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    After America: can Europe learn to go it alone without the US?

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    The German ­electronics firm Hensoldt has a backlog of orders for its technology, ­including radars that protect Ukraine from Russian airstrikes. Meanwhile, Germany’s car industry is struggling with low European demand and competition from China.As Europe worries about how it can weather the economic and ­political turmoil unleashed by Donald Trump, executives from Munich and Düsseldorf say they have at least a partial answer.In January, Hensoldt offered to take on workers laid off by the car parts suppliers Bosch and Continental. The defence giant Rheinmetall made a similar ­proposal last year, and in February announced it would repurpose two automotive component factories.It was a pivot that offered hope amid America’s rapid ­dismantling of the postwar global order – ­protecting jobs and Germany’s industrial base as access to US ­markets shrinks, while ramping up Europe’s capacity to protect itself.As politicians around the world try to work out how best to ­protect their countries from Trump’s ­capricious policymaking, the one constant in all their calculations for the future is a diminished American role in their countries. Trump has mooted plans for a 25% tariff on EU goods, including cars, and has already put duties at that level on steel and aluminium from the bloc.In February, his vice-president, JD Vance, launched a blistering attack on European democracy in Munich, questioning whether it was worth defending.In his first term, Trump touted decoupling from China as a way to bolster US jobs and the economy against a rapacious rival. Now, in his second term, he is pursuing a much broader decoupling from the ­country’s historical allies – a shift that few had anticipated or were prepared to face.The new US administration is sealing off its markets, retreating from America’s global security role, and cutting soft-power projects that aimed to shape the world through research, aid and culture.The only form of greater American presence beyond the country’s ­current borders that seems to ­interest Trump is ­territorial ­expansion – ­encouraging, ­perhaps, for a dictator such as Vladimir Putin as he wages an ­imperial war in Ukraine, but ­unwelcome and ­alarming elsewhere.“The idea of the US ­abandoning western Europe was ­unimaginable even a decade ago, because its role there also secures broader American influence in the world,” said Phillip Ayoub, a professor of international relations at University College London.“There is a comparative ­advantage to strong alliances because they make you richer in trade and safer because they deter other powers.”Trump’s vision of the world rejects that view, casting his ­country as a naively magnanimous ­superpower that has for decades funded and policed the world while getting little more than debt and ingratitude for its troubles.View image in fullscreenYet if postwar American ­presidents did not pursue the ­territorial empire that Trump now dreams of, they wielded an ­imperial power not reflected on maps. Decisions made in Washington DC reshaped countries from Chile to Iraq without the participation or consent of their populations.And the global order he is ­tearing down made the country so rich and powerful that for a brief, heady moment around the turn of the ­millennium, the US elite embraced the idea that history was over, and that human society had reached its peak and permanent form in the ­liberal democracy embodied in their constitution.The details of the new American relationship with the world are still being worked out day by day in court battles at home and trade and diplomatic negotiations abroad, but the impact of Trump’s presidency will last long into the future.“An election could change ­policy in Washington DC. But the new ­reality is that from government to government you could have a ­different attitude to the US’s place in the world,” Ayoub said. “This retreat will be factored into policymaking everywhere now.”For now, the ­immediate priority in most ­countries is limiting the extent of tariffs and the impact of US cuts, in areas ranging from aid to defence.Geography and the impact of ­previous free trade deals have ­combined to make neighbours of the US extremely vulnerable to its tariffs. Exports to the US account for a quarter of Mexico’s GDP. In Canada, where all other potential trading partners are an ocean or half a continent away, they are about a fifth of GDP.European countries may be less immediately vulnerable to a trade squeeze, with exports to the US accounting for less than 3% of the European Union’s GDP.But budgets from London to Warsaw are also strained by the need to ramp up defence ­spending to make up for the US retreat, both from immediate support for the Ukrainian forces battling Russia, and from the longer-term backing of European defence. Even ­optimistic assessments suggest it will take the best part of a decade before the continent’s own defence ­capacity can match the protection currently offered by the US, excluding its nuclear deterrent.The pain of breaking up or reshaping major relationships does not only fall on one party – ­something even Trump has ­admitted. The cost of some tariffs will be passed on to US ­consumers, and American businesses may lose customers.One early high-profile casualty could be Lockheed Martin, which produces F-35 jet fighters. Contracts allowing the US to restrict how the planes are used by allies caused little debate during friendlier times. Now, in Berlin and other capitals, defence ministers are worrying about a ­possible “kill switch” and hesitating over major new orders.Longer term, Trump could also fuel a ­cultural “decoupling”, with attacks on the arts and academia ­driving highly talented ­individuals to flee the US or avoid it.Several artists have cancelled tours, and the concert pianist András Schiff last week said last week he would no longer work in the US because of Trump. He had already boycotted Russia.Academics at elite British ­universities say they have seen a surge in job applications from US-based colleagues, many ­willing to lose tenure and take a ­considerable pay cut in order to move across the Atlantic. A French university that offered ­“sanctuary” to US researchers said it had received 40 applications, and one academic moved this month.As with the economy, the US’s ­cultural standing is not under direct threat. American music – much of it made by ­people who publicly oppose Trump – will be consumed worldwide. The Oscars are likely to remain the most ­coveted prize for cinema, the Emmys for ­television, the Pulitzers for ­journalism. Yet an exodus would still be ­damaging in a country where research and the creative arts are key drivers of growth, and benefit the places they settle instead – the long-term US allies that Trump sees as threats.The US president has promised voters that where his economic policies cause pain it will be short-term, and pave the way for long term prosperity in America.To critics, they look like a ­template for a poorer, more ­dangerous and fragmented world, where any limited benefits of ­decoupling are as likely to be reaped by a British university or a German defence firm as by Americans.View image in fullscreenCultureThe hit to America’s creative ­sector, from budget freezes and threats to the federal bodies and national schemes that fund ­museums, ­galleries, theatres and libraries, is set to take a toll on its income from tourism – and send visitors to Britain and Europe instead.In response to the second Trump presidency, some international ­artists are already pulling out of ­appearances in American venues, or at music festivals, and the likely knock-on effect is a reduction in ­visits from abroad.Last week, the Canadian singer/songwriter Leslie Hudson cancelled her American tour, saying on social media: “Like a lot of Canadians, and so many others, I no longer feel safe to enter the country.” The German violinist Christian Tetzlaff cancelled a spring tour in protest at the new administration’s policies, with particular reference to Ukraine.In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the managing director of City theatre, James McNeel, has ­spoken of a growing funding threat. “What we need more than anything is stability,” he says.Prior to the pandemic, the US Travel Association ­valued the total spending of the near-80 million tourists who came into the US at about $2 trillion (£1.5tn).This was supported by federal investment in ­infrastructure and the ­airline industry, but travel experts also traced back much of this tourism success to the diverse image of many of its cities. Art tourism was a big part of this, with art fans who ­travelled to North America in 2023 ­accounting for more than a ­quarter of the global total. Cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago boast ­celebrated museums and ­galleries, and the rise of immersive art and public installations has broadened this appeal. The attraction of art fairs such as Art Basel Miami has also grown internationally. In 2023, it was reportedly visited by more than 79,000 people.But Trump has made rapid and determined cuts to all museum ­projects tied to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, ­affecting