At the 100-day mark, we are winning as Trump is tanking. It’s shock but not awe.

Trump's popularity is in the toilet, while lawyers, students, federal workers, teachers, and health professionals fight back -- and score a string of victories.

Note: If you are new to Substack, you can listen to an audio version of this post by clicking on the carrot button at the top of your screen.

In this issue:

• The 100-day post mortem

• Trump’s tanking numbers

• We can’t count on Congress to save us

• New wins, new alliances, new resources

• Here are few more victory highlights: Big Law, Judges, Universities, Students, Faith leaders

• The next 100 days

May 2, 2025 —

Dear Resisters,

As we passed the 100-day mark of the second Trump administration on Wednesday, the post-mortems continue to pile on, many of them grimly assessing the astonishing destruction he has wrought in a mere three months. Trump has closely followed Project 2025’s 180-day playbook and relied on over 150 executive orders (EOs) – about 1.5 memos a day – to carry out a full-frontal assault on our federal government and workforce and consolidate his power to rule with impunity. Per the plan, he resurrected Schedule F to gut entire departments of the federal government, fire and replace trained professionals with far-right loyalists, and instruct his aides in the Departments of Justice and the FBI to go after former critics and those opposed to his strongman moves. We’ve witnessed all that with a degree of growing despair.

But in doing all this, Trump has also shot himself in the foot, which many post-mortems also note. It’s shock, but not awe. Whether it’s the economy, Elon Musk and DOGE, or the sight of students being kidnapped in broad daylight as part of Trump’s immigration dragnet, a growing slice of the US populace has quickly soured on Trump. For many, the sky-high “beautiful tariffs” he recently imposed were a last straw, hitting them personally in their bank accounts. As their 401Ks dropped overnight, even Trump allies began protesting, warning that he was leading the US into a recession, which is now the forecast if he doesn’t reverse course on his tariffs. All that in a mere three months since inheriting a very strong economy from Biden.

Source PBS/NPR/Marist

Trump’s tanking numbers

The latest New York Times/Siena College poll last week showed 55 percent of those polled (including some in his MAGA base) now disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, as well as his hostile tariffs against longstanding US allies. They aren’t happy he let Russia off the hook there either, along with Belarus, North Korea, and Cuba. Even more pundits think Trump was doing Putin’s bidding, and making friends with the wrong leaders. An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll put it more bluntly: Trump gets an F, not an A, for his first 100 days in office, with 61% disapproving of his handling of the economy. It’s the second-lowest approval rating of a president at the 100-day mark, only one point better that he did in his first term. He’s holding steady at the bottom of the barrel.

What struck me the most this week, reading the post-mortems, was the contrast between Trump’s falling numbers and the rising numbers of millions of people who’ve joined the resistance overnight. Yesterday’s nationwide May Day protests, led by unions, drew thousands into many cities across America again, the latest sign of how quickly a broader cross-section of Americans have become newly-minted activists determined to defend our democracy and rule of law.

We saw this in the giant crowds that flocked to hear Bernie Sanders (I-VT) rail against the billionaire class in his Fighting Oligarchy tour, joined by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY): 36,000 people in LA, 34,000 in Colorado, 30,000 in rural Folsom, California.... Even in red state Arizona, disgruntled MAGAhats, as many label Trump voters, showed up to hear Bernie and AOC and others on stage. They view Trump 2.0 as a case of high-level theft, where a small cabal of Silicon Valley tech titans, including Musk and allies such as Peter Thiel, along with JD Vance and other billionaires in Trump’s cabinet, are enriching themselves as they gut the federal safety net for other Americans.

May Day 2025 resisters marching from the Arizona Capitol to the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix.

Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic

We can’t count on Congress to save us.

That same message has been delivered in myriad town halls in red and blue states where spillover local crowds have skewered Republican and Democratic leaders, demanding they do more to stop Trump and end the cuts to federal programs and services. That message has turned up on a lot of protest signs: Congress, Do Your Job! Others aren’t waiting: We can’t count on Congress to save us.

But some Congressional leaders have heard the message. Illinois governor JB Pritzker recently set the political world on fire by declaring “the reckoning is finally here” as he called for “mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption,” against Trump and challenged “do-nothing” Democrats to grow a pair. “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once,” he said, going so far as to encourage Democrats to protest at GOP congressional offices.

