Our hearts go out to everyone who is experiencing loss after the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles and the air tragedy outside our nation's capital.
And our hearts go out to everyone who is reeling from the opening days of the new Trump regime.
In less than two weeks, the Trump administration has shown us that there will be no limit to the cruelty, criminality, and corruption that the MAGA movement will attempt to impose on the American people. Our resistance, resilience, and readiness to rebuild are utterly essential to the country’s future. We need each other, and People For the American Way needs you, like never before.
On his first day in office
Trump issued full pardons to more than 1,500 people charged with crimes connected to his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol, including those who brutalized Capitol police officers and then bragged about it.
Trump’s pardons sent a clear signal to his far-right extremist supporters: If you commit violence on my behalf, you won’t be held accountable – just like the signal Trump’s allies on the Supreme Court sent him when they told him that the courts will not hold him accountable for any lawbreaking he does as president.
That lawbreaking began almost immediately
Trump fired more than a dozen agency inspectors general, ignoring a federal law requiring that he give Congress 30 days notice and along with justification for such firings.
And that was just one of the ways Trump immediately put Project 2025’s two-pronged scheme into play: assert dictatorial powers over the federal government while simultaneously gutting agencies’ ability to serve the public and protect Americans from corporate wrongdoing.
The Trump team threatened to hold victims of the wildfires in Los Angeles hostage to political demands, ordered public health agencies to stop communicating with the public, slammed the door shut on thousands of already vetted and approved Afghan refugees, disrupted scientific research and cancer treatments, ordered the legal erasure of transgender people, falsely asserted the power to rewrite the Constitution’s birthright citizenship provisions with the mere stroke of a pen, and threw the government, educational institutions, and social service providers into chaos by ordering then rescinding a halt to the disbursement of federal grant money.
We knew it was coming, but still were shocked
We knew that MAGA's assault on the rule of law, on the American people, and on the American Way, would be ferocious. We knew. And still, the reality is staggering in its scope.
While our ability to slow or stop their carnage is limited, all our efforts to do so are critically important. Thanks to your support, we are using confirmation battles to engage our members, highlight the extremism of the administration, and defeat some of the worst executive branch and judicial nominees. Our Foundation is using the Freedom of Information Act to help us reveal what Trump’s team would like to keep hidden. We are participating in litigation to challenge the administration’s lawlessness.
When faced with multiple challenges all at one, there’s a risk that we can be paralyzed with despair.
But our movement has both history and resources that provide us with inspiration and sources of resilience. We invited several of our faith leaders to join us for a member briefing in celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Rev. Dr. Willie Dwayne Francois talked about Dr. King’s vision of the beloved community. He recognized that many of us are experiencing “democratic grief.” He urged us to prepare for the need to “fail well”—to wage individual battles and lose without losing steam for the movement’s long-term vision.
We are investing in a different future
On Martin Luther King Day, People For the American Way Foundation relaunched its Front Line Leaders Academy, which trains people for effective civic engagement. We announced that the next national convening of the Young Elected Officials Network will be held this spring. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the YEO Network, which has provided support for young progressive leaders to be effective public servants. We are also excited about the 2025 cohort of the Jordan-Huerta YEO Women’s Leadership Program, which will gather in Washington, D.C. on February 6.
YEO Network members serve at every level of government, on school boards and city councils, as mayors and state legislators, and in Congress. YEO alums like me are making change as civic activists and philanthropists.
On our King Day member call, longtime People For board member Rabbi David Saperstein reminded us that a “historic coalition for human decency” propelled the progress achieved by the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, the women’s rights and environmental movements, and more.
The administration hopes to demoralize and divide us, but we cannot let that happen, Rabbi Saperstein said. “We are the People For the American Way, and we can be, we must be, we will be the shapers of a better and more hopeful future.”