the Smithsonian Institution, which has closed its DEI office. The National Gallery of Art also closed its office of belonging and inclusion, while exhibitions across the ­country have been cancelled. The biggest impact may well be on cultural ­tourism associated with LGBTQ+ communities and climate activism.Trump at one point intended for 2026 to be a bumper year for American tourism, with a ­“special one-time festival” planned for “­millions of people from around the world” at the Iowa State Fairground to mark 250 years since ­independence.The level of ­international advance booking will be watched.Likewise, a new status for London, Berlin and Paris as “refuge cities” for American artists is being predicted.British and European ­institutions might also soon have to make room for American artwork. The Washington Post has reported that large collections of public art have been left without professional ­security or conservationists.View image in fullscreenEconomicsShould the UK government decide to untangle the economy’s many ties with the US, it would need to tread carefully. America is the single ­largest market for Britain’s exports, ranging from the most sophisticated components in US navy submarines to artisan scented candles.Official figures show total trade in goods and services – exports plus imports – between Britain and the US was £294bn in the year to 30 September, 2024. The stock of investment by US companies in the UK stood at £708bn in 2023, or 34% of total of foreign direct investment.Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, is hoping to sign a limited trade deal with his counterparts in Washington that covers digital services and commits both countries to secure supply chains for vital goods.But a deal with any scope or ­judicial oversight will need Congress to agree, and that is far from certain to happen.UK manufacturers could begin to wean themselves off US raw ­materials and components, but the presumption must be that they traded with the Americans in the first place because they provided the best products. Exports could be directed back at the EU, though without rejoining the single ­market and customs union, the benefit would be limited.It would be a harder job switching services exports away from the US. The common language may often divide the two nations, but in ­practice the sector is a huge boon.In Brussels, officials believe any kind of trade deal with the US is off the agenda.As Donald Trump is only too well aware, the EU has a large trade ­surplus with America. In 2014 the surplus was about €100bn. By last year the gap had grown to almost €200bn. For this reason, the EU has already adopted a more ­confrontational stance.The British Chambers of Commerce says almost two-thirds of factory owners that export to the US are worried. European ­manufacturers have revealed similar concerns in recent surveys.Some are comforted by figures showing the US has a trade surplus in goods with the UK and how, in practice, trade and investment relationships exist well away from the White House and remain robust.However, businesses thought the same about Brussels after the vote to leave the EU. It didn’t happen and a breakdown in relations ensued.That said, rekindling relations with the EU can be part of the answer. Reset talks are under way and there is a leaders’ summit on 19 May that should address at least some trade barriers. The UK might find that food exports become easier and it gains access to a wider range of raw ­materials and ­components by rejoining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean convention.Still, the US will remain a major trading partner and upsetting the Trump White House could have huge consequences.View image in fullscreenDefenceDonald Trump’s abandonment of Europe’s defence and disdain for Nato marks one of the most ­profound and influential breaks with longstanding US policy, even for a supremely disruptive leader.Many US presidents have grumbled about European over-reliance on American deterrence in recent decades, with predecessors including Barack Obama demanding allies spend more on their own armies.But their frustrations were rooted in concern that European defence cuts undermined an ­alliance that almost everyone in Washington – across the political divide – saw as critical to American global leadership.Trump, in contrast, appears to be seeking European spending to replace or supersede Nato, not strengthen it. He says Washington’s defence priorities are now deterring China in Asia and fighting organised crime at home.In his first term, he touted the idea of withdrawing America from the alliance, which was formed in 1949 for protection against the Soviet Union. This time he has opted to undermine it from within.The president himself has ­publicly contemplated ignoring Article 5, the core mutual defence clause at the heart of the transatlantic ­alliance, which requires Nato ­countries to come to the aid of any member that is attacked. It has only been invoked once – by the US after the 11 September attacks on Washington and New York in 2001.Trump said the US might ­condition any support for other members on military spending, and questioned if US allies would come to the country’s aid if in need. His administration is considering giving up the Nato command role inaugurated by war hero president Dwight D Eisenhower and held by America ever since, NBC reported last week.Europe was already scrambling to increase defence spending and ­coordination when the US halted military aid shipments to Ukraine, and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv earlier this month.Trump’s decision came after a spectacular on-camera showdown in the Oval Office with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But his willingness to cut loose a force that Washington has trained, armed and backed, and which is fighting a major US rival, stunned even some of his own political allies.European governments who have also spent billions on Ukraine’s defence, and have been dealing with covert Russian sabotage and spy operations across the continent, were not informed in advance.The flow of weapons and aid has now resumed, but the message was clear. Major European military powers, including the UK and Germany, are now reportedly racing to put together a five- to 10-year plan for a managed transfer of European defence, to stave off any more abrupt moves from Washington.Trump’s unpredictability has been heightened by his choice of ­leaders for key security roles, ­including a former Fox television host, Pete Hegseth, as defence secretary, and Tulsi Gabbard, who has a long ­history of pro-Russian views, as director of national intelligence.Security experts warn that ­turmoil in the leadership and ­management of intelligence agencies may also lead to a less visible but highly ­damaging defence decoupling – of the relationship between America’s spies and the secret services of its allies.View image in fullscreenDiplomacyThe votes in the United Nations marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ­provided a bleak snapshot of the yawning diplomatic divide between Donald Trump’s America and the country’s traditional allies.On February 25, the US joined international pariahs Russia, Belarus and North Korea to vote against a resolution condemning Russia as an aggressor state and calling on it to remove its troops from Ukraine.The wording rejected by Trump’s diplomats had been put forward by Ukraine, whose defence the US has funded, and the European Union, Washington’s partner in that effort. It passed in the general assembly with backing from 93 countries.The isolationist bent of Trump’s politics extends beyond the ­economy and defence, into international diplomacy. He has ordered the US to withdraw from a host of global organisations and initiatives, from the World Health Organization to the Paris climate agreement.The process of taking the world’s second biggest emitter of planet-heating pollution out of the accord to tackle global ­emissions will take about a year. As with the UN vote on Ukraine, that move puts the world’s most ­powerful democracy in unusual ­company, with Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries outside the deal.Trump imposed sanctions on officials at the International Criminal Court over arrest warrants it had issued for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who was the country’s defence minister at the time.His predecessor Joe Biden had also criticised the court, but such a direct attack on an institution ­established with broad international support was unprecedented.Several former British ambassadors to Washington warned this month that there has been a seismic and perhaps permanent shift in the so-called “special relationship” between the two countries, meaning that the UK will need to seek out other allies.“It’s difficult to find either a conceptual area in ­international relations or a particular geographical area where our interests are really converging at the moment,” Nigel Sheinwald, the ­ambassador from 2007 to 2012, told a ­parliamentary committee.“On more or less any big ­foreign policy issue that we’re dealing with today, we don’t agree with the United States… whether that is the Middle East, whether it’s Iran, whether it’s climate change, China, but above all on Europe itself,” Sheinwald said. More

