Ten things you can do to beat Trump this year

Trump 2.0’s second year may be even worse than the first. That’s because Donald Trump, his sycophants, and the billionaires behind him know that with the coming midterm elections, 2026 could be their last unconstrained chance to suppress democracy and siphon off America’s wealth for themselves.

So, what can you do? Here are the 10 most important actions you can take in 2026:

1. Protect vulnerable immigrant communities

This is an urgent moral call to action. As Trump’s ICE accelerates its brutal roundups, detentions, and deportations, many hardworking and longstanding members of our communities and their families are endangered and understandably frightened.

ICE is arresting immigrants at or near schools, places of worship, health care sites, shelters, and relief centers — thereby deterring families from sending their kids to school or getting help they need, and threatening the health and well-being of entire communities.

What can you do? Join with others in a voluntary effort to alert vulnerable people in your community to where ICE is. Check in with local and state officials to see what they are doing to protect vulnerable families in your community. Join others to keep ICE away from hospitals, schools, courts, and shelters.

Meanwhile, order these red cards from Immigrant Legal Resource Center and make them available in and around your community: Red Cards | Tarjetas Rojas | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC. You might also find these of use: Immigration Preparedness Toolkit | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC.

2. Protect LGBTQ+ members of your community

Trump continues to make life far more difficult for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other people through executive orders, changes in laws, alterations in civil rights laws, changes in how such laws are enforced, and encouragement of bigotry and hate.

Work with others in being vigilant against prejudice and bigotry, wherever it might break out. When you see or hear it, call it out. Join with others to stop it. If you trust your local city officials, get them involved. If you trust your local police, alert them as well.

3. Demand action from your Democratic and Independent leaders

Senators must block Trump nominations, require quorum calls, object to unanimous consent, and keep the public aware of the terrible things Trump and his regime are doing. Urge your Democratic and Independent House members to be loud and vocal, to cause good trouble, and to vote against all Republican initiatives.

Tiny Republican margins in both chambers give Democrats and Independents enormous power, if they stick together. Make sure your Democratic and Independent members of Congress know you’re counting on them to do so. [The phone number of the Capitol switchboard operator is (202) 224-3121.]

4. Help Democrats and Independents take back Congress

This is crucial. Compliant, corrupt, and cowardly Republicans in the House and Senate have enabled Trump and the people around him — Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, and JD Vance — to harm tens of millions of people. It’s vitally important that they’re booted out when the midterms are held in November and that they become the minority starting in January 2027.

Watch for open seats or retirements in close districts, using sites like GovTrack.us and Cook Political Report.

A good canvassing app for organizing is Reach.vote (also see here), providing means forletting supporters engage their personal networks via text/calls from their phones.

To connect with your local Indivisible group, start by visiting the Indivisible website to use their group map and find chapters in your congressional district, then find local events and actions on Mobilize.

5. Make the 250th Anniversary of America about our duties to the Constitution and the world

Trump and his sycophants want to make the 250th about loyalty to Trump and to white Christian nationalism.

Don’t let them. Say it loudly and clearly: America’s challenge isn’t that we’re losing our whiteness or dominant religion or that too many foreigners are coming here. Our real challenge is preserving the ideals of democracy, the rule of law, equal justice, voting rights and civil rights, and social justice.

The 250th will be an opportunity for us to emphasize that “patriotism” has little to do with flag salutes or national anthems; it’s about what we owe one another: taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going. Paying taxes rather than lobbying for lower taxes, refraining from large political contributions that corrupt democracy, blowing the whistle on abuses of power, volunteering time and energy to improving our communities and rebuilding our democracy.

6. Join with others to take progressive initiatives

Local and state governments retain significant power. Join groups moving your city or state forward on climate change, human rights, voting rights, and counteracting the power of large corporations, in contrast to regressive moves at the federal level.

Lobby, instigate, organize, and fundraise for progressive legislators. Support progressive leaders. Again, Indivisible is a good source of information; you can find your nearest Indivisible group here.

