The great pushback won't mean an end to Trump's bullying

Yesterday’s May Day demonstrations across America showed that the opposition to Trump continues to grow.

Hundreds of thousands of people swelled in resistance to his dictatorial agenda. Not just in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., but also in small communities that voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

The size and breadth of these demonstrations will almost certainly lead to larger national mobilizations. On Sunday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said, “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once. Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.”

Republican town halls are becoming so combative that many Republican lawmakers have stopped holding them altogether (in many cases, Democratic lawmakers have appeared in their places).

Trump is not only pulling Americans together but also pulling American institutions together in ways no one could have predicted just months ago.

The federal courts are more united in opposition to Trump’s edicts than they have been on almost any other set of issues in recent memory. Even the Supreme Court has issued one unanimous and another nearly unanimous (7 to 2) order against aspects of Trump’s immigration policies. Yesterday, a Trump appointee struck down Trump’s reliance on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

More than 150 presidents of American colleges and universities have released a statement denouncing the Trump regime’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with higher education — the strongest sign yet that higher education in America is forming a unified front against the regime’s extraordinary attack on their independence.

Asserting that they are speaking with “one voice,” the university presidents say they “oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses.”

Over 500 law firms across the country have joined in a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the Perkins Coie law firm that’s appealing Trump’s attempt to punish it for its past work on voting rights lawsuits and representation of Trump’s prior political opponents.

More than 800 firms have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of law firms WilmerHale and Jenner & Block in similar fights against improper executive orders.

Law firms that didn’t surrender to Trump are attracting clients from firms that caved. One example: Microsoft ditched Simpson Thacher lawyers, who agreed to $125 million in pro bono work for Trump-approved causes, and replaced them with Jenner & Block attorneys currently fighting Trump’s order targeting them in court.

Even among nations, Trump is creating stronger partnerships — against him. His xenophobia is leading to a more united European Union and a more determined NATO.

Trump has even managed to unite Canada, whose provinces and multicultural roots have often pulled in different directions.

Canadians just renounced their Conservative Party and made Mark Carney their prime minister largely on the strength of Carney’s assertion that he is the “right leader to take on Trump.”

Just after his victory, Carney said, “Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over.”

Carney said he plans to pursue closer integration with the European Union, perhaps with a deal similar to those Norway and Iceland have as members of the European Economic Area. “Canada is ready to take a leadership role in building a coalition of like-minded countries who share our values,” he said earlier this month. “If the United States no longer wants to lead, Canada will.”

A Great Pushback seems to be happening. And apparently there is nothing Trump and his regime can do to stop it because it is in direct reaction to his bullying.

This doesn’t spell the end of that bullying, of course. If anything, it is likely to fuel more of it. But what we’re beginning to witness is an upsurge in a broad, countervailing response to it — people, institution, and nations joining together to give them the strength they need to resist Trump’s demands.

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/."