In the meantime, the numbers also show steady victories in the courts. “We are winning,” confirmed Constitutional lawyer Norm Eisen and director of States United, a pro-democracy nonprofit, pointing to scores of legal victories in the hundreds of cases now before the courts. In the last week alone, conservative and liberal judges ruled against Trump in at least eleven lawsuits on issues ranging from immigration, diversity, equity and inclusion, to elections. States United released a report, 100 Ways in 100 Days, that documents 100 ways that states have pushed back against federal overreach, defending the rule of law and the rights of residents. It shows how state Attorneys General are leading the fight, pushing back to assert state power against executive branch actions, including federal cuts, firing of the civil workforce, policies that impact on public and consumer safety, and elections.

Delivering a clear message from Fountain Park in Sheboygan, Wisconsin on May Day 2025

Photo: Gary C. Klein | USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

New wins, new alliances, new resources

The picture is also positive at the federal level, where Democracy Forward successfully convened many legal NGOs involved in fighting Trump into the muscular Democracy 2025 resistance hub. Lawyers from the ACLU, Democracy Forward, States United, Public Citizen, and many others are working in new allyship on lawsuits and winning arguments. Recently, Democracy Forward’s Civil Strong Initiative partnered with the AFL-CIO and other partners to launch Rise Up: A Federal Workers Legal Defense Network, which now provides legal support to many workers who have launched – and won – lawsuits challenging unfair dismissals. Some plaintiffs are back at work in the government; others have opted to leave, but took the win. They include a growing number of whistleblowers who have exposed illegal actions by DOGE and Trump officials.

The wins include court decisions that found Trump’s transgender military ban is illegal, and that transgender health care services to soldiers must resume – a major defeat for Trump. Even Trump’s conservative buddies in the Supreme Court defied him – a little – by ordering Trump to facilitate the return of a US citizen, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was illegally deported to a prison-cum-torture center in El Salvador. Trump recently admitted he could return Garcia, who’s now been moved to a different jail, but won’t, clinging to disproved claims that Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang (full name Mara Salvatrucha).

The standoff prompted US Senator Chris Van Hollen to fly to El Salvador and, after refusing to leave, secure a meeting with Abrego Garcia, confirming he was alive. Democratic Representatives Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, and Maxine Dexter of Oregon flew to El Salvador a week later to keep up the pressure, arguing his deportation represented “a constitutional crisis” since Trump continued to defy court orders to bring Abrego Garcia back.

MayDay protesters at 8th and Erie Avenue at the Fountain Park protest in Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Gary C. Klein/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Here are few more victory highlights:

• Big Law updates: After Trump went after Big Law firms including Paul, Weiss; Perkins Coie; and others, threatening to withhold federal funds unless they capitulated to his administration’s demands, nine law firms did just that, and are now providing pro bono services valued at $100 to $125 million, or $40 million for Paul, Weiss. But a growing coalition of law firms have refused, stating Trump is seeking to cripple the judiciary – a classic autocrat’s move. Over 500 law firms signed a statement in early April in support of a lawsuit by Perkins Coie to fight Trump’s executive order against the firm. They include big firms Covington & Burling; Arnold & Porter; WilmerHale; and Jenner & Block. The latter two filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s orders, too.

  • The law firms are being supported by twenty state Attorneys General who filed amicus briefs supporting firms battling Trump in court now. “Targeting and sanctioning law firms for representing clients that the president disagrees with is unconstitutional and undemocratic,” stated New York Attorney General Letitia James, among AGs who are leading the fight-back. Other “friend of the court” briefs were filed by the ACLU and the Cato Institute in support of Perkins Coie.

  • The Demand Justice movement has now sprung up to call out “the cowardice” of some firms, while hailing the growing legal solidarity network.

• Judges speak out: As Trump intensifies his attacks on the judiciary, more federal judges are also speaking out against him. They joined political leaders in denouncing Trump’s arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, who stands accused of having helped a Mexican immigrant evade ICE agents after he appeared in her courtroom. Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin called the arrest a “gravely serious and drastic move.”