7. Demonstrate against Trump’s tyranny

The two No Kings protests in 2025 were important — revealing the depth and breadth of the resistance across America, reassuring millions of Americans that they aren’t alone and aren’t crazy, encouraging millions more to join the resistance.

More than 7 million of us marched in the second No Kings protest on Oct. 18. It was enough to rattle Trump (who posted an AI-generated cartoon of himself defecating on the marchers). And it put us within reach of the 3.5 percent of a population researchers have found to be a precursor for overthrowing a tyrant.

This year, help make our protests even larger and their effects even greater.

8. Organize or participate in boycotts of companies enabling the Trump regime and/or treating workers like sh--

Never underestimate the effectiveness of consumer boycotts. Corporations invest heavily in their brand names and the goodwill associated with them. Loud, boisterous, attention-getting boycotts can harm brand names and reduce the prices of corporations’ shares of stock.

What to boycott? Start with Elon Musk’s X, Tesla, and Starlink internet service. Also: Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks, and any companies that advertise on X or Fox News.

Support unions by joining picket lines, encouraging employees to organize in places you patronize, and boycotting anti-worker firms. Encourage union pension funds to divest stock in corporations that are enabling or encouraging the regime (especially Tesla, SpaceX, Palantir, Meta, and Amazon).

Here’s a good source.

9. Support groups litigating against Trump

In 2025, the district courts and courts of appeals held the line against many Trump initiatives. In 2026, they’re likely to be even more important. (You can track the federal cases against the Trump regime here.)

The best groups spearheading federal litigation deserve your support. They include these:

• American Civil Liberties Union has brought numerous civil liberties cases against the Trump regime, including those related to public health and immigration policies.
• Earthjustice has filed several lawsuits over environmental regulations and funding freezes.
• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics has been in the forefront of lawsuits against Trump for conflicts of interest, corruption, and ethical violations.
• Natural Resources Defense Council has used litigation against Trump’s regressive climate policies.
• Democracy Forward has mounted important legal challenges against Trump’s trampling of voting rights and the Constitution.
• Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal have filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive orders seeking to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
• Public Citizen and Common Cause have challenged actions related to Trump’s moves against voting rights and equal opportunity.

10. Spread the truth

Get news through reliable sources, and spread it. If you hear anyone repeating lies and Trump propaganda, including local media, contradict them with the truth.

Here are some of the sources I currently rely on for the truth: Democracy Now, Business Insider,The New Yorker,The American Prospect,The Atlantic, Americans for Tax Fairness,Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian,ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information,Heather Cox Richardson,The Bulwark, More Perfect Union, Matt Stoller, and Mehdi Hasan.

And, of course,this Substack.

In addition to these 10 actions, please ALSO be sure to:

Take care of yourself and your loved ones

Don’t become so obsessed by what Trump and his sycophants are doing that you neglect your own well-being. It’s important that you take time for yourself, read a good book, or watch an absorbing TV series. See friends. Meditate. Take long walks. Find something to laugh at every day.

And hold your loved ones tight.

We will get through this, and we will prevail. But it will require confidence, courage, and tenacity. We need to stay healthy for this fight. We need to be fortified by those we care about. And we need to be there for those we love.

Keep the faith

Do not give up on America. Do not fall into the traps of cynicism and defeatism.

Remember, Trump won the popular vote by only 1.5 points, and even then it was a scant plurality rather than a majority. By any historical measure, this was a squeaker.

America has deep problems, to be sure. Which is why we can’t give up on it — or give up the fights for social justice, equal political rights, equal opportunity, democracy, and the rule of law.

The forces of repression and neofascism would like nothing better than for us to give up. Then they’d win it all. We cannot allow them to.

We will never give up — not in 2026. Not in 2027 or 2028. Not ever.

We are winning. We will prevail.

• Robert Reich is a emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
• Robert Reich's new memoir,Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org