Inside Trump's all-out assault on the 4 pillars of democracy

Robert Reich
10 January
Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, U.S. on November 13, 2024. ALLISON ROBBERT/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Trump and his MAGA allies are already targeting the four major pillars of resistance to Trump during his first term.

As we prepare for Trump’s second regime — which promises to be far worse than the first — it’s important to do what we can to protect and fortify these four centers of opposition.

1. Universities

University faculties are dedicated to finding and exposing the truth — which has often meant calling out Trump’s lies. But Trump has warned that he’ll change the criteria for university accrediting in order to force university faculties into line.

In a campaign video, he said, “Our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system … When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs.”

Authorized by the federal government, these accreditors are essential to college operations. If a college isn’t accredited, it can’t get federal funds.

Trump’s Project 2025 calls for replacing the current system of independent, nonpartisan accreditors with more politically pliable state accreditors. This would have disastrous effects.

Many of the worst educational gag orders at the state level, along with DEI bans and faculty tenure bans, have been voted down or toned down because state legislators realized they were putting their schools’ accreditation status in jeopardy. If Project 2025’s recommendations are adopted, that guardrail disappears.

Trump has also threatened to increase taxes on university endowments.

Republicans in Congress believe they were instrumental in getting the presidents of Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard to resign over their alleged failures to stop protests against Israel’s bloodbath in Gaza. Some are eager to resume their attacks on major universities.

2. Nonprofits

America’s nonprofits have been at the forefront of efforts to protect the environment, voting rights, and immigrants’ rights. Trump and his allies are seeking to stop nonprofit activism.

The Republican House has already passed a bill that would empower the Treasury to eliminate the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it deems to be supporting terrorism. An identical or similar bill could come across Trump’s desk after being reintroduced in the next Congress.

The legislation doesn’t distinguish between foreign and domestic terrorism — whether real or imagined — thereby making it easier for Trump’s authorities to intimidate nonprofit personnel and donors.

We’ve already seen something like this at the state level. In Texas, state authorities have attempted to shut down charities that assist immigrants. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has launched a probe of nonprofits, including the God Is Good Foundation, that have allegedly conspired to bring noncitizens to the state.

3. The media

I’ve been a critic of the mainstream media’s tendency to give “both sides” credence even when one side is clearly in the wrong and to “sanewash” some of Trump’s and his enablers’ rants.

But journalists are an important bulwark against tyranny — which is why Trump and his allies are seeking to intimidate news outlets that have criticized or questioned Trump.

The flurry of defamation lawsuits — such as Trump launched against ABC (and ABC caved to) and the Des Moines Register — is the latest sign. Trump and his allies have also discussed revoking networks’ broadcast licenses and eliminating funding for public radio and television.

Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, has threatened to “take on the most powerful enemy that the United States has ever seen, and no it’s not Washington, D.C., it’s the mainstream media and these people out there in the fake news. That is our mission!”

Already social media platforms such as Musk’s X and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram have caved to Trump, allowing vicious authoritarian lies to be magnified unimpeded.

4. Organized labor

In the 1950s and 1960s, labor unions were viewed as a source of countervailing power because of their activism on behalf of the working class and their significant political clout.

In those days, a third of workers in the private sector were union members. But today, only 6 percent of private-sector workers are union members, and it’s far from clear that organized labor will be an active source of resistance to Trump. (If government workers are included, the percentage of American workers who are members of unions is around 10 percent.)

Trump has warned organized labor that he will oppose their efforts to organize. The president of the Teamsters Union even appeared at the National Republican Convention in support of Trump.

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Each of these centers of resistance to Trump has been a powerful source of truth-telling in America. It’s no surprise that all have been targeted by Trump and his allies.

We need to be vigilant and do what we can to protect and fortify them. Remember: We lose only if we stop fighting.

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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.

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