The Next 100 Days Will be Harder. But We Can Do It (in two parts)

Part 1 How We Managed the First 100 Days

So much of the analysis of the first 100 days of the Trump presidency have focused on how Trump has fared in office. But the critical question is how we, Americans who still believe in democracy, equality, justice, and decency, have fared in meeting this unprecedented national period of democratic crisis. The question that looms even larger is how we plan to confront the next 100 days which are likely to be even more challenging than the first.

This essay proceeds in two parts. First, an assessment of what has happened in Part I. Then in Part II, a vision for how we navigate the next 100 days.

First things first. How have we endured? There’s no sugarcoating it: what we have already experienced during Trump’s first three months in office has been devastating. The dismantling of the federal government in broad daylight, massive lay-offs, the devastation to our health infrastructure, to the DOJ, to education, the dismantling of the civil rights infrastructure, the threats against law firms and the funding withdrawal from universities, the release of ICE agents into American cities, villages and hamlets, the deportation of migrants to foreign gulags and the expulsion of citizens, the threats against the judiciary, and against non-profits, and universities, and the saber-rattling against and imperialist menacing of our peaceful allies like Canada, Panama and Greenland – all of this has happened in a little over three months.

Add to that the lost jobs of tens of thousands of federal workers, the degradation of our public parks and air traffic control infrastructure, the horrifying cuts to medical research, the decimation of the CFPB, USAID, and Voice of America have exacted real pain on ordinary people in this country and around the world.

And it is not only Trump’s actions that have been devastating. The relentless, toxic, and deliberately insulting invocation of “DEI” and “woke” – meaning race – to package the entire grotesque project of creating a massive affirmative action program for mediocre and incompetent white men, has been a nearly unbearable assault on the decades of progress made in the decades after the Civil Rights Movement. Worse is seeing the Trump Administration’s racism embolden white Americans in daily life to release their “inner racist” in ways that demonstrate the profound absence of character among so many Trump supporters. The arrival of the first tranche of white South Africans today who Trump invited to resettle in the U.S as “refugees” is the bitter and rancid icing on the cake.

It has been terrible. But it could have been worse. Not a glowing review, I know. But we must recognize that the resistance has done effective and impressive work throwing sand into the gears, delaying and sometimes halting Trump’s most egregious plans. We should be proud. It is important that we reflect upon all that has been accomplished to thwart the worst of Trump’s anti-democratic agenda, so that we will recognize and double down on our strengths. Let’s take stock.

Resistance to ICE Actions

Ordinary Americans are growing increasingly bold in speaking out, confronting officers, taking videos, and protesting against the violent and frightening arrests and kidnappings by masked ICE agents in cities around the country. The ACLU and other immigrants’ rights organizations have stepped up to provide top-flight representation for individuals taken into custody by ICE, scoring some impressive wins. Their advocacy has exposed the Administration’s lies and denial of basic due process protections to migrants.

When the Administration took a victory lap by putting out videos showing the inhumane treatment of kidnapped migrants and the breathtakingly dystopian conditions in which they are being held in foreign countries, they didn’t calculate that seeing these exploitative newsreels would activate ordinary, decent Americans to protect their neighbors. But it has.[i]

Now community members are taking their own videos when ICE shows up. Small business and restaurant owners are barring ICE agents from conducting raids in their establishments. Restaurant trade organizations are offering information to owners about their legal rights when faced by ICE. [ii] In other words, the Trump Administration’s cruel and lurid videos unwittingly encouraged resistance to ICE raids.

Breaking the Trump/Elon Bromance

Early on I said that it would be important to drive wedges between the wall of right-wing enablers and Trump. First and foremost was to separate Trump and Elon. Their work in lockstep was devastating. Their honeymoon together was the most chilling aspect of the first 100 days. Even when we knew with our rational minds that narcissist bromances are doomed, it was frightening to witness the symbiosis of cruelty and irresponsibility that seemed to drive their camaraderie. Here were two utterly narcissistic, anti-government, greedy insomniacs, who could literally stay up all night planning new ways to fleece our government and bring pain to ordinary, working people.

Trump’s tepid protestations to the contrary, the bromance is over. The rift was caused, it appears, by some combination of Elon’s arrogance (Trump was apparently outraged to learn that Elon had arranged for a top-secret security briefing with the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, for whom discretion is hardly a thought); Trump’s recognition that Elon’s unpopularity was potentially dragging down his poll numbers), the press questioning whether Elon was serving in fact as a shadow president – an affront to Trump’s massive ego, and a kind of prison shivving by the other inmates in Trump’s cabinet asylum.

