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By Sarah van Gelder for Truthout
When President Trump was reelected in 2024, few predicted the speed and ferocity with which his administration would dismantle basic human rights, economic security, the global diplomatic order, and environmental protections. Even fewer anticipated how readily elected officials from both parties and many institutions — universities, courts, major corporations — would bow down or cut deals.
The damage of the first year of Trump 2.0 has been immediate and sustained. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spread terror through U.S. cities and towns, detaining and disappearing people into an expanding federal apparatus operating beyond public accountability. In January, ICE agents surging in Minneapolis shot and killed 37-year-old poet and mother Renee Nicole Good, the fifth to die during the federal government’s aggressive immigration crackdown, in addition to the 30 or more who died in ICE custody. The Trump administration has especially targeted communities of color, women, poor people, and LGBTQIA+ people. Meanwhile it has hollowed out our consumer protections, food safety standards, and public health infrastructure. And, in spite of his claim to a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump carried out military attacks on seven countries, culminating with his attack on Venezuela and threats of further military action.
The year has been devastating. But the power of ordinary people has begun to turn things around, and MAGA is fracturing and flailing. 2026 has the potential to be the year the strength of the resistance becomes unstoppable, building on the uprisings that blossomed during the first year of Trump 2.0 — or it could be the year that authoritarianism is fully entrenched in the United States. The choices millions of Americans will make in the coming months will make the difference.
The Heroes of 2025
Institutions we thought would protect democracy wilted during the first year of Trump’s second term, but ordinary people rose up. Neighbors protected neighbors from ICE raids and boycotted companies that backtracked on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Voters elected unapologetically progressive leaders. Workers went out on strike. Communities fed families when the government would not, and rebuilt after floods and fires when federal agencies failed. State and local officials — along with some courageous universities and businesses — stood up to Trump administration bullying. There is much to learn from all of these successes.
Lesson One: People Power Wins Elections
Some observers seemed to think that the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City came out of nowhere. It didn’t. It grew out of years of organizing by the Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party, labor unions, and community groups. More than 100,000 volunteers supported the campaign, mobilizing thousands of first-time voters. Millions of dollars poured in to defeat him, including from 26 billionaires. But Mamdani won anyway, speaking to the concerns of ordinary people with bold and practical solutions: free child care, affordable housing, support for small businesses, and more. He promised to tax the ultra-wealthy to finance his programs, and he defended human rights — especially for immigrants. “To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us,” he said in his election night address.
Democrats and progressives swept other 2025 campaigns, including governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey. Democratic Socialist Katie Wilson was elected mayor of Seattle, and Democrats increased their margin in the hard-fought Wisconsin Supreme Court. Californians voted nearly 2-1 in favor of redistricting after Texas redrew its election map. Meanwhile, candidates endorsed by Trump won in only a third of their races.
The lessons for 2026 are clear:
- Listen to voters — when they say they want bold solutions, believe them.
- Sustained organizing can defeat billionaire war chests.
- Recruit courageous new leaders who will stand up to MAGA and to wealth and power inequality. Don’t be afraid to challenge underperforming Democrats in the primaries.
- Remain vigilant. Trump’s fear of defeat could spur desperate action prior to the midterm elections, especially with two out of three registered voters disapproving of his handling of the Epstein files.
Lesson Two: Community Defense Builds Long-Term Solidarity
Throughout the first year of the Trump administration, in cities and towns around the U.S., people defended their neighbors, coworkers, family members, and local businesses from widespread ICE raids. People formed rapid response teams, filmed detentions, and challenged officials to show warrants. After widespread campaigns targeting Spotify, which was running ICE recruitment ads, and Avelo Airlines, which was transporting detainees, both companies ended their contracts with ICE.
ICE brutality and scale continues to ramp up following an ICE agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good. A massive increase in federal funding is in the pipeline. The result, according to the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice, will be a grossly expanded detention-industrial complex, and, once established, it will be difficult to dismantle.
A majority of Americans now strongly disapprove of how ICE is operating, according to a new New York Times/Siena poll.
The racism of this effort is impossible to miss. ICE has focused on rounding up Brown and Black people, including those with legal status and U.S. citizens. While shuttering most refugee programs, the president invited white Afrikaners from South Africa to apply for refugee status.
