Instead, we must continue to force the bully to react by publicly disagreeing and loudly exposing his nonsense. As he retaliates by breaking more laws, contradicting the Constitution, showing his indecency, and evoking brutality, his desperate actions will inevitably turn enough people against him to overthrow him and his white “Christian” nationalist allies.
I take hope in the reminder that there are more of us on the side of decency and goodwill than there are on the side of destruction and violence. And don’t forget that we are also smarter and more creative. May our resolve get stronger by the day.