From Insurrection to Inauguration

Surviving Trump 2.0 With Tips

From the Ashes of January 6th, he has risen. The Second Coming of “We Can’t Fucking Believe It” is now on our doorstep.

Tomorrow, the perpetrator, the prick, the preposterous pick who possesses the pathology of the Antichrist but is preached about as some kind of MAGA Messiah, will be inaugurated as president. Rumor has it he’ll be swearing on a Trump Bible, adored by Christian Nationalists, but more accurately seen by the sane as a symbol of his bullshit and endless grift.

The entire event has been moved indoors because it’s too blustery outside for the party of bluster, too cold for the tanned testicles of the too-fragile beta males. The last time Trump led a group to the Capitol, they brandished bear spray, twist ties, and confederate flags, and several patriotic officers lost their lives. This is the first time an adjudicated rapist and convicted felon will be ‘sworn’ in as president and it’s worth noting he’s never honored any oath he’s ever taken before.

He’ll be flanked by sycophants and tech barons who salivate over their dream of an oligarchy being realized. When he’s sworn in, his executive immunity kicks into gear, and he’ll be a step from issuing edicts in the form of executive orders. And when the tech baron oligarchs order their media platforms to report on the inauguration, they’ll say 11,780 million people attended. Because hey, there’s no more fact checking.

While his first term began with alternative facts, inflated numbers and photoshopped images of crowd size, the second term begins amid a firehose of lies, many based off the premise of his Big Lie. While his first term began with at least some shaking their heads over his narcissism and pettiness, the second term begins with only loyalists, nodding their heads in total approval of their cognitively declining King.

January 20, 2025, will be a dark day. And it’s likely to get much darker quite quickly. But we want to point out that some of that darkness will be contrived or exaggerated rhetoric aimed at merely conveying fear and despair - because that’s what sociopaths, dictators, and fascists do. It’s also worth pausing every now and then to realize that the primary weapon they wield, is propaganda: No wall was built and paid by Mexico, many caravans never arrived, his every-two-week health care and infrastructure promises never materialized, Greenland will not be purchased, and Canada will not become a State. As such, it’s worth considering the adage that it tends to get darkest before the dawn. Banters will continually remind you what we can all do, as resisters - individually and together - to stay focused, and stay sane.

OS (Outspoken): I don’t even consider this an inauguration. It’s a shitshow and a coronation, and he’ll never be my president. Fuck Trump.

SS (Shallow State): Me neither. I know what he is, I will not obey blindly, and I will always stay loyal to the truth. I feel this is the key.

OS: Right there with you, but I also feel dread.

DREAD

What many of us feel now, is dread. Dread is a response to anticipated danger or misfortune, like a sense of impending doom. It’s a form of anxiety, because it relates to something bad that hasn’t happened yet. What separates the dread we feel from Trump 2.0 from other forms of dread or anxiety, is that we also feel a lack of clarity. We’re not sure exactly what bad shit will happen and when, yet we feel something bad happening is inevitable, or highly likely. Dread is a normal part of the human emotional landscape. We don’t have to feel numb to it to counter it, but resilience and reframing it might help. That starts by realizing that Trump 2.0 is designed to peddle chaos so as to prevent us from achieving greater clarity. But if we can stay aware of the fact that that’s their design - then that alone, adds clarity.

CHAOS

Authoritarians need to claim things are broken so they can put forth the messaging and imagery that they’re in control, and they alone can fix it.

Trump the wannabe dictator has been intentionally trumpeting how much he intends to do on Day One. This is part of the same authoritarian playbook used by despots throughout history. Tariffs, deportations, isolationist foreign policies, and other menacing narratives will be among the subjects delivered to us amid a haze of loud volume, autocratic inflection, disinformation, buzzwords, and self-aggrandizement. Yes, there will be many actual executive orders and probably, there will be disgraceful January 6th pardons, and possibly, the announcement of a red-meat-for-the-base investigation or two intending to prosecute the prosecutors along with others he perceives to have been disloyal to him.

But there will also be threats of actions that never actually become action, and actions whose scope and priority never attain the level threatened. Never has it been more important for us to better distinguish between what they say and what they actually do, and never has it been more important for us to better understand the signals and try to see through their diversions and distractions.

SS: Half the shit they claim they will do is Trump’s pathology screaming into the wind because he was narcissistically injured and now feels redeemed.

OS: Like the true sadist Trump is, he’s installing a cabinet of cruelty in an attempt to destroy our empathy and rock our sensibility.

SS: All the more reason we have to distinguish between his rhetoric and their actions.

OS: Absolutely. Many of Trump’s nominees are incompetent and unqualified with extreme ideologies, which is terrifying and dangerous — but it also sets up a likelihood of failed initiatives and MAGA infighting — and that’s fucking delicious.

SS: And maybe the failed initiatives and broken promises will lead to consumer pushback and will prove to be a big part of how we deal with this.

OS: So, what you’re saying is that we will get the price of eggs down ourselves in 2026 when we retake the House.

TIPS

• Increase your self-awareness - Trump wants you to feel outrage. Be mindful of the simple fact that every time you feel outrage, Trump scores points. Be measured and selective. A lot of what he says he’ll do, won’t get done.

• Use humor - There will be plenty of opportunity to poke fun at Trump 2.0. Do it. Humor will increase your tolerance. Trump hates to be mocked.

• Choose your emotions carefully - If you feel anger or despair, try to process them as annoyance or disgust. Roll your eyes judiciously. You don’t need to become stoic, just a tad less affected. The goal is to remain in control.

• Take the wins when we get them - Point out their gaffes, stupidity, and failures. Amplify their in-fighting. Let’s locate their fissures and turn them into fractures.

• Remember empathy - Let us be the anti-cruel. Support the less fortunate. We must be allies to sexual assault survivors, to LGBTQ+, people of color, immigrants, the poor, the ill, the disabled. Use any privilege you have to defend those who have none.

• Remember The Truth - Always. It exists. It’s going to take a beating. They’re going to try scrub it, revise it, and whitewash it. Memorialize it. Screenshot it. Print it out. Chant it. The best way to counter disinformation is with actual information. The Truth is the enemy of The Lie.

• Pay attention to what’s working for you - Hang with the right people, choose the news you need to read, engage in that which gives you peace, seek likeminded souls, interact on local levels, reach out to elected officials, and if you feel you need to chill out more - do it. Whatever works for you.

• Take breaks - Turn off the TV. Recharge as needed. Try not to become too easily exhausted. Prioritize your own mental health.

For more on managing political anxiety: The Politics of Staying Sane

COMING SOON: BANTERS CHAT

IN CLOSING, this Banters collaboration will continue to present a more complete picture of what we’ll face ahead with frank exchanges that never pull punches. We’re resisters. And resistance needs focus and perspective. Outspoken HATES Trump, pure and simple. Shallow State says that what he really hates, is TrumpISM, the apparatus, and the fact that truth is being trampled. For more info on who we are check out our Welcome Issue, and follow us on Bluesky and yeah, Twitter.

Credits: Art by Outspoken

COMING UP in future issues of Banters:

Farewell, Joe Biden

The Trump Cult - WTF - maybe we're asking the wrong question

Fear is the point, but the Grift is the goal

What happened to Happiness, and why don’t Americans pursue it anymore?