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      Trump news at a glance: Hegseth mocks judge who ruled against transgender ban

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      Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, became the latest senior official to openly criticise a judge as the Trump administration ramped up its attacks on court challenges to its political agenda.On Saturday, Hegseth mocked US district judge Ana Reyes for blocking a ban on transgender troops in the US military. The ban was enforced by an executive order signed by Donald Trump on 27 January.Hegseth referred to the judge as “Commander Reyes” in a social media post and suggested she had no authority to make decisions about warfare – though the judge made no such decision, only about its treatment of its personnel.Reyes was appointed by the Democratic former president Joe Biden and is the latest judge to be publicly attacked by a Trump administration official.US defense secretary Pete Hegseth rails against judgeHegseth’s public mockery of Reyes followed similar remarks by Trump, Elon Musk, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and other officials against judges in recent weeks. Trump on Tuesday called for the impeachment of a judge presiding over a legal challenge to deportation flights and referred to him as a “radical left lunatic” and a “troublemaker and agitator”, prompting the US supreme court chief justice to issue a rare rebuke of the president.Read the full storyWhite House cheers as major law firm attacked by Trump capitulatesThe Trump administration has also been battling with one of the largest law firms in the country: Paul, Wiess. Trumps’s advisers have reveled in their ability to bully the firm after its chair criticized a former partner as he tried to appease the US president into rescinding an executive order that threatened the firm’s ability to function. The firm also agreed to provide $40m in free legal services over the next four years to causes Trump has championed, and agreed to an audit of its employment procedures to wipe away any diversity, equity and inclusion recruiting initiatives. The Trump administration has threatened new actions against lawyers and law firms that bring immigration lawsuits and other cases against the government that he deems unethical. It is facing more than 100 lawsuits.Read the full story20% of Americans support boycott of firms aligning themselves with Trump’s agendaOne in five Americans plan to turn their backs for good on companies that have shifted their policies to align with Trump’s agenda, according to a new poll for the Guardian. As high-profile brands including Amazon, Target and Tesla grapple with economic boycotts, research by the Harris Poll indicated the backlash could have a lasting impact.Read the full storyTrump revokes security clearances for Biden, Harris and other political enemiesTrump moved to revoke security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and a string of other top Democrats and political enemies in a presidential memo issued late on Friday. The revocations also cover the former secretary of state Antony Blinken, the former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, the former Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who prosecuted Trump for fraud, as well as Biden’s entire family. They all will no longer have access to classified information – a courtesy typically offered to former presidents and some officials after they have left public service.Read the full storyWhite House reportedly halts funding for legal aid for unaccompanied migrant childrenThe Trump administration is reported to have cut funding to a legal program that provides representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, one month after directing immigration enforcement agents to track down minors who had entered the US without guardians last month. Organizations that collectively receive more than $200m in federal grants were informed that the contract through the office of refugee resettlement had been partially terminated, according to a memo issued on Friday by the interior department and obtained by ABC News.Read the full storyUS team to meet Ukrainian and Russian officials for talks Talks between US and Ukrainian officials are scheduled to begin on Sunday in Saudi Arabia. A Washington source briefed on the planning of the meetings said the US side would be led by Andrew Peek of the national security council and Michael Anton of the state department, Reuters reported. After those talks, the US team will meet Russian officials on Monday. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said earlier this week, however, that Ukrainian officials would be present at the US-Russia talks but would not be in the same room as the Russians.Read the Ukraine war briefingUS urged to ‘think bigger’ on healthcare amid Trump onslaught on sectorAn academic journal may inject some optimism into US health policy – a scarce commodity amid the Trump administration’s mass layoffs, funding freezes and the ideological research reviews. A new issue of Health Affairs Scholar argues the conversation around healthcare can change – and radically – if academics think “bigger” and policymakers invest in their communities.Read the full storyUS tourism industry faces drop-off as immigration agenda deters travellersA string of high-profile arrests and detentions of travellers is likely to cause a major downturn in tourism to the US, with latest figures already showing a serious drop-off, tourist experts said. Several western travellers have recently been rejected at the US border on increasingly flimsy grounds under Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, some of them shackled and held in detention centers in poor conditions for weeks. Germany updated travel guidance for travelling to the US, warning that breaking entry rules could lead not just to a rejection as before, but arrest or even detention.Read the full story More