• Education wins: University leaders are also fighting back. After Columbia University capitulated to Trump’s demands to cut back one of its departments and change its curriculum or lose billions in federal funding, Harvard refused to bow to that threat. It then sued the Trump administration, and a day later, over 220 higher education leaders released a statement condemning “political interference” and “overreach” that is “now endangering higher education in America.”

  • Harvard isn’t completely resisting though, per a Truthout report that said it has effectively dismantled and rebranded its DEI office and would not host affinity group celebrations this commencement. Last year, ten affinity celebrations were held for Arab, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, first-generation, low-income, Asian-American, Pacific Islander and Desi graduates.

• Student wins: In a major victory, the Trump administration was forced to reverse their cancellation of student visas for international students in the SEVIS foreign database. The cancellations had made their status illegal overnight, so they were subject to immediate self-deportation orders and stiff penalties for every day they stayed in the US. The move followed a class-action lawsuit by attorney Charles Kuck on behalf of 133 students, one of dozens of such lawsuits. Kuck’s clients saw their status restored. Right now it’s unclear how many students are impacted, while Department of Homeland Security officials told ABC News the reinstatement applies only to “people who had not had their visa revoked.” Bottom line: the legal arguments are prevailing.

• Big Ten unity: In a fresh salvo, two Rutgers professors drafted a “mutual defense compact” for Big Ten schools – a solidarity pledge of resistance signed by over twelve universities to support each other against Trump’s efforts to cut research funding and dictate policy to universities. Professors David Salas-de la Cruz and Paul Boxer co-authored the pledge, which others view as a model for other sectors to take up.

• Faith in Action: Religious leaders have also amplified their resistance. Rev. William Barber, a Christian leader and co-chair of the national Poor People’s Campaign, was arrested during a prayer action on May 24^th with two other clergy, while leading a “Moral Mondays” rally in the Capitol Rotunda. The faith leaders were protesting proposed federal budget and tax cuts that will gut Medicaid and hurt many Americans, they said. The trio read from a scripted prayer, then were handcuffed and arrested for “crowding, obstructing, and incommoding” – a violation of a DC ordinance around public demonstrations. For his part, Barber noted the irony of his arrest, given that Trump recently launched a Task Force to eradicate anti-Christian bias in the government.

Photo: Getty

The next 100 days:

Looking ahead, Trump recently retooled Schedule F to purge the federal workforce of many more employees. We also face the fight over the budget cuts that could spell big cuts to Medicaid. There are looming Supreme Court test cases of our current constitutional crisis, including an early May challenge to Trump’s executive order on birthplace citizenship. There’s also the ongoing judicial battle over the legality of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, used by Trump to justify his mass deportation of migrants to CECOT (the El Salvador prison). Legal experts urge us to keep an eye on future contempt of court hearings that are expected as Trump amps up his attacks and intimidation of individual judges and law firms, a next-step move to further consolidate his power over the judiciary branch.

Every move he makes will lead more Americans and global citizens to oppose his actions. There are many other actions at all levels that occurred during the 100-day resistance, and the May Day labor-led protest marches yesterday that mark the start of the next 100 days. More are planned, with an eye on the mid-term elections. Recently, Representative Pramila Jayapal helped launch a Resistance Lab “to learn from other countries that’ve dealt with dictators and democratic backsliding, and learn the tools and tactics to fight back that WORK,” as she stated in a post about the new lab. Over 27,000 people have already taken the trainings, she reported. At this moment of historic Constitutional crisis, it’s time to fight everywhere and all at once.

Protesters at the Historic Henderson County Courthouse in downtown Hendersonville, North Carolina, May 1, 2025.

Photo: Josh Bell | Asheville Citizen Times

March in Style!

The Resisting Project 2025 campaign has produced a new T-shirt with the message many chanted in yesterday’s marches: Out Democracy Is Not For Sale. You can check out this new merch and other offerings at our website. And a final plug of our reporting project and team. If you’re a new reader, and like what we’re doing here and the comprehensive coverage we’re providing of the building resistance to Trump tyranny, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription or gift on to a friend. We’ll always keep this newsletter free, so that everyone can get and share the information. But we appreciate the support and your commitment to Resisting Project 2025.

We also invite you to share the contents with others by restacking this post and sharing its contents via your other social media channels and networks. Let’s spread the message of winning this fight. — Thank you! - AC