ArcaMax

When Donald Trump took over the White House back in January 2017, an appalled opposition started a movement called "the resistance." Its purpose was to stop Trump's worst excesses. Some may recall the massive Women's Marches and other anti-Trump demonstrations.

This time, past resisters are saying they are exhausted. Efforts to revive the women's protests have pretty much fizzled. But does that mean the opposition has gone into hiding? Has it decided to not care what MAGA outrages await the country?

Hardly. The resistance has taken to their recliners with bags of popcorn. They expect grand opera as an administration run by billionaires for billionaires rolls over the working folk who put Trump in office. While Trump distracts the public with threats against Canada, he has Elon Musk and company plumbing the budget for over $2 trillion that can be chopped.

The few places not off-limits to cutting tend to be the health and other programs that benefit average Americans. How else could the incoming oligarchy cover an extension of tax cuts for their people?

Other economically crazy proposals -- widespread tariffs and new tax cuts -- seem set to explode deficits and supercharge inflation. Many of the former resisters, now somewhat relieved to be a passive audience, are not entirely displeased by what they believe will befall the MAGA rubes. There's already a lot of uncharitable told-you-so in their social media posts.

The reaction to Trump's reelection was humorously summed up by fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. "At first, I was saying, 'Darlings, you know, meet me on Lexington Avenue with your muskets,'" he told the Daily Beast. But also, "How long can the chaos they sow last before it implodes?"

Until then, Trump is having a good time at his base's expense. He talked a big game about squeezing tight the flow of immigrants taking Americans' jobs. After the election, however, he expressed his enthusiasm for the controversial H-1B visas. The H-1B program recruits foreign tech workers who are smart but also paid less. An outsourcing industry already provides Silicon Valley with these less-expensive tech workers.

But an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute puts into doubt that there is a shortage of American tech workers. The 30 companies hiring the most H-1B workers took on 34,000 new H-1B employees in 2022 but laid off at least 85,000 workers that year and early in 2023.

To lower expectations for a Trumpian economic miracle, the president-elect now complains that he's about to inherit a weak economy. It happens that Joe Biden is leaving office with another boffo jobs report. Biden created 693,000 factory jobs versus Trump's 425,000 before Covid hit. Inflation for groceries, a chief gripe, is now less than 1.6%. Incomes after inflation are higher than when Trump left the White House.

After candidate Trump promised to bring prices down, post-election Trump told Time Magazine, gee whiz, "that's hard to do." By the way, the price of eggs is again going up largely for the same reason it rose two years ago, the bird flu.

Then there's the hokum of financial deregulation as the magic wand that will make all America richer. It would certainly make Wall Street richer for a time. In 2001, George W. Bush inherited a strong economy, complete with a balanced budget, from Bill Clinton. He then pushed sloppy deregulation that turned a housing bubble into a mortgage debacle and sent much of America into financial collapse.

Trump seems ready to follow suit. He talks of deregulating cryptocurrencies. (His son Don Jr. runs a crypto business.) Many economists say crypto is already a dangerous bubble. Take cover.

And so where has the resistance gone? It's gone to the show and the attendees are packing popcorn, not muskets.

========

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

----

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate, Inc.