Most of all the #TeslaTakedown protests were particularly effective. Trump likes a winner and the death of Tesla as a marquee brand as a result of these wide-ranging protests made Elon toxic for Trump. Springing up organically in communities throughout the country, these overwhelmingly non-violent protests outside Tesla dealerships were populated by midwestern grandmas, middle-aged men and women on the coasts, college students, Gen Zs, and suburban Moms and Dads across the country. Even more powerfully, the protests took on an international dimension, with Tesla Takedown protests extending to Europe and Australia.[iii]

The protests have been so far reaching and sustained that Musk’s ego would not allow him to believe that people can hate him that much. His insistence that protesters must have been paid to participate in demonstrations is a testament to the cluelessness of a man who would think it was hilarious to brandish a chainsaw while giggling manically in glee at how effectively he has slashed and burned the jobs that form the livelihood for of the American workforce. Yes, Elon, people who need their jobs to survive, who want medicine, believe in science, support equal rights and justice, and most of all want to believe that when they are too old or ill to work, their country will not consign them to destitution and homelessness with no health care, really do hate you that much.

Trump Crashes Out in the Courts

Civil rights and liberties litigators have been relentless in challenging the unconstitutionality and statutory legality of Trump Executive Orders. And they've been WINNING. From his effort to end birthright citizenship, to his defunding of certain federal agencies, to mass firings, deportations without due process, Trump has been hammered by judicial decisions that at the very least, have put some of his most broadly unconstitutional initiatives on hold. In other instances, Trump has been compelled to drop retaliatory legal actions, like his effort to withhold funding from educational institutions in the state of Maine, after the Democratic Governor refused to back down to Trump’s demands on the treatment of trans athletes.

Trump’s effort to extort money and acquiescence from prestigious law firms has resulted in a strong rebuke from a federal judge.[iv] Other federal judges – including some of the most solidly conservative – have slammed the Trump Administration’s unconstitutional treatment of migrants,[v] and the DOJ’s flouting of judicial orders. We know that the Supreme Court awaits and Trump likes his chances there, but Trump’s increasingly menacing attitude toward federal courts may be undercutting some of his support there as well. More discussion on this is in Part II of this essay.

Dems Begin to Find New Energy

It has been clear for some time, that fighting Trump 2.0 and the somnambulant Republican-controlled Congress that aids and abets the President, requires a different kind of energy and strategy from the Democrats. Often it feels as if the Democrats are fighting the last battle, not the one they are currently facing. Egg prices are not the issue today (indeed many of us insist it was not the issue last November, either). We need a full-throated defense of our jobs, the institutions that serve us, the integrity of our environment and our rights to free speech. We also need the Democrats to stand against the culture of white supremacy that is Trump’s brand.

So it has been gratifying to see more Democrats become more creative and aggressive. New Jersey Senator Corey Booker’s filibuster – now the longest in the history of the Senate, knocking off the record held by Sen. Strom Thurmond’s filibuster of the 1957 Civil Rights Act – was performative, but in all the ways that matter. He put forth a detailed brief on the hideous excesses of the Trump Administration. He called on Americans to remember decency, honesty, fair-dealing, and adherence to the Constitution. Simply by subjecting his body to the stress of holding the Senate floor for over 25 hours, Booker appeared to re-awaken an appreciation for the fact that sacrifice is a necessary part of protecting democracy. And breaking Strom Thurmond’s record was an important way of reminding us that the world created by old racists will not prevail.

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who was unknown to many in the country a few months ago, traveled to El Salvador and managed by sheer determination and relentless demand to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident sent to El Salvador by ICE and held at least initially in the nightmarish CECOT prison there. Van Hollen’s has become one of the clearest and most unequivocal voices not only in opposing the Administration’s migrant kidnapping program, but in opposition to Trump’s lawlessness more broadly.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have been rallying before large crowds in red states, speaking directly about the threat that oligarchs pose to democracy in our country. Their rallies are energizing the base and activating progressive Democrats who are disillusioned by the failure of some Democratic leaders to speak and fight more aggressively.

Stalwarts like Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Jared Moskowitz (R-FL), Joel Neguse (D-CO), Jasmine Crocket (D-TX) and others can be counted on to speak up, to bring receipts, and to punch back strong against Republican outrages. But there are many other talented Democrats who have yet to find their voice in this new normal. It has been good to see Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Lauren Undewood (D-Ill), Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and other Dems step up. We need a deeper bench of Democrats who are substantive, media savvy, and creative in their communications.

