In reflecting on these coming two months leading up the November midterms, I revisited an essay I wrote two months after Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to grasp where things were heading: His sycophantic enablers were already busy dismantling our liberal government while preparing new ways to enrich Trump, his family and his billionaire cronies.
But in my essay from March 21, 2025, entitled “What Trump Can’t Do,” I sought a framework to help reject a feeling of powerlessness, avoid despair, and remember our capacity to survive and ultimately drive change. I know that can be challenging, especially as Trump continues to unravel and his ideas and actions become more unhinged. (Yesterday he insisted that America owns the moon.) But I think these nine ideas are worth revisiting, both as a reminder of what Trump has failed to take from us and what power we have to move beyond this terrible chapter.
In a coming essay, I intend to articulate in very concrete terms what’s at stake in the midterms and what an overwhelming Democratic victory—one that includes taking control of the House and the Senate—makes possible. At the top of my list: Accountability for the widespread corruption and criminality—that means investigations and prosecutions—as a necessary step to re-establishing ethics and the rule of law, rebuilding our democracy and reawakening our confidence in our shared future.
What Trump Can’t Do
Every day, Donald Trump and his fascist regime are subjecting our country to wanton destruction. It’s hard to believe this hostile, hateful trashing of America has only been underway for two months. But let’s not minimize the impact of the attempts to dismantle and demolish America’s democratic institutions, alliances, values, principles and credibility: They are exhausting, sickening, stunning in their depth and breadth. Inevitably, there are many among us who are feeling overwhelmed and beaten by this cruel and full-on assault as they struggle with fear and despair.
But facing an enemy within we cannot afford to check out. Every day I’m exploring what we can do to minimize the damage—to confront this un-American collection of miscreants. These are people who reject the rule of law, free speech and due process, the separation of powers, democracy and justice itself, in their knee-bending fealty to a delusional sociopath hell-bent on ending the American democratic project and consolidating power to do whatever he wants.
Making change requires rejecting a sense of powerlessness and recognizing our collective power and possibility. While we may be horrified by what’s happening—what the Republicans and Democrats and the weaknesses in our system are letting him get away with—we also need to remember what Trump can’t do. Here are nine illustrations of what I mean.
Trump can’t take away our anger. You can see it rising at town halls as livid Americans confront and shout down GOP elected officials trying to defend the violations. The more this regime tries to strip away our democratic freedoms, the angrier we’ll become. Every day you see more transgressions, remember that our anger is our fuel.
He can’t stop us from using our minds. Trump can cut $400 million in funding from Columbia University as a showcase of the regime’s depraved plan to destroy higher education and silence dissent. They can undermine academic research—and drive a brain drain—but they can’t end our ability to study and learn and get smarter. They may seek an utterly uneducated citizenry, but they can’t take away our intelligence or our ability to comprehend the truth of their hateful agenda.
He can’t stop us from reading or writing or consuming knowledge and beauty. He and his enablers can ban the books they don’t like, but we’ll still find our way to them. He could try and shut down every credible media organization in the country, but writers and journalists will continue to write and still find ways to share what they are learning. The regime could ban poetry, end the distribution of film and TV that doesn’t match their fake patriotism, promote Trump’s favorite music at a Trump-ruined Kennedy Center as the only music we should hear. But not only would that not stop us, it would heighten our anger and our determination to demand freedom of choice.
He can’t hide his fraudulence. Canada should be the 51st state? The Canadians are nasty people? Volodymyr Zelensky is a dictator? Russia didn’t invade Ukraine? Tariffs will make us richer? Elon Musk is making great sacrifices to make America better? The list of farce and fraud is endless. No matter how much chaos, conflict and violence he incites—no matter how much fear he induces—he will fail to convince the majority that up is down, bad is good and he’s not a lying conman.
