Since Donald Trump was elected in November 2024 and moved back to the White House in January, the U.S. has witnessed an unprecedented authoritarian takeover of the federal government, sidelining both Congress and the courts. Trump and his supporter’s clear goal is to make real their vision of a unitary executive who’s exempt from all checks and balances mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
In response to Trump’s many autocratic actions that include deploying the U.S. military to Democratic party-controlled cities, threats targeting media outlets, universities and law firms, prosecuting his perceived political enemies – and defying due process and the rule of law in his mass deportation campaign, a surprisingly powerful civil resistance movement has been organized across the country.
On the second No Kings Day on Oct. 18, a national broad-based coalition mobilized 7 million people to demonstrate against Trump’s autocratic rule at 2,700 rally sites in all 50 states, likely the largest single day of protest in U.S. history. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Hardy Merriman, former president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, who has 20 years of research and training experience focused on support for nonviolent civil resistance movements fighting authoritarian governments around the world. Here he assesses the direction and effectiveness of the U.S. anti-fascist movement and what new strategies and tactics may be needed to confront Trump’s increasingly tyrannical, cruel and corrupt rule.
HARDY MERRIMAN: So, having looked at backsliding democracies and democracies that have broken down into authoritarianism really now for the last decade, I can say that the pace of decline, erosion and breakdown of the United States has been alarming. Actually, I can’t think of another country that has broken down this quickly except for a country that experienced a coup, for example.
There are some similarities to actually what we experienced, particularly in the early days of the Trump administration and a coup with regards to the way that DOGE immediately move very quickly to seize elements of critical infrastructure. Autocrats have a playbook. It’s very clear that members of this administration have looked at what autocrats have done around the world and are trying to emulate it and speed it up.
The other piece though is that actually those of us who want to uphold democracy and push actually not to go back, but to actually make it better, to push back against authoritarianism and try to move this country in a better direction even than the one we came from, there’s the playbook for that too. It’s less well known, but we can learn a ton from both research as well as what other people have done around the world.
But the rate of decline has been shocking. There are scholars who now argue that we have crossed the line from being a democratic country into functionally a more authoritarian country. We would not be the worst authoritarian government in the world by stretch, but that actually we are beginning to resemble more of an authoritarian regime than a democratic regime. And I would have to agree with that. At this point, institutions are compromised. They are still very worth investing in. We need to support elections. We need to invest heavily in lawsuits, elections and all the institutional mechanisms that have worked in democracy. But that by itself, probably that won’t be enough—that we’re also going to have to organize a broader pro-democracy movement to push back as well, which is something we haven’t had to do in this country in decades.
But it is something that very likely needs to happen now in order to stop the continued breakdown of the United States government. I cannot underscore enough how remarkable the achievement of 7 million people is. And those numbers still have to be verified, but it’s looking quite likely this was the largest protest in U.S. history. And if in fact it was 7 million people, by my calculations, about 2.1 percent of the U.S. population, that is absolutely massive when we compare it even with international examples, it’s absolutely huge percentage to get in a protest.
The media cycle and the news cycle moves so quickly. It seems like now that was something that happened a week or two ago. That was something that seems old. It is actually something that we should dwell on. It is something we should continue to focus on because it is so unprecedented and so remarkable.
SCOTT HARRIS: Hardy, as you examine the Trump regime’s rapid implementation of their authoritarian agenda, as you said, “quite alarming and how quick it’s happened over these past nine or so months,” what new creative tactics and strategies may be needed to confront what many believe could be an effort by Trump and the Republican party to burn the U.S. Constitution and completely extinguish our democratic form of government in favor of what some believe is a fascist takeover.
HARDY MERRIMAN: They do not want us to recognize our power. They are not talking about “No Kings” anymore. That’s why we should, they would love to change the topic. They would love to turn it to the East Wing of the White House or anything else. And don’t get me wrong, the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, the lawlessness of this administration is all stuff that we should focus on, but we should not let it distract from the lessons and the successes that we’ve had of what our strength can be.
So acts of non-cooperation are incredibly powerful. And when people strike, when people boycott, when people do work slowdowns or other things, it can shift the balance of power between a movement and those who are enabling authoritarians. No administration can do what they’re doing without enablers. They can’t do what they’re doing without corporations cooperating.
Is ICE operating every single flight? No, they’re chartering flights. Who’s doing the data processing for the administration? When you look closely at how the administration is able to enact its authoritarian agenda, there are corporations involved in many, many places.
Not all of them are going to be easy to pressure, but it’s also not essential to pressure all of them. They are enablers. And you can find key points where people can start to engage in boycotts or engage in other forms of nonviolent pressure to shift them in the same way they did with Disney. And so I think understanding the network of enablers that are supporting through their actions, some of the worst excesses of this administration and then identifying points of leverage for the movement is going to be really important. The protests matter, but they’re going to matter even more if they become on-ramps for non-cooperation. I also think blue states have more power than they have used at this point and I think they need to start thinking more creatively about how they can bring, particularly the economic power of blue states to bear also on some of the enablers of authoritarianism.
For more information, visit hardymerriman.com.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Hardy Merriman (18:25) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the related links section of this page. For periodic updates on the Trump authoritarian playbook, subscribe here to our Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine Substack newsletter to get updates to our “Hey AmeriKKKa, It’s Not Normal” compilation.
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