Taking Down Trump 2.0 - Rule 2
How to fight the new administration, using the playbook from the NY AG's office. Next: how Trump co-opts the people designated to police him, and how to resist it.
It’s time to continue where we left off with Taking Down Trump 2.0 — adapting the New York AG playbook and its 12 rules for defeating Trump in court (in the Trump University, Trump Foundation, and civil fraud cases) and using them to defeat the new administration. (Read the first installment with Rule 1 if you haven’t already.)
Rule 2 - Trump will try to buy the counterweights or get to their inner circles — freeze him out and never let him co-opt.
The core premise of this Rule is that Donald Trump will use all of the carrots and sticks at his disposal to influence and co-opt those who are designated to police him or to serve as his counterweights.
His primary carrot has historically been a golden one: he leverages his money in the form of campaign contributions, either from himself or from his representatives, or he leverages the promise of being a fundraiser. Now, this leverage can take other forms — jobs, especially plum appointments.
Just ask Pam Bondi, who initially got a $25,000 check from Trump but since then has received a number of calls to work for Trump and now is being nominated for U.S. Attorney General. Her primary qualification for the job? Being the Florida AG who declined to join the prosecution of Trump University.
Trump’s sticks have typically been the specters of negative publicity and/or litigation. Being able to summon the noise machine of media attention and burying a counterparty in frivolous lawsuits and court filings — those have long been his moves to the hoop. These days, he can now combine funding with attacking and threaten to back a primary opponent against a wavering politician.
How will he use these in Washington, and how can he be stopped? One thing to watch out for here is Trump’s ability to cajole or cow a congressional Republican into voting a certain way (or this could also apply to Republican governors and other officials whose support Trump craves). Trump promises the moon if they help him — and threatens to rain down hellfire if they scorn him. Or it’ll be Trump’s cronies, like Elon Musk,1 who has already promised that he will bankroll a primary challenger for any Republican who does not support the White House agenda.
These Republicans are otherwise critical counterweights to Trump. They are literally supposed to be the check and balance to the president, in a constitution that was designed to provide congressional supremacy and had a primary animating mission of allowing for an executive who could take decisive action while preventing that executive from turning into a king or a tyrant. So what is a little-r republican or little-d democrat to do, to stop Trump from steamrolling through Washington?
Some Republicans will be lost causes: for any GOP member with a deep-red constituency, the risk of a primary challenge is the only real peril, as they will never lose a general election no matter how far they go to crazytown.
But other Republicans will be a different story: if a GOP member has a purple or pink district or state, the danger of losing a general election is far more real. Voting for anything too extreme, or playing games with the local economy (say, voting for tariffs, when businesses in the district rely on export markets) could mean signing one’s own political death sentence.
This is where we come in — calling, emailing, showing up at town halls and making our voices heard, pledging to support a challenger who will take care of the people and not just himself, backing advocacy orgs that will start running TV and other attack ads in the district or state just to send a shot across the bow.
Is this a perfect solution? No. But there are few to zero Republicans who will freeze Trump out and refuse to be influenced by him. Trump will have openings to co-opt these politicians. The questions is whether pro-democracy forces will play the game — appealing not to their principles or their patriotism but to their self-interest. It is the surest way to sway a politico.
As for the other various checks on Trump, we may not necessarily have any direct way to serve as a counterbalance. Judges, senior military officers, independent officials like the brass at the Federal Reserve — they are not meant to be politically accountable.
Except that, in reality, they are. Everyone reads about themselves. Everyone wants positive publicity, and no one wants negative notoriety.
So we should still be making our voices loud and clear — praising those who uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, those who fulfill their duties and their oaths, and condemning those who toady to Trump, sell out their principles, and abdicate their responsibilities. For every disappointing Christopher Wray who appears to surrender rather than resist, there could be an unexpected Amy Coney Barrett who delivers a glimmer of hope now and then.
Next up, we’ll continue looking the 12 Rules for defeating Trump by analyzing Rule 3 and how we can tilt the political incentives in favor of resistance and opposition.
I maintain that it is only a matter of time before Musk and Trump have a very public breakup. There have already been multiple rumblings and grumblings from Trumpland that Trump, his family, and inner circle have been annoyed at the awkward ubiquity of Musk ever since the election, effectively moving into a cottage at Mar-a-Lago. And Musk has now gotten into nasty beefs with an assortment of right-wing political figures who are otherwise chummy with Trump, like Laura Loomer and Nigel Farage. Musk is making a lot of enemies and ruffling a lot of feathers. And Trump does not like to be upstaged. Ever. Tick tock.
Democrats need to start hammering him on every little thing he backtracks on, fails at or otherwise screws up. Also hit republicans for being stupid enough for supporting his hairbrained ideas. We have got to stop coming to this massacre unarmed thinking everything will just be hunky-dorey. It won’t be! It won’t ever be if we don’t get our heads out of the mud.
Take action! Don’t believe for one minute that our efforts are wasted. They are not! Our Get-Out-The-Vote efforts helped quite a few Democrats get elected, from the state level on up to the U.S. Senate. We did that!
We must contact our senators now – even solid Democrats - and stress the urgency of resisting Trump’s clown car of nominees. Incredibly, some elected Democratic officials are starting to cave. (Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Senator Fetterman of PA, for example.) Our Senators won’t know how much our democracy means to their constituents - unless we tell them.
Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing is Tuesday (tomorrow!) morning, and Russell Vought’s is Wednesday afternoon.
Most of Trump’s nominees have no experience running a large agency; they couldn’t run the local Dairy Queen.
Hegseth would be dangerous as a Secretary of Defense. The other nominees are no better.
In contrast, Russell Vought knows his way around Washington - he previously directed the Office of Management and Budget. If Trump puts him in this role again, he will dismantle federal programs and implement Project 2025. His confirmation would supercharge MAGA authoritarianism. Vought is extremely dangerous.
Google your senators’ names to find their official page and how to contact them by msg or phone.
Another action – Urge your senators to protect voting rights. The U.S. does not experience widespread voter fraud, and states already have multiple effective systems to ensure voter eligibility. The SAVE Act would make it harder to register to vote. We must stop the SAVE act Here’s a handy pre-written letter:
Don’t succumb to what historian Timothy Snyder warns of – letting your worry lead to paralysis.