An underreported presidential memo, NSPM-7, signed on September 25, 2025, defines virtually any speech or activity that counters the president’s agenda as “domestic terrorism,” and directs local joint terrorism task forces to clamp down.
This is a dangerous time for basic constitutional rights. Grassroots mobilization and mutual aid are curtailing some of the worst federal agent abuses and building solidarity for the long term. But those in positions of power need to step up. Members of Congress should halt funding for ICE. State and local officials should adopt and enforce laws protecting residents and hold federal agents who violate them accountable. Companies currently contracting with ICE should end those contracts.
Lesson Three: Labor and Working-Class Consciousness Unite Us
Trump promised to support workers when he ran for office, but has instead catered to wealthy donors with tax giveaways, government contracts, deregulation, and support for questionable mergers. His signature legislative accomplishment in 2025 makes permanent massive tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy, and he assembled the richest cabinet in U.S. history.
The first year of Trump’s second term ended with the loss of over 360,000 jobs, slowing wage growth, higher electricity bills, and rising prices. The January jobs report shows the weakest job growth since the recession of 2020, including a loss of 68,000 manufacturing jobs.
Workers are rediscovering their collective power, though. In 2025, Starbucks baristas spread a strike across dozens of cities. More than 30,000 nurses and health care workers struck at Kaiser Permanente, and machinists at Boeing facilities in Missouri and Illinois were on strike for months.
Consumer boycotts also turned up the heat. Target has struggled financially, and its CEO stepped down as a consumer boycott over the company’s abandonment of DEI targets cut into profits. When Disney tried to fire late night host Jimmy Kimmel over comments made following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a popular rebellion, including cancelation of Disney subscriptions, forced the company to back down.
These actions build on a growing awareness that we have power as workers and consumers. More than 70 percent of people in the U.S. approve of labor unions — the highest level of support since the mid-1960s.
Meanwhile, wealth at the top has exploded, with the richest 1 percent of people in the U.S. owning half of this country’s stocks and mutual funds. People in the U.S. are increasingly aware that political leaders respond to the wealthy and to corporate CEOs, and not to ordinary people. Seventy-two percent believe the wealthy have too much money, and two out of three believe the wealthy are not paying their fair share of taxes.
Successful organizing in 2026 will respond to the public’s frustration with the status quo, but not with MAGA-style scapegoating of immigrants and DEI programs. Instead, powerful organizing will unite the 99 percent to upend today’s extreme inequality of wealth and political power.
Lesson Four: States’ Power Is the New Democratic Frontier
A bright spot for Democratic leadership has been at the state and local level, where officials have filed lawsuits and passed legislation to protect residents and the natural environment from Trump administration overreach. A lawsuit to halt deployment of the National Guard in U.S. communities, for example, resulted in Trump ending such deployments in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon.
When Trump snubbed the recent COP Climate talks in Belém, Brazil, California Gov. Newsom led a delegation to the talks, and California continues its leadership in climate responses. Many states are implementing AI regulations in defiance of Trump’s threat to cut off funding. The red state of Indiana refused to bow to Trump administration pressure to redraw its voting map.
Meanwhile, New Mexico became the first in the nation to offer free universal child care. Connecticut has also passed a bill providing free child care for families earning less than $100,000 per year, and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans to offer free child care for 2-year-olds.
States are proving to be effective at checking presidential overreach and providing needed services for residents. But more is needed.
According to journalist Chris Armitage, states have the power to hold federal officials accountable for kidnapping, bribery, assault, or civil rights violations. Notably, the president can’t fire attorneys general or governors, or pardon state convictions.
States can also build freedom from federal government overreach by launching their own enterprises. Armitage points to North Dakota’s state bank as an example; it provides the state with stable revenue, residents with low taxes, and offers farmers and businesses affordable credit.
These are powerful tools, but once again, the key is people power. Governors and attorneys general need to know that voters will support going after rogue federal officials and building independent revenue streams.
Lesson Five: Fractures Create Openings — If We’re Strategic
While most of the media focuses on the obvious red-blue divide in U.S. politics, the reality is that there are signs of fracturing on both sides.