Democratic state Attorney Generals have been on fire, aggressively filing suits to challenge Trump’s tariffs, his mass firings at federal agencies, the dismantling of the Education Department, and cuts at the Department of Health & Human Services.

Journalism Breakthroughs

Journalists have had some powerful interventions this year as well. The team at WIRED took the lead in exposing much of what we needed to know about how Elon’s DOGE boys were operating.[vi] Their reporting has been invaluable and they have become a must-read for tracking not only DOGE, but the moves of other Trump leaders positioning themselves with this Administration.

Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic broke the “Signalgate” story involving the insecure group chat on Signal on which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described in detail war plans for strikes against the Houthis.[vii] Goldberg was unwittingly included on the Signal group chat, along with senior defense officials, the Vice President and Director of National Intelligence. Certainly being included in a private cabinet-level group chat made getting the story easy for Goldberg. But Goldberg could have kept his erroneous includsion in the chat to himself (as I believe a number of prominent journalists would have). And he did not hold the story until he could write a tell-all book (which I know many prominent journalists would have done). The Atlantic and Goldberg himself should be commended for how they handled the incident.

The full effect of “Signalgate” has yet to be fully realized. But Mike Walz, Trump’s National Security Advisor has been removed from his position and put out to pasture as Ambassador to the United Nations. Hegseth is hanging by a thin thread with new revelations of incompetence dropping every week. Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence (it still feels crazy writing that) appears also to be on borrowed time.

Independent reporters like Marisa Kabas have also been breaking stories about Trump plans well before mainstream media,[viii] helping remove some of the element of surprise that has frustrated advocates seeking to challenge some of Trump’s activities. This kind of reporting has been invaluable and is likely to intensify.

Trump’s Unforced Errors

All of this pressure has led to Trump making a series of very, very harmful unforced errors. And this is critical. Pressure produces mistakes. The DOGE disaster and Signalgate left Trump looking for a big win. That led to his careless plan for rolling out “Liberation Day,” – his announcement of massive tariffs.

Tariffs: Trump’s Folly

Tariffs are the biggest unforced error of his presidency thus far has created a rift between Trump and many Republicans in Congress, and between Trump and the business community. Trump’s tariffs cost American taxpayers $28 billion in his first term.[ix] That money was spent to bailout farmers decimated by Trump’s tariffs,[x] a cost higher that that of our nation’s nuclear forces.

But this time around his tariff threats were so unhinged, so extreme and so lacking in justification that it was apparent immediately even to business leaders that this was not a good idea. The Dow tanked. Business leaders publicly objected. Fox News anchors began to peel off. And Republicans in Congress began to flag for Trump’s team that this was a problem Business leaders referred to tariffs as “stupid,” a “self-inflicted wound” on our economy and global leadership. The Wall Street Journal called it “the dumbest trade war in history.” [xi]

Trump has always had a kind of stubborn, barbershop patron’s understanding of tariffs. His belief that “we’re gonna be bringing in so much money from tariffs” has been among his most repeated refrains.

Trump’s biggest mistake in his tariff roll-out this time was his attempt to “show his work.” Arriving at a press conference with a big board (although he assured us that there was another board that was even bigger!) Trump set forth how he and his team arrived at the tariff percentage for each country. Even non-economists could see that it made no sense – and worse, that it demonstrated a basic and even frightening level of ignorance on Trump’s part.

When Trump’s bizarre method of tariff calculation was finally understood, it was roundly derided. Business executives were united in a sense of alarm and concern. Finally, business leaders have had to concede that there is “no there, there” when it comes to Trump’s economic policies. After Trump’s disastrous tariff rollout, the stock market went on a ride for several weeks and has yet to fully recover.

Even better, the tariffs have created rifts between Republicans in Congress and Trump, notwithstanding their public shows of unity. Congressional Republicans have been left to contend with the pain being felt by their constituents as a result of DOGE and tariffs. Farmers, automobile makers, unions and most of all small business owners have been feeling the pinch, and that pain will only grow. Republicans in states with large prestigious university research centers and hospitals, all recognized that Trump’s tariff folly was creating profound unease among their electorate.

