Facing and fighting the evil of the Trump regime
You can’t fight evil by turning away from it. You have to look at it, study it, and understand it in order to defeat it. – Salman Rushdie
The actions of the Trump regime are evil, and so is Donald Trump. I keep saying it because it is so important to name evil when we see it—to not minimize, sanewash, excuse, deny, or normalize what has been happening every day since January 20, 2025. It is happening, it is inexcusable, and it is not normal. It is evil. Naming the Trump regime’s actions as evil is critical, but it is only the first step. The next steps, facing and fighting evil, are even more crucial and more challenging. It involves deciding how we are going to respond or not respond; essentially, it involves choosing who we are going to be as the crisis we are in unfolds: courageous or complicit.
In the three months since the Trump regime took office, the assaults on the United States are like being blasted with a firehose of attacks every day. We are at war, and the enemy is sitting in the Oval Office (or in a golf cart in Florida). The Trump regime’s “flood the zone with shit”1 strategy has distracted, disoriented, overwhelmed, and exhausted the general populace (those who are paying attention). They are attacking and dividing with a precision that can only be described as intentional, efficient, and brutally effective. And the daily attacks and division are the evil we must face and fight.
I am reminded of a book I read several decades ago by M. Scott Peck called People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil.2 What I remember all these years later is his insight that when he found himself in the presence of evil, he felt two things: confusion and revulsion. Those two reactions are a useful barometer of our current situation.
Confusion
Confusion is rampant these days. Most normal people would look at what has been happening these past three months and would have to scream, WTF!!
Why on earth is Trump destroying our reputation around the world?
Why is he deliberately wrecking the economy with his incompetent tariff idiocy?
Why does he think Canada would ever, in a million years, choose to become the 51st state?
Why is he so filled with revenge and petty grievances?
How on earth did 77 million people vote for a narcissistic, convicted felon?
Why is he choosing Russia over our NATO allies?
Why is he abandoning Ukraine?
Why did he nominate such incredibly inappropriate and incompetent people as members of his Cabinet?
Why would the highest-ranking officials in the government be so stupid as to use the Signal app to discuss highly sensitive military operations?
Why is Trump allowing Elon Musk and his DOGE boys to plunder government agencies and access private data systems?
What possible benefit could there be to dismantling the Department of Education?
Why does he have to meddle with the operations of the Kennedy Center?
Why hasn’t he done anything about the price of our eggs like he promised? Only kidding. The price of eggs is the least of our problems.
And on, and on, and on.
There are theories and answers to respond to all these and other questions that have been causing confusion and speculation these past few months. The media is filled with pundits opining daily on why he is doing what he is doing. The attempt to find answers contributes to the noise, the distraction, and even normalizing all this abnormality. The simple answer is that the regime is doing what they are doing because they can and because they do not care about the consequences of their decisions and actions. Which brings us to Peck’s second hallmark of being in the presence of evil: revulsion.
Revulsion
The revulsion began when Trump descended that escalator to announce his first candidacy for the presidency on June 16, 2015, when he called Mexicans drug dealers and rapists. 3 The revulsion has only deepened over these long 10 years as Trump has incessantly shown us who he is: a deceitful, vindictive, ruthless, corrupt, sadistic, sociopathic, malevolent, tyrannical, and pathologically dishonest wannabe dictator. He is utterly repulsive and cruel, and he is evil.
In a recent Backbone Report, I listed many of the evil actions of Trump and his regime since January 20, 2025. Sadly, the list continues to grow each day as, drip by relentless drip, each new revolting and abominable assault on human decency occurs. For normal (not evil) people, it is horrifying to truly grasp that a man elected by 77 million people would send hundreds of people (and want to send thousands more) to a concentration camp (let’s call it what it is) in El Salvador without any concern for who they are or what they have done (or not done).
It is incomprehensible to normal (not evil) people that a president of the United States would purposely destroy a thriving economy and the economic security of millions of people to follow a tariff whim that makes no sense and is derided by everyone who knows anything about economics and world trade.
