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Democrats are deeply divided over how aggressively they should resist President-elect Donald Trump and his allies. While some are taking a conciliatory approach to the incoming Republican trifecta, others are vowing to thwart their policies with every legal and legislative tool available.
It is a moment for which those in the resistance camp (many of them with greater political ambitions) have been preparing behind the scenes for many months.
Those preparations were aided by Project 2025, the conservative plan that outlined a political wish list for the next Republican administration, from slashing environmental regulations to issuing a national ban on abortion.
Democratic states have begun “Trump-proofing” programs that are expected to come under fire from the federal government and bolster teams of lawyers who will fight the new administration in court.
Now, those resistance Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, have a message for the latest installment of the Trump era: Go ahead.
“Breaking the law is something (Trump) can’t find a way to stop doing; it’s part of his brand, it’s part of what he does,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is expected to run for governor in 2026. in an interview. “If he doesn’t break the law, we won’t be able to do anything and he will be a law-abiding president. But we don’t expect that.”
These hostile counterforces represent just one segment of the Democratic Party, as its leaders strategize how to confront Trump when he returns to the White House backed by complete GOP control of Congress. Some governors are taking a less combative approach and expressing a willingness to cooperate with the president-elect on certain fronts, at least for now.
Here’s a look at the pillars of the movement that is gathering to undermine Trump and his allies, a collection of Democratic governors, attorneys general and aligned interest groups.
Governors
Expect to see Newsom solidify his position as the Democratic leader in the fight against the feds. Newsom and Trump are old enemies, and that rivalry is guaranteed to explode when Trump returns to the White House and Newsom lays the groundwork for a possible presidential bid in 2028.
Newsom has already begun positioning California as the bulwark against the incoming Republican trifecta. Two days after the election, he called a special session of the state Legislature to protect California initiatives likely to be targeted by Trump, such as civil rights protections and climate policies.
Beyond Newsom, keep an eye on the newly formed nonpartisan group focused on countering “threats of autocracy” that was launched by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Colorado Governor Jared Polis. The two governors say they are talking to other Democrats and Republicans about joining the effort, which will have its own staff and researchers.
“You’re coming for my people, you’re coming through me,” Pritzker warned Trump at a post-election press conference.
Polis created that group even as he praised Trump’s provocateur pick for Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaking to the complex balancing act governors must face in the coming years with Trump in power.
Don’t rule out newcomers either. Governors who took office after Trump’s first term are joining the ranks of the resistance effort, although they are doing so less openly than some of their longer-serving peers.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul launched a program aimed at addressing “regulatory and political threats” from the Republican administration and promised to strengthen coordination with her state’s attorney general to protect “the fundamental freedoms of New Yorkers.” But he also called on Trump to push for federal funding for key projects across the state.
Then there’s Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts, who burnished her profile by repeatedly suing the Trump administration in her previous role as the state’s attorney general, but largely retreated from national attention after she left office. After Trump’s election, she roared again on MSNBC with calls to “hold the line once again on the rule of law” and promises that state police would not comply with Trump’s mass deportation plans.
Attorneys General
When Trump banned Muslim travel to the United States in the early days of his first presidency, Democratic attorneys general were caught off guard. They rushed together to file a multistate lawsuit, ushering in an era of intense litigation between states and the federal government.
Those same offices do not intend to be surprised again.
“Now we’ve had more time to reflect on this, and it’s not as new as it was before,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who managed confronted the first Trump administration for withholding law enforcement grant money after the state objected to immigration-related provisions attached to it.
“We will be more prepared for this job,” Weiser said in an interview. “We know a little more about the nature of what’s coming.”
Look to California’s Bonta, Minnesota’s Ellison, New Jersey’s Matthew Platkin, and New York’s Letitia James as possible leaders of the litigation movement. “I didn’t run for attorney general twice so I could sue Trump. That’s not what I’m here for,” Ellison said at a recent news conference. “But if you violate people’s rights, we will sue you, it’s that simple.”
Also keep an eye on the new generation of state attorneys general who played major roles in previous lawsuits against Trump, such as Dan Rayfield in Oregon and Nick Brown in Washington.
These offices will leverage their large staff of lawyers to likely challenge almost every move of the Trump administration. In the days after the election, some offices have issued an open casting to expand the ranks of its trial lawyers, posting on Linkedin that “the need for the best and brightest attorneys to join us has never been greater.”
But while these attorneys general may have more practice suing Trump this time, they face more institutional and political challenges that could make it harder for them to win in court, namely a more conservative Supreme Court in which Trump has played a major role. The president-elect also has the support of more Republicans in Congress who will likely seek to use their majorities in both chambers to pass laws that supersede state laws.
Interest groups
While Democratic governors concerned about their own political future may not want to be the face of the fight against Trump on all fronts, interest groups that have that as their sole mission will be more than happy to practice scorched earth tactics to hinder the administration.
Democracy Forward, a liberal legal organization launched during the first Trump administration, intends to continue its work challenging federal rules, and this time it is armed with a much larger staff and a multimillion-dollar war chest. His board members include Democratic legal bigwig Marc Elias and Ron Klain, President Joe Biden’s former chief of staff.
There will be many conflicts in the abortion space. Trump pledged to veto a national abortion ban if one came to his desk. But Ohio Sen. JD Vance, vice president-elect, suggested on the campaign trail that the Republican administration would defund Planned Parenthood, telling reporters, “We don’t believe taxpayers should fund late-term abortions.”
A number of political groups that support abortion rights (EMILYs List, National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Reproductive Freedom for All) issued a post-election memo in which they promised to hold Trump and “all anti-abortion politicians” accountable. . for what they have already done and what they plan to do to destroy reproductive freedom.”
On immigration, the American Civil Liberties Union fired off its initial warning against the Trump administration by filing a lawsuit Monday seeking more information on how authorities could quickly deport people from the United States.
Trump officials are thinking about how to craft executive actions aimed at resisting legal challenges from immigrant rights groups, a strategy aimed at avoiding the pitfalls of Trump’s first term, such as when civil rights groups and attorneys general States successfully delayed the implementation of several versions. of the Muslim travel ban.
Look at the activities of climate organizations like EarthJustice and the Sierra Club, which are preparing for the continued repeal of dozens of environmental rules dealing with everything from air pollution limits to drilling in protected areas.
“We are even stronger now and we are ready,” EarthJustice, which sued the Trump administration more than 130 times and won the vast majority of court decisions, he said in a statement after the election was called for Trump. “We will see Donald Trump in court.”