He can’t make us hate a free and democratic America. Do the henchmen of this dictatorial regime really imagine the more they attack America and what it means to be a democracy—values and principles like equality and diversity, freedom of speech and self-governance—that most Americans will simply fall in line? They may think the adoration of their base, the obedience of spineless Republicans and craven billionaires, and the drumbeat of Fox propaganda ensures their ability to control what it means to be American, but they are sorely wrong.
He can’t convince us that our allies are really our enemies. Nor, for that matter, can he convince us that our enemies are really our allies. It’s not just eight decades of democratic alliance-building since World War II and the obvious hostility of Russia and other pro-Putin authoritarians to Western democracy. We have and will continue to hear the clarion call of opposition from our friends in Canada, Europe and beyond who are as horrified by Trump’s America as we are. This history and this current chorus of support will not be spat down some memory hole and quickly forgotten.
He can’t make us stop loving. We will keep loving who we love. We will keep acting with compassion toward people in need and people in danger. In the short-run, they can raise the threat levels of doing the right thing and showing mercy, compassion and kindness, but that remains a sick mission certain to fail. Love is love and no king, no dictator, no madman or his depraved sycophants, can make us stop loving.
He can’t stop us from realizing our collective power. Consider the rising anger, the refusal to accept the decimation of America, the mounting evidence of crimes and overreach, the prioritizing of tax cuts for billionaires over securing Social Security and Medicare for the rest of us, the intolerable fact that the world’s richest man is hastening this destruction. It’s only a question of time before millions of Americans decide they’ve had enough. This is not a pipe dream; this is inevitable. We are Americans after all and we’re not about to be ruled by a malignant dictator. We will decide our own future.
Trump cannot last. This all may seem overwhelming now. It might seem like this nightmare—just two months old—will never end. But the fraud and weakness, the cruelty and hate will catch up with them. This is no thousand-year Reich, just like the Nazi madness was no thousand-year Reich. Let’s not minimize the horror and the obstacles to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but don’t doubt the end will come. Think how lovely that dancing in the street will be when we emerge.
Try as they might, Trump and his regime can never steal what makes us human. I’m counting on us proving it in 2026 and 2028—and years to come.
As we head to the midterms, it’s more important than ever to support the survival of democracy. I remain committed to raising my voice as vividly and fiercely as I can. I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber for just $50 a year or $5 a month to show your support and enhance your engagement—to share your thoughts in the comments sections and access all content.
I don't know about all of you, the Substack Faithful, but I'm "feeling", after almost 2 years of pulling our collective hair out, we've reached a wonderful tipping point in Trump's reign of terror.
The man is finished. The man is TOAST. He's Trump Toast, the greatest toast. And he's bringing MAGA and the indistinguishable GOP with him. RIP MAGA GOP.
The polls are insurmountably against you.
Voter registration is wildly against you.
Hispanics and young voters are against you.
The odds makers say you're facing historic losses.
Even mild mannered Charlie Cook says "you're Cooked".
The Courts keep stopping your blatant efforts to subvert mail in voting.
Every day the media reports your lies about the economy, affordability, deportations and healthcare.
The Sword of Damocles is pointing right at your head.
We the People are speaking loud and clear. We love our country, as defined by our Constitution, not as defined by a cabal of Uber rich oligarchs and their snake oil salesman lying leader who's motto is "the buck stops anywhere but here".
We will persist right through Nov 6 and beyond until our current pestilence is "history".
Nothing will so cleansing as a LANDSLIDE!
Go America.
Trump is done for, you say. I'm grateful you didn't ask us to select one of your "What Trump Can't Do" assurances. Even if we were able to select "All of the above" it wouldn't match the feelings of disgust, anger, and disappointment we feel about Trump, his enablers, and our own Democratic party. Why shouldn't Trump be gone now? Are there an landmarks he hasn't mauled? Any countries he hasn't threatened? Any desparate immigrants he hasn't sent to prison camps? What will it take for all human beings to agree Trump is deranged, dangerous, and deadly for any future we hope to inhabit. Steven, while I appreciate your optimism, wake me when he's truly gone.