The result was that Trump blinked. He began easing tariffs, creating exceptions for particular industries and postponing tariff start dates. And he’s been blinking steadily ever since. But the damage is done. Trump has been badly exposed as unreliable, ignorant of basic economic police and reckless enough to crash the economy. Finally, Trump caved on his ill-advised attempt to muscle China with tariffs,[xii] a fool’s errand if ever there was one.

Republicans fear that they will get primaried if they oppose Trump. But they also fear that they will lose control of the House if they stand lockstep with Trump’s harmful economic policies. We need to lean in on this fear.

Trump Alienates Federal Courts

Trump losses in the courts have led him to make another, very serious unforced error. As Trump racked up losses, he and his sidekick Musk, began a drumbeat of criticism against federal judges, with Musk calling for impeachment of judges who rule against his drastic cuts to federal agencies.[xiii] Derisive statements from Trump and his senior officials calling in to question the legitimacy of judges who rule against Trump continued to ramp up after adverse rulings in migrant detention cases.[xiv] Ever the sycophant, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has suggested abolishing district courts that issue decisions that overturn or pause Trump’s unconstitutional orders.[xv]

When Trump targets individuals with his rhetoric, physical threats from his supporters are never far behind. And so physical threats against district court judges have risen exponentially. Some federal judges have been receiving pizza deliveries under the name of the son of federal district court judge Esther Salas, who was shot to death in their family home by an unhinged Trump follower.[xvi] It is shameful, horrifying, and unconscionable.

The result has led to judges closing ranks and standing together amid the threat. Some of the most highly respected conservative judges have rebuked Trump policies, offering stinging criticism of arguments made by the Administration and the conduct of its lawyers. At the First Circuit Judicial Conference last week, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered unexpected remarks about the threats judges are facing. She called on judges to exercise “raw courage” and stand resolute in fulfilling their constitutional obligation despite threats.[xvii] Even Chief Justice Roberts followed last week with an unequivocal (if spare) statement recognizing the constitutional obligation of federal judges to contain the” excesses of the Executive branch.”[xviii] Trump’s actions may not matter to at least four of the conservative justices. But Trump may not be doing himself any favors with some of the others.

Whatever the outcome of these cases at the Supreme Court, it matters that district court judges, both conservative and not, are hearing the testimony, seeing the evidence, and ruling overwhelmingly against Trump. Their decisions and the strong language in them, are giving a boost of energy and hope to those in resistance. And they may yet disarm this Administration’s unconstitutional rampage.

Litigation against Trump’s EOs shows no sign of abating.[xix] And Trump continues to lose many more cases brought by challengers to his Executive Orders than he is winning. [xx]

All in all over the last 100 days, advocates, lawyers, elected Democrats and ordinary Americans have worked across multiple fronts with remarkable success to stall Trump’s unconstitutional unraveling of our democracy. But we are still in grave danger. Our democracy is still being further eroded every day. The next 100 days are likely to be even more challenging.

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Next up: how we navigate the next 100 days.

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[i] https://www.yahoo.com/news/chaotic-video-shows-neighbors-trying-143802011.html

[ii] https://www.lra.org/2025/02/11/best-practices-for-restaurants-when-ice-visits-your-establishment/

[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/29/tesla-protests-elon-musk-doge

[iv] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-strikes-down-trump-order-against-law-firm-perkins-coie-2025-05-02/

[v] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/us/politics/harvie-wilkinson-conservative-judge.html

[vi] https://www.wired.com/story/doge-incompetence-mistakes-feature-not-bug/

[vii] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/

[viii] https://apnews.com/article/independent-journalists-trump-local-news-a60b49c97058d14f1b2e36cdc771d8f7

[ix] https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/14/donald-trump-coronavirus-farmer-bailouts-359932

[x] https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2020/01/21/trump-tariff-aid-to-farmers-cost-more-than-us-nuclear-forces/

[xi] https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-25-percent-mexico-canada-trade-economy-84476fb2

[xii] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/12/trump-china-tariff-victory-capitulation-day

[xiii] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judges-face-rise-threats-musk-blasts-them-over-rulings-2025-03-05/

[xiv] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-continues-attack-on-federal-judge-despite-rebuke-from-chief-justice

[xv] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-speaker-johnson-says-congress-can-eliminate-district-courts-2025-03-25/

[xvi] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/11/justice-judges-threats-intimidation-pizza-deliveries/

[xvii][xvii] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/supreme-court-justice-jackson.html

[xviii] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/07/chief-justice-roberts-judicial-independence-buffalo/

[xix] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/us/trump-administration-lawsuits.html

[xx] https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-lawsuits-against-trump-administration/