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      Hegseth suggests judge who blocked trans troops ban abused her power

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      The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, joined the mounting criticism of federal judges by Donald Trump and others in his administration on Saturday, mocking the judge who blocked a ban on transgender troops in the US military and suggesting she had exceeded her authority.The US district judge Ana Reyes in Washington ruled that Trump’s 27 January executive order, one of several issued by the Republican president targeting legal rights for transgender Americans, likely violated the US constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.Hegseth in a post on social media mockingly called the judge “Commander Reyes” and suggested she was abusing her power by making decisions about warfare.“Since ‘Judge’ Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids,” Hegseth wrote. “After that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.”Reyes was appointed by the Democratic former president Joe Biden. There have been rising tensions between Trump’s administration and members of the federal judiciary who have issued rulings impeding some of Trump’s actions since he returned to office in January, and rising concern about the safety of judges.Trump, his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, the attorney general Pam Bondi and other administration officials have assailed judges in recent weeks. For instance, Trump on Tuesday called for the impeachment of the judge presiding over a legal challenge to deportation flights, calling him a “Radical Left Lunatic” and a “troublemaker and agitator” – prompting the US supreme court chief justice to issue a rare rebuke of the president.Federal courts are hearing more than 100 lawsuits challenging various initiatives by Trump and his administration, with some judges imposing nationwide injunctions to block policies, such as his move to curtail automatic birthright citizenship.Hegseth, a military veteran and former Fox News television host, has made culture war issues such as banning transgender troops and abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the US military a top priority.After Hegseth took over the Pentagon, Trump also relieved the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, General CQ Brown, who is Black, and the Navy’s top admiral, who was the first woman to hold the position. Hegseth had previously questioned whether Brown only got the job because he was Black.While Trump and Hegseth have broad authority to relieve US military officers, their efforts to ban transgender service members have triggered numerous lawsuits.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe military said on 11 February it would no longer allow transgender individuals to join the military and would stop performing or facilitating medical procedures associated with gender transition for service members. Later that month, the military said it would begin expelling transgender members.Plaintiffs in the lawsuit before Reyes argued the order was illegal, pointing to a 2020 US supreme court ruling that found that employment discrimination against transgender people is a form of illegal sex discrimination.Lawyers for the administration have argued in court that the military is entitled to bar people with certain conditions that make them unsuitable for service, also including bipolar disorder and eating disorders. At a 12 March hearing, they told Reyes she should defer to the judgment of the current administration that transgender people are not fit for service. More

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      Columbia should have said, ‘see you in court,’ not ‘yes, Mr President.’ | Margaret Sullivan

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      Since early 2024, I’ve been running a journalism ethics center at Columbia University.So perhaps it’s no surprise that I see the university’s capitulation to Trump both in terms of journalism and ethics.I’ve never run a university, but I have run a newsroom. For 13 years (until I moved to New York City in 2012 to be the New York Times public editor), I was the chief editor of the Buffalo News, the regional newspaper in my home town. I had started there as a summer intern. As editor, I made a lot of decisions; the buck stopped at my desk.It’s not a perfect analogy to Columbia’s situation, but I’ve been thinking about what my options might have been if the paper’s biggest and most powerful advertiser – one important to our financial wellbeing – had gotten wind of an investigation they didn’t like the sounds of. Something that would reveal something negative about their business, let’s say.Suppose that advertiser had threatened to withdraw all their advertising unless we dropped the story. In fact, suppose they wanted promises of positive coverage – perhaps a fawning profile of their CEO, and a series about the good things the company was doing in the community.Let’s complicate it more. Let’s say that my boss, the paper’s owner, was on the advertiser’s side, or at least inclined to see their point of view.What would my options be as editor?There really would be only one: to hold fast. To make the case to the owner that if we were a legitimate newspaper, we would have to be brave and not allow ourselves to be bullied. And to refuse to pull the story. Make sure it’s bulletproof – every fact nailed down – and proceed with plans to publish it.What would happen?That’s hard to say. Maybe the advertiser would blink. Maybe the owner would fire me. Maybe I’d feel I had to resign.The point of this imperfect analogy is simply that allowing oneself – or one’s institution – to be bullied or threatened into compliance is never the right answer.And it’s especially important for strong institutions to stand up, to set an example and to insulate those who have fewer resources or are more vulnerable.Columbia has a huge – nearly $15bn – endowment. It could have withstood the withdrawal of federal funds.Columbia’s leadership could have chosen to say “see you in court” rather than “yes, sir”.Some principles are so central to an institution’s purpose that to betray them should be unthinkable. You don’t kill a valid story under pressure. Because journalism, however flawed, is about finding and telling the truth.And a university – which stands for academic freedom, for freedom of thought, speech and expression, including the right to peacefully protest – cannot buckle to demands to undermine those principles.Sadly, that’s what Columbia did, even going so far as to put an entire academic department under highly unusual supervision, and to empower beefed-up campus police to detain, remove or arrest students for various supposed offenses.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThis action stains a great university, which could have recovered from a financial threat but may not recover from this capitulation.Of course, Columbia needs to work against antisemitism and against all forms of hatred and discrimination. But that’s not really – or certainly not fully – what’s at the heart of Trump’s move.“It’s all about intimidation,” as my Guardian colleague Robert Reich, a former labor secretary, wrote this weekend, “not only at Columbia but at every other university in America.”Columbia’s capitulation mirrors that of many institutions in recent weeks. A major law firm (Paul, Weiss), under pressure, struck a deal with the White House to donate $40m in legal work to enable Trump’s causes. ABC News settled a defamation suit it probably could have won. And newspaper owners, including Jeff Bezos at the Washington Post, have been cozying up to Trump in many ways that harm credibility and mission.Yet some organizations have decided not to cave, but to be true to their stated and long-held principles.The Associated Press is suing, after the Trump administration severely limited its journalists’ access, punishing them for an editorial decision to continue using the term “Gulf of Mexico” on first reference in their stories, not “Gulf of America”. Another large law firm, Perkins Coie, is fighting in court after Trump’s executive order stripped their lawyers of their security clearances and denyed them access to government buildings.Take this to the bank: there is no satisfying the Trumpian demands. The goalposts will always be moved and then moved again.With its huge endowment and sea of rich alumni – some of whom, surely, would be in sympathy – Columbia had other choices. Smaller universities may not.Institutions with resources must resist thuggish bullying, not just for their own sakes, but to protect others who will find it much harder. And for another reason: at an extremely dangerous time in the US and in the world, it’s the right thing to do.

      Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture More

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      White House reportedly halts funding for legal aid for unaccompanied migrant children

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      The Trump administration is reported to have cut funding to a legal program that provides representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, one month after directing immigration enforcement agents to track down minors who had entered the US without guardians last month.Organizations that collectively receive more than $200m in federal grants were informed that the contract through the office of refugee resettlement had been partially terminated, according to a memo issued on Friday by the interior department and obtained by ABC News.The cut affects funding for legal representation and for the recruitment of attorneys to represent immigrant children but maintains a contract for “Know Your Rights”, a presentation given to unaccompanied immigrant children in detention centers.Currently, 26,000 immigrant children receive government-funded legal representation, but many are representing themselves in immigration court due to a shortage of attorneys. In 2023, 56% of unaccompanied minors in immigration courts were represented by counsel, according to the Department of Justice.In a White House memo to the justice department posted on Saturday, the executive branch identified the immigration system as one of several legal areas “where rampant fraud and meritless claims have supplanted the constitutional and lawful bases upon which the President exercises core powers”.“The immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices, frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief,” the White House said.The memo directed the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, “to prioritize enforcement of their respective regulations governing attorney conduct and discipline”.Lawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy group currently suing the administration over deportations, called Trump’s sanctions threat hypocritical in a statement to Reuters, saying the president and his allies “have repeatedly thumbed their noses at the rule of law”.The move to cut funding for legal representation was immediately denounced by immigrant legal and welfare groups.“The US government is violating legal protections for immigrant children and forcing them to fight their immigration cases alone,” said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.“Already, we are seeing the government move for the expedited removal of unrepresented children. These services are critical not only as a matter of fundamental fairness – children should not be asked to stand up in court alone against a trained government attorney – but also for protecting children from trafficking, abuse and exploitation, and for helping immigration courts run more efficiently.”Lindsay Toczylowski, president of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), said the Trump administration had gone “all-in today on endangering unaccompanied children and interfering with their right to due process, breaking with decades of bipartisan congressional support for legal services for vulnerable children”.Toczylowski added that without representation, “the 26,000 children whose access to counsel was slashed today will be at higher risk of exploitation and trafficking and their chances of obtaining legal protection will plummet. No child should be forced to fend for themselves against a trained [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] attorney without a lawyer by their side.”A study published by Save the Children in December found that record numbers of unaccompanied minors have come into the US since 2021.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn 2022, the US Department of Health and Human Services received a record 128,904 unaccompanied minors, up from 122,731 in the prior year, the majority coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.There are more than 600,000 immigrant children who have crossed the US-Mexico border without a legal guardian or parent since 2019, according to government data.According to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) memo – “Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation” – issued in February and obtained by ABC News and Reuters, agents are directed to detain unaccompanied immigrant children to ensure they are not victims of human trafficking or other forms of exploitation.Ice agents are directed to categorize unaccompanied immigrants into three groups: “flight risk”, “public safety” and “border security”.Republicans have claimed that the Biden administration “lost 300,000” immigrant children – figures that come from a Department of Homeland Security report referring to the number of minors whom agents had not been able to serve with papers to appear in court.“The unique needs of children require the administration to ensure a level of care that takes into account their vulnerability while it determines whether they need long-term protection in the United States,” Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, said in a statement.“To be successful in its goals, the government must partner with legal service providers and the vast network of private-sector pro bono partners who provide millions of dollars in free legal services to ensure children understand the process and can share their reasons for seeking safety in the United States.” More

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      White House buoyed by submission of major law firm attacked by Trump

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      Inside the White House, advisers to Donald Trump reveled in their ability to bully Paul, Weiss – one of the largest law firms in the US – and see its chair criticize a former partner as he tried to appease the US president into rescinding an executive order that threatened the firm’s ability to function.Trump last week issued an executive order that suspended the firm’s lawyers from holding security clearances, terminated any of its federal government contracts and prevented its employees from entering federal government buildings on national security grounds.That executive order was withdrawn on Thursday after Trump decided he had scored major concessions and the Paul, Weiss chair, Brad Karp, expressed criticism of Mark Pomerantz, who had tried to build a criminal case against Trump in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.As part of the deal, the firm also committed to providing $40m in free legal services over the next four years to causes Trump has championed, and agreed to an audit of its employment procedures to wipe away any diversity, equity and inclusion recruiting initiatives.The most extraordinary part of the deal, widely seen as humiliating for Paul, Weiss, was that Trump had not made any explicit requests of the firm, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The commitments and most notably the sacrificing of Pomerantz were offered up proactively by Karp at a White House meeting this week, the people said.The deal marked a significant new chapter in Trump’s campaign of retribution against several top law firms he sees as having supported efforts to prosecute him during his time out of office – and how he has used the far-reaching power of the presidency to bring them to heel.It raises the prospect that Trump and his advisers, victorious over Paul, Weiss, will now feel emboldened to launch similar strikes against firms that tangle with the administration. After the executive order was withdrawn, some aides privately gloated that a precedent had been set.It also underscored how Trump has fractured the legal industry as it struggles to coalesce behind a singular strategy. Paul, Weiss opted to negotiate instead of following Perkins Coie, which was punished for once employing a lawyer connected to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.The deal with Paul, Weiss materialized in recent days over the course of several stunning moves that neither a major law firm of its ilk nor a president has perhaps ever countenanced, the people said.Trump’s executive order targeting Paul, Weiss took Washington by surprise, as it came two days after a federal judge in Washington ruled that the nearly identical order against Perkins Coie was likely unconstitutional and issued a temporary restraining order blocking it from taking effect.But Trump has been increasingly undeterred by adverse court rulings at the start of his second term, and announced he was punishing Paul, Weiss for its ties to Pomerantz and another lawyer who brought a lawsuit against January 6 Capitol rioters.The order was expansive and threatened to cause lasting damage to Paul, Weiss’s ability to operate. Its lawyers need security clearances to review sensitive contracts and documents at issue for its clients, and being denied entry to government buildings could include federal courthouses.Over the weekend, the leadership of Paul, Weiss convened meetings in which they discussed possible responses, including whether to strike a deal of concessions with Trump or to retain William Burck, the co-managing partner of the firm Quinn Emanuel, to represent them in a lawsuit against Trump.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAs Paul, Weiss prepared for the possibility of having to go to court, it also pursued a strategy to back-channel with Trump and his aides personally and offered a deal at the start of the week.Trump’s advisers knew they were in a position of relative strength over Paul, Weiss because the firm had already started to lose clients as a result of the executive order, the people said. Paul, Weiss disclosed in court filings this week that Steven Schwartz, the former chief legal officer of Cognizant Technologies, had fired the firm from a case.Karp went to the White House on Wednesday to deliver his proposal, which included condemning Pomerantz to Trump and a tight circle of advisers, including the chief of staff Susie Wiles, the envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s personal counsel Boris Epshteyn.During the roughly one-hour meeting, Trump also called Robert Giuffra of Sullivan and Cromwell, the head of one of Paul, Weiss’s direct competitors, to ask for his input. Ultimately, Trump agreed to the deal, but inserted what appears to have been a final surprise humiliation.The language that Karp had ostensibly agreed upon with the White House made no mention of Pomerantz and DEI, according to a person familiar with the matter. But when Trump announced the deal on social media, it included a statement from the White House that said Karp had “acknowledged the wrongdoing” of Pomerantz. More