And it is incomprehensible to normal people (who are not evil) that the Trump regime is surrounded by enablers, capitulators, and cowards who find ways to defend, promote, or look away as each new outrage shocks and dismays the entire world.
This is where we are, and it is revolting and it is evil, and we must fight it.
Resistance is growing and getting stronger
The regime’s callous disregard for human rights, the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the physical and economic welfare of the country is so appalling that it creates a shield of denial - this can’t really be happening. Even on CNN and MSNBC, I continue to hear pundits wondering if we are in a constitutional crisis yet. Duh!!
The good news is that we are beginning to see shining examples of the power of resistance and the contagion of courage. Here are two recent examples:
Compare how Columbia University and Harvard University responded to Trump’s assault on academic freedom. Columbia capitulated, and Harvard is fighting back. And there is recent news that Princeton and other major universities are joining Harvard. We need to support and be like Harvard, not Columbia.
Compare the response to Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms that represented his perceived enemies. Some law firms (i.e., Paul Weiss) capitulated (some even “obeyed in advance”) and promised Trump millions of dollars of pro bono work. Other firms are fighting back and suing him. We need to support and be like the law firms fighting him.
It is admirable when people or entities display moral courage, the courage to resist despite the costs, despite the fear of retribution. Given how the executive branch has been and is castrating the legislative and judicial branches of government, it is up to us, we the people, to rise up and do whatever we can to stop the destruction of our country. We can’t give up, get exhausted, go numb, or decide there is nothing we can do because the firehose of abominations blasted out by the Trump regime every day is so overwhelming.
Research has demonstrated that when at least 3.5% of a country’s population (about 12 million people in the US) actively participates in sustained, organized and strategic nonviolent resistance, significant political change, like defeating fascism, can happen. Mobilization of this size is not a 100% guarantee of success but it is a good benchmark. Surely there are at least 12 million of us willing to get out our phones and make phone calls to lawmakers, make signs, join protests and rallies, go to town halls, talk to our neighbors, sign petitions, support courage and resistance whenever we see it, and call out the cowards and the enablers.
Action steps
Thank Harvard University President Alan Garber for standing up for academic freedom via any of the following methods:
Email: president@harvard.edu
Phone: (617) 495-1502
Mailing Address:
Office of the President. Harvard University. Massachusetts Hall Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact Acting Columbia University President Claire Shipman and express your disappointment regarding the decision to sacrifice academic freedom and free speech in order to appease Trump. She may be contacted as follows:
Phone: (212) 854-9970
Mailing Address: Office of the President, Columbia University
202 Low Library
535 West 116th Street, MC 4309
New York, NY 10027
Contact the Paul Weiss law firm to express your dismay at their capitulation to Trump. Here is their contact information:
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (contact page)
1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019-6064
Phone: +1 212-373-3000
Email Contact: officeofthechair@paulweiss.com
Contact Perkins & Coie, LLP to thank them for leading the charge to not capitulate to Trump’s unlawful executive orders.
Perkins Coie LLP
1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900, Seattle, WA 98101
Email: info@perkinscoie.com
Phone: 206-359-8000
Website: perkinscoie.com
Find a town hall held by your representative or senator during this April recess. Go here to find out where and how to participate.
Download the 5Calls app and make calls every day to your representative and senators.
Participate in the April 19th “No Kings” rallies held throughout the country. Go to Mobilize.us and/or 5051 to find events near you.
Conclusion
Following our moral compass and having the courage to name, face, and fight evil is our only hope. We are seeing more and more evidence that capitulation is for losers. Is Marco Rubio admirable? Absolutely not. He borders on despicable. Is Columbia University worthy of respect for silencing student voices and sacrificing academic freedom to appease Trump? Absolutely not. They have lost the respect of the entire academic community as well as generations of past, present, and future students. Are you likely to retain Paul Weiss or any of the other law firms that capitulated to Trump? No. Who wants a law firm that is afraid?
Moral courage, in the end, is what is needed to fight and defeat evil.
Peck, M. S. (1983). People of the lie: The hope for healing human evil. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Great stuff... clear, articulate, and well researched. An inspiration.
Another great column! -- Thanks for the addresses.