U.S. President Donald Trump at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida on January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
A year ago, on January 20, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House after his narrow 1.5 percent defeat of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. And many Trump critics argue that he is even more of a bully during his second presidency than he was during his first, from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Minneapolis to leaving open the possibility of taking Greenland by force to using the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as a tool of revenge against his enemies.
But The New Republic's Michael Tomasky, in an article published a year after Trump's second inauguration, predicts that 2026 will be the year in which more people stand up to him rather than going along to get along.
"In 2025, Donald Trump scared people," Tomasky explains. "And institutions. Go back in your mind to way he came out of the gate, gunning the accelerator on every front. Pardoning the insurrectionists. Dismantling the executive branch. Firing inspectors general and heads and members of independent commissions. Arresting people for writing op-eds. Threatening universities and law firms. Shipping people off to El Salvador. That was Round One in the Trump boxing match against reality, and for a time, Trump was winning…. Now, we're at the start of Round Two of the boxing match, and I smell something changing."
Tomasky continues, "Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jason Frey have been impressively uncompromising — and uncompromised, which is more important — in their public statements since ICE hit town and executed a blameless U.S. citizen. Trump and the cowardly Pam Bondi (does she understand how the history books will treat her?) launched investigations into the two men. They responded by saying, in essence, bring it on."
Others, Tomasky emphasizes, are essentially telling Trump "bring it on" as well — from Pope Leo to European Union (EU) leaders to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who made a trade deal with China in response to Trump's tariffs.
"If Trump drives this country into a position where most of the world — save Russia, Hungary, Chile, El Salvador, and a handful of other right-wing dys-fantasy lands —wants to do business with China and the EU, Corporate America and Wall Street will miraculously find their backbones," Tomasky predicts. "And once that happens, Trump won't have many friends left…. 2026 will not be a repeat of 2025. And the bully will learn what bullies throughout history have learned: Eventually, people decide they have had enough. And 'eventually' is coming."
Michael Tomasky's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.
