I felt numb when Donald Trump was re-elected, but not anymore. It’s time to resist | Opinion
On the eve of the 2016 presidential election, as a college freshman, I sat on the floor of my dorm room and cried. Around midnight, my roommate and I joined a rapidly growing group of students marching through campus to protest the election of Donald Trump.
Soon after, the #Resist movement took off. The hashtag appeared in over 2.5 million tweets in a three day period following the Trump administration’s announcement of his initial Muslim Travel Ban. I found the idea of resistance — a refusal to accept or submit to Trump and his policies — powerful, and I used dozens of pink Post-it notes to spell the word RESIST in my dorm room window. The Post-its remained up until move out day.
Although #Resist was never an actual, full-fledged resistance, I felt — and still feel — appreciation for a word and an idea that helped me get through Trump’s first term. This is why I was so disturbed to see a recent alert from The New York Times on my phone: “As Donald Trump prepares to take the oath of office again, the Resistance of 2017 has faded into the Resignation of 2025.”
The alert deeply troubled and upset me because I felt personally called out. Instead of feeling angry, agitated and emotional like I did back in 2017, I have felt numbness and disbelief this time. The alert made me snap out of it. And that word in particular — resignation — has left a sour taste in my mouth..
What does it mean to be resigned to Trump’s presidency if not to willingly participate in the normalization of an elected leader who routinely promotes lies, targets vulnerable people, grants access and power to billionaires and whose judicial appointments brought the repeal of Roe v. Wade? If we meet this moment with resignation, aren’t we endorsing Trumpism and the gradual erosion of democratic norms that Trump disdains?
Being resigned is synonymous with acceptance, a word that rings true when I think of the millions of Americans who voted for Trump. They accepted his fear-mongering and scapegoating of immigrants, transgender people and minorities. They share Trump’s deeply pessimistic view of our country.
I keep thinking about a former friend of my family’s, someone who voted for Trump, who contacted my dad shortly after Trump’s victory was declared in November. This man, who is Jewish, messaged my dad, the father of two Jewish girls, one of whom is trans, “Don’t worry. Your family will be fine.”
On day one of Trump’s presidency, he signed an executive action saying that the government defines genders as male and female. This essentially says that trans people — including my sister — do not exist. On day one, Trump’s apparent right-hand man, Elon Musk, gave a gesture that sure looked a lot like a Nazi salute (the gesture was certainly interpreted as such by one white nationalist group on Musk’s platform X).
Don’t worry. Your family will be fine.
It’s week one, and I have already felt so angry and so sad. But I’m not resigned. Not even close.
“What is called resignation is confirmed desperation,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. “But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.