Trump Wants You to Feel Powerless

It is understandable to be worn down by the torrential downpour of Trump’s unique brand of dumbfuck fascism, but the way a lot of the press and public treats Trump’s executive orders functionally helps Trump by assuming he has more power than he does. Executive orders (EOs) are not laws. Just because Trump releases what amounts to an extra-long Truth Social post does not mean it is the law of the land, and assuming it is does Trump’s work for him.

Trump cannot unilaterally say that public sector unions are illegal the way he functionally did in his EO last night, and the AFL-CIO has said they will fight it. Article II of the Constitution states that it is the president’s job to ensure “the laws be faithfully executed,” and that’s what executive orders are at their core. They are a directive from the president to the civil servants working for them to follow (their interpretation of) existing laws, but they are not legally binding the way that the president signing a bill from Congress to enact a new law is. We should be fearful of Trump just openly declaring his intention to resegregate America in these executive orders, but treating them as the law of the land the moment he posts them is exactly what Trump wants us to do.

Doomerism is libs’ and lefties’ way of obeying in advance.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 8:15 AM

I understand that this is trending towards “but a dog can’t play basketball” territory, but I am dismayed by how many people who oppose Trump are taking him at his word that he is King. That assumption leads you to the opposite of resisting fascism and functionally you are supporting it. Jason Stanley, a Yale professor who studies fascism, said he is moving to Canada because he thinks America is about to become a fascist dictatorship. We are living in a fascist dictatorship. Masked thugs of the state are disappearing people off the streets for thought crimes. Congress has given all of its power over to co-dictators Trump and Elon Musk who are now publicly threatening judges who adhere to the constitution more than Trumpism. Fascism is here. Right now.

But the core fallacy of American politics that we have failed to learn from time and time and time again over the course of my 38 years on this planet is assuming that the present dynamics will endure into the future. A year ago, we thought Joe Biden was going to run against Trump. Three months ago, no one had any idea that Trump wanted to make Canada America’s 51st state, and now it’s a central feature of his entire presidency. If there is any lesson to take from the Trump era, it’s that we do not know what awaits us around the corner. Maybe it is a fascist dictatorship that rules for decades, or maybe Trump achieves his goal of collapsing the economy and a year from now he’s overseeing a feckless, rudderless ship more people are willing to defy each and every day like what happened in his first administration.

Economic sentiment among Republicans is way lower than it was during Trump 1.0

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— Joe Weisenthal (@weisenthal.bsky.social) March 28, 2025 at 9:46 AM

Fleeing to Canada because you think Trump is about to establish the Fourth Reich is exactly what he wants you to do. The whole point of all this rank authoritarianism and these batshit insane EOs is to flood the zone and make people feel overwhelmed and powerless to stop it. You are not powerless. Trump’s popularity is waning and just yesterday he pulled Elise Stefanik’s UN nomination because the Republican Party is worried that they cannot win a district they just won by 24 points six months ago, probably because they have already lost two very deep red districts this year. American elites are demonstrating historic levels of cowardice in the face of Trump’s authoritarianism, which is a deep cause for concern, but following their lead will only help Trump establish the dictatorship so many are fearful of.