February 21, 2025
What is the Trump administration and their far-right Project 2025 accomplices after?
They are trying to get power that Congress would not grant them, and that is not supported by the US constitution. They know full well that congress would never pass most of what’s in Project 2025, sothey are workingto bypass congress and get it anyway. They are violating our laws and our constitution - and challenging the checksandbalances built into our constitution to try to stop them.
• They are challenging congress – under our system when a president is not serving his oath of office as heshould, acting illegally without apparent restraint, it’s up to congress toimpeach and removehim. And he knows thatthe GOP in congress won’t dothat, because his MAGA followers would then vote them outof office.
• They are challenging the courts – continually violating law, and appealing courtdecisions against them. They will say they are complyingwhile appealing, but their compliance is half-hearted.
Their entire game here is to get these court cases up to the extreme right-wing SCOTUS
thatthey have forced on us, with the expectation that SCOTUS will “reinterpret”the US constitution in a way that will give the president the power to implement many parts of Project 2025 - despite the factthatthey can’t get those things through congress.
This is a direct attackon our constitutional republic. The founders put Congress in charge of the country. Congress decides the structure andpower of theadministration, the structure and power of thejudiciary, etc. That’swhy it’s a republic, not a monarchy.
And if they get what they want, it will be very bad for our country. Democrats will win the presidency again - quite possiblyin 2028 given thatTrump’s actions aredamaging his own voters. Then if the presidency has beengranted all this power, a Democratic president would move everything back to the left, even further than Congress would support. Whywouldn’t they?
The country would seesaw between extreme right and extreme left policies,suffering severe whiplash. This would not be good for our nation - or for our standing in the world.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “We have a Republic – if we can keep it”. The situation in the country right now is challenging our ability to keep our republic.
Robert Reich’s action plan:
1. Protect the decent and hardworking members ofyour communities who are undocumented or whose parents are undocumented. So-called “sanctuary” cities and states have laws prohibiting their schools, public hospitals, and police from turning over undocumented individuals tothe federal government or providing information about them. Your municipality should copy these policies.
2. Protect LGBTQ+ members of your community. I urge you toworkwith others to be vigilantagainst prejudice and bigotry, wherever it might break out. When you see or hear it, call itout. Join with others to stop it. If you trust your local cityofficials, get them involved. If you trust your local police,alert them as well.
3. Help protectofficials in your community or state whom Trump and hisadministration aretargeting for vengeance. Some maybe low-level officials, such as election workers. If they do not have the means tolegally defend
themselves, you might help them or consider a GoFundMe campaign. If you hearof anyone who seeks to harm them, alert local law-enforcement officials.
4. Participate or organize boycotts of companies that are enabling the Trump regime, starting with X and Tesla, and advertisers on X or on Fox News.
5. To the extent you are able, fund groups that are litigating against Trump: The American Civil Liberties Union, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Defense Fund, Southern Poverty Law
Center, and Common Cause.
6. Get news through reliable sources and spread it. Democracy Now, BusinessInsider, The New Yorker, The American Prospect, The Atlantic, Americans for Tax Fairness, Economic PolicyInstitute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian, ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson, and Robert Reich’s Substack.
7. Urge friends, relatives, and acquaintances toavoid Trump propaganda outlets
such as Fox News, Newsmax, X, and, increasingly, Facebook and Instagram.
8. Push for progressive measures inyour community and state.
9. Most labor unions are on the right side, seekingto build worker power and resistrepression. You can support them by joining picket lines and boycotts.
Encourage employees to organize in places you patronize.
10. Do notgive up on America. The forcesof Trumpian repression andneofascism would like nothing better than for usto give up. Then they’d winit all. We cannot allow themto.We must never give up