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      in US Politics

      Trump revokes security clearances for Biden, Harris and other political enemies

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      Donald Trump moved to revoke security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and a string of other top Democrats and political enemies in a presidential memo issued late on Friday.The security-clearance revocations also cover the former secretary of state Antony Blinken, the former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, the former Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who prosecuted Trump for fraud, as well as Biden’s entire family. They all will no longer have access to classified information – a courtesy typically offered to former presidents and some officials after they have left public service.“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump wrote. He said he would also “direct all executive department and agency heads to revoke unescorted access to secure United States government facilities from these individuals”.Earlier this month, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, announced that she had revoked the clearances and blocked several of the people named in Trump’s memo, along with “the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden disinformation letter” – referring to former intelligence agency officials who asserted that the notorious Hunter Biden laptop, which was discovered before the 2020 election, was likely a Russian disinformation campaign.Trump’s decision to remove Biden from intelligence briefings is a counterstrike against his Democrat political opponent, who had banned Trump from accessing classified documents in 2021, saying the then ex-president could not be trusted because of his “erratic behavior”.Earlier this week, Trump announced he was pulling Secret Service protections for Biden’s children, Hunter and Ashley, “effective immediately”, after it was claimed that 18 agents had been assigned to the former president’s son for a trip to South Africa and 13 to daughter Ashley.More broadly, the security-clearance revocations issued on Friday appear to correlate with a cherrypicked list of the president’s political enemies, including the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, both of whom prosecuted Trump during the Biden era.Others on the list include Fiona Hill, a foreign policy expert who testified against Trump during his first impeachment about her boss’s alleged scheme to withhold military aid to Ukraine as a way of pressuring its president to investigate the Bidens; Alexander Vindman, a lieutenant colonel who also testified at the hearings; and Norman Eisen, a lawyer who oversaw that impeachment.Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, Republicans who served on the committee investigating the January 6 US Capitol riots, were also added to the list. Trump said the information ban “includes, but is not limited to, receipt of classified briefings, such as the President’s daily brief, and access to classified information held by any member of the intelligence community”.The move comes as NBC News reported that former president Biden and and his wife, Jill Biden, had volunteered to help fundraise for and help to rebuild the Democratic party after the stinging defeat of Biden’s nominated successor, Kamala Harris, in November.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAccording to the network, Biden made the proffer last month when he met the new Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, but the offer had not been embraced.An NBC News poll published last weekend found the Democratic party’s popularity has dropped to a record low – only 27% of registered voters said they held positive views of the party. On Friday, Trump was asked about the prospect of Biden re-entering the political arena. “I hope so,” he responded. More

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      in US Politics

      Trump ramps up retribution campaign against legal community

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      Donald Trump expanded his retribution campaign against law firms on Friday night as he ordered his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to refer what she determines to be partisan lawsuits to the White House and recommend punitive actions that could harm the firms involved.The directives were outlined in a sweeping memo in which Trump alleged that too many law firms were filing frivolous claims designed to cause delays. It came after a week of setbacks, in which a slew of judges issued temporary injunctions blocking the implementation of Trump’s agenda.Trump’s memo directed Bondi to seek sanctions against the firms or disciplinary actions against the lawyers. But imposing sanctions is up to federal judges, and perhaps in recognition of the uncertainty that his attorney general would prevail, Trump also ordered referrals to the White House.“When the attorney general determines that conduct by an attorney or law firm in litigation against the federal government warrants seeking sanctions or other disciplinary action, the attorney general shall … recommend to the president … additional steps that may be taken,” the memo said.The memo, as a result, created a formal mechanism for Trump to unilaterally decide whether to impose politically charged sanctions through executive orders that strip lawyers of the security clearances they need to perform their jobs or prevent them from working on federal contracts.Multiple legal experts suggested the memo would theoretically allow Bondi to decide a particular lawsuit that triggered a temporary injunction was causing an unnecessary delay, and refer the firm that filed the suit to face the effects of a punitive executive order.That could cause a chilling effect and lead to the volume of litigation against the Trump administration to decline, the experts said. Even if the lawsuits are in fact for a legitimate purpose, there’s fear that their representation could put them in the president’s cross hairs and endanger their legal practices.Trump also directed Bondi to open a review into the “conduct” of lawyers and their respective law firms in litigation against the federal government reaching back to the start of his first term in 2017 – and recommend whether it warranted additional punitive actions.The memo comes as Trump in recent weeks has used executive orders targeting law firms to great effect.Most recently, Trump stripped lawyers at the firm Paul Weiss of their security clearance and barred its employees from entering federal government buildings over his long-held complaint about a former partner, Mark Pomerantz, who tried to build a criminal case against him in New York.The executive order targeting Paul Weiss was nearly identical to an order that punished the firm Perkins Coie over its ties to a lawyer who once worked with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and another aimed at Covington and Burling, which represented the former special counsel Jack Smith.Paul Weiss had its order withdrawn on Thursday after its chair, Brad Karp, offered a series of concessions including offering up criticism of Pomerantz apparently to appease Trump. He committed to providing $40m worth of legal services to causes that Trump has championed.But Trump has stewed for days, according to people familiar with the matter, over a series of temporary restraining orders that have slowed the implementation of his political agenda and, in one instance, branded Elon Musk’s cost-cutting drive as likely unconstitutional.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe case that has aggravated Trump the most has been the challenge in a federal district court in Washington against his use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove hundreds of suspected Venezuelan gang members without due process as he seeks to ramp up deportations.In that lawsuit, the US district judge James Boasberg ordered the administration to turn around any deportation flights that were in the air and temporarily barred any further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.The case has turned into a headache for the administration, after it failed to recall two flights on the basis that the judge did not replicate his verbal instruction in a written order, leading the judge to effectively open an inquiry into whether the White House had flouted a court order.“You felt that you could disregard it because it wasn’t in the written order. That’s your first argument? The idea that because my written order was pithier so it could be disregarded, that’s one heck of a stretch,” Boasberg said at a recent hearing.The administration has insisted it did not violate the order, but at the heart of the dispute is the administration’s belief that the judge lacked jurisdiction to hear the case in the first instance, ignoring the reality that federal courts can review whether statutes are properly invoked.Against that backdrop, as Trump has continued to rail against the injunction itself, the administration has adopted an increasingly combative stance towards Boasberg and said it was considering whether to invoke the rarely used state secrets privilege to stonewall the judge’s inquiry. More