In Congress, some Republicans broke ranks to support a bill limiting Trump’s authority to wage war in Venezuela, and others supported the reinstatement of health insurance subsidies. Others have defended the independence of the Federal Reserve in the wake of a new DOJ criminal investigation. GOP members with a spine are still rare, but some seem to be positioning themselves to survive Trump’s low approval ratings and eventual departure from power. Meanwhile, Trump’s failure to release the Epstein files is causing a crisis among his MAGA base.
It’s not only the GOP that is fracturing. U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza created a wedge between generationsacross the political spectrum. And there’s widespread discontent over both parties’ close ties to corporate interests and the growing inequality of wealth and power.
The fractures coupled with the undermining of established institutions opens the door to new possibilities. We could see a populist resurgence arise to bring about authentic structural change. This will only be possible, however, with a full rejection of white nationalism, misogyny, and anti-LGBTQIA+ stances. There is room for disagreement on issues, but the rights of all to be included is a must, whether those are undocumented folks, trans people, or white guys without college degrees. With inclusiveness as a guiding principle, we can create a super majority committed to a just post-MAGA America.
Building Power to Win Year Two
Trump’s approval rating remains low; 56 disapprove of his performance in office. According to a recent New York Times poll, 55 percent believe his first year in office was unsuccessful.
These are dangerous times. The president has shown that he will commit illegal and violent acts to retain power. And with Congress insisting on the release of the Epstein files, we’ve seen him threatening to go to war with multiple countries and prosecuting those with the courage to cross him. He fears impeachment or worse should Republican lose the midterm elections, and as his fear increases, there’s greater potential for unhinged action. The danger is real, but we should understand this moment for what it is — a time of MAGA weakness.
This does not mean complacency. In 2026, we the people can build power and we can win significant victories if we:
- Show up for the most vulnerable in the face of federal government attacks and neglect;
- Push back on racism and misogyny, and support inclusivity;
- Call on Congress to defund ICE, and to stand up for immigrants, environmental protection, diplomacy rather than war, and the rule of law;
- Run bold, progressive candidates for election and launch primary challenges against incumbents who fail to stand up to MAGA;
- Organize in neighborhoods and workplaces; boycott companies that violate human rights; prioritize mutual aid and building power;
- Press state and local governments to stand up to Trump administration overreach;
- And, challenge economic and political systems that create extreme inequality of wealth and power.
In spite of the aggression and bluster from the top, people, organizing together, have achieved real successes. If we focus only on wrongdoing, our energy will fail us. The truth is, there is much to celebrate, and the hard work of people at the grassroots deserves credit.
The wins from the first year of Trump’s second term offer a road map for the coming year. That means deepening and connecting people power, not only as acts of resistance but as the foundation for the just, sustainable, and democratic future we deserve. Especially in these dangerous times, we need to keep showing up for each other and building the communities and the power that can change everything.
Sarah van Gelder is the founding editor of YES! Magazine, and led the magazine from a scrappy startup to a publication that is nationally recognized for exploring leading-edge solutions to the major ecological and human challenges of our times. The magazine has won national awards for its coverage of such topics as the solutions to climate change, racial justice, cooperative economy, alternatives to mass incarceration, neighborhood sustainability, and personal resilience. She is editor and author of several books, including The Revolution Where You Live: Stories from a 12,000-Mile Journey Through a New America (Berrett Koehler) based on her solo road trip through the Midwest rust belt, five Native reservations, Appalachian coal country, and other areas on the margins of American society. In 2017 Sarah founded PeoplesHub, an online school that taps into the knowledge of social change leaders to train others in grassroots change. Most recently she managed communications for the Suquamish Indian Tribe and previously co-founded an organization that helped restore to the tribe the land where Chief Seattle once lived. She continues to serve on the board of the Tribe’s foundation and paddles with the Tribe on the annual canoe journey. In addition to writing for YES! Magazine, Sarah has published articles and essays in The Guardian, Huff Post, Common Dreams, Truthout, and others. Sarah is vice chair of Free Speech TV and maintains an active social media presence. She is the mother of two young adults and has lived in India, China, and Latin America.
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