First 100 Days of Successful Resistance

Can you feel the tide turning?

Good morning! And I mean GOOD morning- the honeysuckle is in bloom, strawberries have arrived at the Farmers market, the weather is perfect… And the resistance to Trump is starting to work! 

When I started this email series in February, things looked pretty bleak. Not just because of the ascendency of Trump’s authoritarianism, but because there was a feeling that people were too exhausted and too afraid to push back. We watched in horror and sadness as big tech CEOs embraced the new President at his inauguration. We were outraged as schools and businesses began to “comply in advance” – falling in line to adopt hateful policies, believing threats before they became true. We worried about the weak response from Democrats, many of whom seemed to cave to a narrative of “well people voted for this, so we should give them what they want.” And we wondered if that might be true. Was this what Americans wanted?

Throughout this time, I tried to keep faith with the American people. I believed in my heart that there was NO MANDATE. A slew of polling this week makes me convinced my faith was not misplaced. A new poll from North Carolina’s own Elon University shows that two-thirds of Americans are concerned about Trump’s battle with the judiciary. A New York Times poll showed that voters feel he has gone too far on just about every issue - including tariffs, immigration enforcement, and cuts to the federal workforce. Trump’s approval is dropping a point a week - let’s keep that going!

Of course, we are still living on a knife’s edge. Terrible things continue to happen each and every day. Trump Authoritarianism continues to increase its aggressiveness, likely in response to the success of resistance. Bullies always get louder and angrier when they don’t get their way. Bullies arrest judges. Bullies deport two year olds. Bullies threaten Wikipedia and whistleblowers. Bullies want you to feel like you’re on a knife’s edge. 

Together, our resistance is standing up. Pushing the knife away. Staring down the bully. Refusing to be ruled by a king. Reinforcing our democracy. 

It’s working…

Elon Musk is leaving DOGE

What a failure Elon has been. People understand that he’s rigging the system for himself and his billionaire buddies. DOGE has turned into a punchline. 

My friend Karl Rectanus recently pointed out that “What Gets Measured, Gets DOGE’d” – a turn of phrase on the business aphorism that “what gets measured, gets done.” Think about it - DOGE created massive cuts to science, eliminated federal research on education, and even took their gilded chainsaw to the IRS section for taxpayer accountability. 

Why cut science, measurement, and accountability? It’s such a classic move of authoritarians and grifters. Eliminate anyone who might notice that you’re stealing from the people or that your actions have made things worse. Turn the lights out, remove every path to freedom, and run away with the money.

Many have pointed out that Elon was always intended to be Trump’s fall guy if things went bad. It turns out that he’s just the fail guy, dragging Trump’s approval down at a rate almost as fast as the Tesla stock price. And while there’s no doubt Elon’s chainsaw approach has been truly harmful to people's lives, many of his cuts have been – and will continue to be – reversed by the courts. He fails on every level. Good riddance, I look forward to Democrats campaigning on a wealth tax to get our money back.

DOJ is Buckling under the Mountain of Injustice

It’s impossible to keep track of all the litigation filed against the illegal action of this administration. This tracker has 211 major cases - and that doesn’t even include asylum and immigration challenges. 

Pushback in the courts is winning. 

The Trump Administration was forced to change course on an illegal effort to remove the immigration records of foreign students after it was hit by more than 100 lawsuits, and over 50 Temporary Restraining Orders from different federal judges. DOJ attorneys told the administration they simply didn’t have the manpower to defend this madness. 

Elsewhere, the Department of Justice was embarrassed when one of their attorneys accidentally uploaded a memo explaining all the reasons the government should lose in a filing to the judge. At least he was honest! 

After firing and reassigning a bunch of attorneys, and creating an environment so unpleasant that droves of others have left, it appears the Department of Justice simply cannot keep up. 

Kym saw this first hand this week in her case to stop the Trump administration’s cancellation of environmental grants to nonprofits and local governments across the country. An extremely high profile case like this would usually be staffed by a team of lawyers from DC. Instead, just two attorneys from a regional office in South Carolina are handling the case. Perhaps that is why they have had to resort to “the dog ate my homework” type excuses for not meeting basic filing deadlines. In Wednesday’s court hearing, the Judge told the DOJ attorneys that the reasons they had presented for why federal grants had been frozen and terminated are simply “not good enough.” He gave them seven more days to respond with a legally sound rationale. Stay tuned! 

Democrats are finally putting up a fight. 

Last week, I called on my fellow Democrats to PUSH BACK and PUSH FORWARD for better solutions. And there was some wind in our sails this week. I heard Governor Stein gave some strong remarks on stopping Trump at his synagogue during a Passover service. U.S. Rep Valerie Foushee addressed the constitutional crisis at her Town Hall in Pittsboro. On the West Coast, Bernie and AOC had 36,000 people join them. Pete Buttegieg had a widely praised 3 hour session in the bro-sphere on the podcast Flagrant.

Meanwhile, here in North Carolina we had the first stop of a People's Town Hall tour with Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Maxwell Frost. On my way over, a friend made me laugh by saying it felt like we got The Eagles instead of the Rolling Stones (Bernie & AOC). But the show still rocked! They were in Saxapahaw to spoof resident Congressman Richard Hudson for infamously telling other Republicans not to have Town Halls. 

To me, Frost stole the show. Both with his energy, and with some killer lines, including: “It’s not about Red vs Blue, it’s about people vs the problem. And the problem is Donald Trump and his billionaire friends like Elon Musk.”

Still, Murphy is the best in class among all Democrats at calling out Trump authoritarianism. While most other Dems are leaning into attacks based on economic populism, Murphy showed how it’s possible (and necessary!) to connect the two: “If you are ripping off the middle class, the only way you can do that is by destroying the accountability of democracy.” TRUTH! 

All in all, a positive week. Not time to get complacent, there is a long way to go, but what we learned this week is that the resistance is working. We can leave despondence behind and know a movement is brewing, know that change is possible if we work for it. 

What you can do this week: 

• Thank every Dem who picks a fight. We have a chance to drive the narrative on so many issues. Give some love to those Dems who are pushing back and pushing forward!

• Holler at Thom Tillis. I call on you to give him a moment of your time every week for two reasons. First, he needs to know we’re coming for him in the 2026 elections. But in the short run, we need to pressure him as much as possible to stand up to Trump. We know he won’t do it how we need him to. But pressure does impact politicians. So holler at him this week about whatever issue has you fired up right now!

• Tuesday evening I’ll be in Durham for a special event to introduce my Beacon Media project to folks who haven’t heard about it. If you’re interested in learning more about how we’re bringing progressive voices to community media all across North Carolina, we’d love fo you to join us. 

• Join me Thursday at this May Day Event hosted by Indivisible of Orange County. 

• Find Joy – Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson have a new album they recorded live here in NC. I love how the first track opens with the background drone of last summer’s cicadas. 

• Find more Joy – We’re overwhelmed with salad greens in our garden right now. We have six varieties of lettuce and two types of arugula. Add in our own radishes and a few strawberries from the farmers market and we have the essence of spring in a bowl. 

• Even more Joy! – I opened with the honeysuckle blooming. If you’ve never made Bill Smith’s Honeysuckle Sorbet, do yourself a favor and go pick some honeysuckle tonight and get to it.

• A colleague of Kym’s reminded her “rest is resistance too.” We’ve been running on empty in this house, I’m sure many of you have too. Take some time to rest because we have a long fight ahead. 

Onward, 

Graig