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      in US Politics

      The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism

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      View image in fullscreenEntering the magnificent great hall of the US Department of Justice, Donald Trump stopped for a moment to admire his portrait, then took to a specially constructed stage where two art deco statues, depicting the Spirit of Justice and Majesty of Justice, had been carefully concealed behind a blue velvet curtain.The president, who since last year is also a convicted criminal, proceeded to air grievances, utter a profanity and accuse the news media of doing “totally illegal” things, without offering evidence. “I just hope you can all watch for it,” he told justice department employees, “but it’s totally illegal.”Trump’s breach of the justice department’s traditional independence last week was neither shocking nor surprising. His speech quickly faded from the fast and furious news cycle. But future historians may regard it as a milestone on a road leading the world’s oldest continuous democracy to a once unthinkable destination.Eviscerating the federal government and subjugating Congress; defying court orders and delegitimising judges; deporting immigrants and arresting protesters without due process; chilling free speech at universities and cultural institutions; cowing news outlets with divide-and-rule. Add a rightwing media ecosystem manufacturing consent and obeyance in advance, along with a weak and divided opposition offering feeble resistance. Join all the dots, critics say, and America is sleepwalking into authoritarianism.“These are flashing red lights here,” Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director turned Trump critic. “We are approaching Defcon 1 for our democracy and a lot of people in the media and the opposition leadership don’t seem to be communicating that to the American people. That is the biggest danger of the moment we’re in now: the normalisation of it.”Much was said and written by journalists and Democrats during last year’s election campaign arguing that Trump, who instigated a coup against the US government on 6 January 2021, could endanger America’s 240-year experiment with democracy if he returned to power. In a TV interview, he had promised to be “dictator” but only on “day one”. Sixty days in, the only question is whether the warnings went far enough.The 45th and 47th president has wasted no time in launching a concerted effort to consolidate executive power, undermine checks and balances and challenge established legal and institutional norms. And he is making no secret of his strongman ambitions.Trump, 78, has declared “We are the federal law” and posted a social media image of himself wearing a crown with the words “Long live the king”. He also channeled Napoleon with the words: “He who saves his country does not violate any law.” And JD Vance has stated that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power”.Trump quickly pardoned those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, placed loyalists in key positions within the FBI and military and purged the justice department, which also suffered resignations in response to the dismissal of corruption charges against the New York mayor Eric Adams after his cooperation on hardline immigration measures.The president now has the courts in his sights. Last weekend, the White House defied a judge’s verbal order blocking it from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law meant only to be used in wartime, to justify the deportation of 250 Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador, where they will be held in a 40,000-person megaprison.Trump accused James Boasberg, the chief district judge in Washington who made the ruling, of being “crooked”, said he should be “impeached” and labelled him a “radical left lunatic of a judge”. The outburst prompted John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, to deliver a rare rebuke of the president, emphasing that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision”.In an interview on the conservative Fox News network, Trump denied defying a court order and said he would not do so in future. But he added ominously: “We have very bad judges and these are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to start looking at what do you do when you have a rogue judge?”David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W Bush, posted on the X social media platform: “Almost every major Trump action is intentionally illegal. Trump is gambling that the US democratic system is too broken to stop him. He assumes, to borrow a phrase: ‘All we’ve got to do is kick the door in and the whole edifice will come crumbling down.’ Testing hour is here.”The White House has yet to release the names of the deported Venezuelans or proof that they were indeed criminal gang members. In another recent incident, it sent 40 undocumented immigrants to the notorious detention facility at the Guantánamo Bay naval base, only for a judge to intervene and force their return to the mainland.Some commentators suggest that the Trump administration is exploiting the power of sadistic spectacle. They say it is priming the public for future crackdowns and testing its level of tolerance for a moment when, for example, it might invoke the Insurrection Act to target anti-Trump protesters.Steve Schmidt, a political strategist and former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, said: “Donald Trump is producing a Washington television show from the Oval Office that’s authoritarian in nature. You go on TikTok and see the deportations scored to songs and videos released by the administration. It’s a theatre of the absurd. It’s a theatre of malice. All of it is desensitising people to the use of authority and power.”Violations of civil liberties are piling up on an almost daily basis. They include incidents that, if they had happened anywhere else in the world before 2025, the US would have been among the first to condemn.Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur and actor in the American Pie movie franchise, was detained for almost two weeks in “inhumane” conditions by US border authorities over an incomplete visa. She wrote in the Guardian: “I was taken to a tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet. There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets wrapped over them, looking like dead bodies. The guard locked the door behind me.”Fabian Schmidt, a German national who is a permanent US resident, was detained and, his mother said, “violently interrogated”, stripped naked and put in a cold shower by US border officials. A French scientist was denied entry to the US after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, according to the French government.Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported despite having a US visa. Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and citizen of India married to a Palestinian, was detained by immigration agents who told him his visa had been revoked.Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident with no criminal record, was detained over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, reacted on social media: “In dictatorships, they call this practice ‘being disappeared’. No charges, no claims of criminal behaviour. The White House doesn’t claim he did anything criminal. He’s in jail because of his political speech.”Another trigger for alarm is Trump’s close relationship with tech oligarchs, many of whom donated to and attended his inauguration. Tesla and SpaceX head Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been taking a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy, firing thousands of workers in indiscriminate ways that have been challenged in court.Musk’s X regularly parrots pro-Trump propaganda. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the Washington Post, recently ordered that the newspaper narrow the topics covered by its opinion section to personal liberties and the free market. Several star reporters and columnists have quit in recent months.Trump has escalated attacks on media outlets whose coverage he dislikes, including barring them from workspaces and events. He has filed lawsuits against media outlets and falsely claimed the flagship series 60 Minutes admitted guilt regarding a lawsuit.His appointee to head the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio). Last weekend, the Trump administration put almost the entire staff of Voice of America – which began broadcasting in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda – on leave and ended grants to Radio Free Asia and other media with similar news programming.Trump’s moves in the foreign policy arena hold up a mirror to his domestic vision. He has rattled longtime allies in Europe over whether the US remains committed to Nato and has sided with Russia in talks to end the war in Ukraine. He even called the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator” and berated him in the Oval Office.Trump has long shown an affinity for autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un of North Korea and his actions have been compared with those of Viktor Orbán in consolidating power in Hungary, including remaking the judiciary, gaming elections and cracking down on media and civic organisations.At the Center for American Progress thinktank in Washington this week, JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, told the Guardian: “If you haven’t already read about Orbán in Hungary, go read about what he did steadily, not that slowly, to put the noose around that country. Donald Trump admires Orbán and I believe he and his team have learned from that and are replicating that.”What some find most frightening of all is the relative lack of resistance so far. Trump’s approval rating equals his best-ever mark as president at 47%, according to a recent NBC News poll, although a majority – 51% – disapproves of his performance. Some 55% of voters approve of his handling of border security and immigration, while 43% disapprove.Setmayer, who now heads the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee, commented: “The fact that Donald Trump’s approval rating is still in the mid-40s should scare the hell out of every American who understands the value of our constitutional republic, the freedoms that we enjoy and the rule of law, because what he is doing is categorically against everything this country was founded on.”This is reflected in Congress, where the Republican party is more loyal to and unquestioning of Trump than ever. Few members have dared to speak out against the president’s support for Putin, haphazard tariff policy or bullying of neighbour Canada. They know that dissent would likely result in public humiliation on social media and a primary election challenge funded by Musk.Democrats, for their part, are still struggling to meet the moment as swelling protests across the country hunger for leadership. Last week, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, reversed his position by voting to pass a Republican budget plan that will make cuts to housing, transportation and education while also empowering Trump and Musk to slash more programmes.Faced with the prospect of a government shutdown, Schumer argued that he was choosing the lesser of two evils but ignited a furious backlash from Democrats in the House of Representatives and grassroots activists. NBC’s poll found that just 27% of voters say they have positive views of the party, its lowest rating since the question was first asked in 1990.Meagan Hatcher-Mays, a senior adviser for United for Democracy, a coalition of 140 organisations aimed at reforming the courts, said Democrats were wrongfooted by Trump’s narrow victory in the national popular vote last year.“They took the wrong lesson from the outcome of that election and they think Donald Trump is a lot more popular than he actually is,” she said. “Their baseline is already to be scared but that made them more scared to push back or resist against some of Donald Trump’s worst impulses. What you have now is they’re more comfortable caving and that’s what they have been doing.“They have not been able to mount a durable opposition to Donald Trump or to congressional Republicans. You can’t just be not Donald Trump. You have to be for something and you have to paint a vision for what you want for the American people. Instead what they’ve decided to do is just say nothing and hope for the best and that is not going to win them any seats in 2026.”The courts are potentially the last line of defence. Federal judges have blocked dozens of Trump’s initiatives, including attempts to eliminate agencies, end birthright citizenship and freeze federal funding. This week, a judge found that Doge likely violated the constitution “in multiple ways” with its dismantling of the development agency USAID.Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland, noted that Democrats and their allies have filed more than 125 cases against various attacks on the rule of law and obtained more than 40 temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions.“We’re in the fight of our lives,” he told the Guardian. “This is not a two-week, two-month or even two-year fight that we’re in. This is going to take us many years to defeat the forces of authoritarian reaction, and the Democrats are rising to the occasion.“If you look at the way democratic societies responded to fascism a century ago, it just takes time for people to realign and refocus and mobilise a concerted and unified response. Are we there yet? No. But are we going to be in a place where we can stand together and defeat authoritarianism in our country? Yes, we are going to get there.”Norm Eisen, a lawyer and founder of State Democracy Defenders Action, has brought successful cases that stopped Trump targeting thousands of FBI employees and blocked Musk’s access to sensitive data at the treasury department. He said: “Donald Trump is definitely pushing towards authoritarianism. He promised to be a dictator on day one and he hasn’t stopped. That’s the bad news.“The good news is that he has met vigorous pushback from litigants like myself and many others and from courts at every level. So far, his most outrageous illegal conduct has been countered.”If the Trump administration ignores such orders, the US could face a full-blown constitutional crisis. But Eisen retains measured optimism, saying: “It’s a mistake to count us out. We have so surprised ourselves and the world over and over again in our history and there is cause for hope here when you see the furious legal pushback by lawyers.“There is reason for hope but nobody knows. Will we go the way of Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, where I was ambassador, all of which pushed out autocratic regimes in recent years? Or will we go the way of Hungary and Turkey, which failed to oust autocrats? It remains to be seen but I, at least, am hopeful.” More