Push them Beyond their Limits
The Trump regime has limited resources, and pretends to be stronger than it is, hoping everyone will do their bidding without a fight. Instead of appeasement, say no.
For anyone who wants to oppose the Trump administration and the damage it has been doing—from reckless firings and cuts, to a lawless deportation regime, to democratic backsliding toward authoritarianism—the first hundred days of this second term have shown that there is a strategy worth pursuing, one familiar to underdogs the world over: Push the aggressor beyond their limits.
The Trump administration seems immensely powerful, controlling the executive branch and backed by a servile congressional majority. But its capabilities are finite, and less extensive than they appear. For the administration, pretending to have more power and energy than it actually does is part of the trick, an attempt to get people to do Trump’s bidding without a fight.
Hurting immigrants and foreign students, establishing that due process can be violated and court orders be ignored, defunding and trying to take over universities, silencing and chilling speech, resegregating the government—these are their top priorities. And apparently no amount of convincing, including even a sharp downward slide in Trump’s popularity, can dissuade them.
But the administration can be delayed, spread thin, confused, frustrated, overwhelmed. The more they stall out, the fewer people they hurt, and the less appealing they look to all but the most cultish supporters.
They have limited time and attention.
They have limited control over the executive branch, and with Elon Musk’s DOGE are destroying significant government capacity.
They have limited resources and personnel. Yes, they have awful people in key positions, but they don’t yet have loyalists all the way up and down the Department of Justice, the FBI, the military, or the intelligence services. They’re having difficulty finding lawyers willing to argue absurdities in court.
Smarter authoritarians would have coasted on the positive economic trends they inherited, gradually purging the government of law-followers and installing loyalists. The Trump team started smashing things and bullying in many directions as soon as they got power.
And in the first hundred days we’ve seen…
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