Clear, Grounded, and Resolved: Rising Above the Chaos of the Trump Administration

The beginning of this Trump administration has felt like a whirlwind—policy reversals, executive orders, and messaging to disorient and overwhelm the public. This strategy isn’t accidental. It’s designed to create confusion, sow misinformation, and make it harder for people to resist injustice.

As difficult as it may be, we must refuse to fall into that trap. In the face of chaos and misinformation, we can feel a rollercoaster of emotions, and still, we have to keep reminding ourselves to stay clear, grounded, and resolved in our fight for justice. Our movement for workers’ rights is focused on truth, powered by action, and united by a vision for justice that so many before us have fought for.

The Impact of Harmful Actions

In just a few days, the Trump administration has already taken steps that jeopardize workers’ rights and protections, pit groups of workers against one another, and put corporate interests above people. These rapid and deliberate policy changes are calculated to erode progress and silence truth.

Here are just a few examples:

• Immigration policies that dehumanize and destabilize communities: The Administration has instituted policies and practices that terrorize immigrant communities, separate mixed-status families, and deprive hard-working people of employment needed to support themselves, their families, and communities. The President attempted to amend the Constitution with an Executive Order stripping children born in this country after late February of citizenship based on their parents’ immigration status. A Republican-appointed federal judge enjoined this illegal order, stating, “I’ve been on the bench for four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one.  This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”
• Dismantling civil rights protections for all workers in this country:  Trump has repealed civil rights tools and protections that federal contract workers have had for the past six decades, shut down all efforts to make sure that federal employee and federal contract hiring is done in a manner that is open to all qualified candidates regardless of race, sex, and all other protected characteristics, and he has frozen ALL civil rights cases in the Departments of Labor and Justice. He has also illegally fired an NLRB Board Member and two EEOC Commissioners so those tribunals don’t have quorums and can’t take any actions, and is using the Presidential bully pulpit precisely to bully private sector companies to abandon all of their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. To be clear, this is not a return to so-called ‘meritocracy.’ Rather, it’s an attempted return to the days when people of color, women, and other marginalized people lacked the tools to ensure that they were evaluated on their  merits.
• Gutting the civil service and public sector workforce that provides all of us with crucial services: The Trump Administration is re-engaging in the war on federal employees it began during its first administration. Trump is attempting to remove civil service protections from a wide swath of non-partisan civil servants so they can be replaced with partisan loyalists, has ordered OPM to send repeated emails to the vast majority of federal workers trying to get them to resign with legally questionable promises of being paid through September 2025 without having to work, and has denigrated federal service itself by referring to it as “lower productivity jobs in the public sector.” Civil servants must be non-partisan and have protections against unjust firing so they have the power and protection to do their work free of partisan influence, and to blow the whistle, should they ever be asked to do work that is inappropriate or illegal. These protections ensure that we have safe water, food, and medicine, drivable roads and bridges, effective federal law enforcement, a civilian workforce that fully supports our military, safety net programs for people in need, and enforcement of the rights we are all afforded under the Constitution and laws of this country. By gutting the civil service, the Trump Administration will hinder the federal government’s ability to protect and serve those living in this country, and contrary to its rhetoric, make it far less efficient and effective.

Rising Above the Chaos

We cannot afford to be disoriented, misled, or discouraged. Instead, NELP is doubling down on what matters most:

1. Staying Clear: We are committed to exposing the truth, tracking every harmful policy through Worker Policy Watch, and providing workers, advocates, and allies with the facts they need to take action.
2. Grounding in Action: We are united with workers and advocates across the country to resist harmful policies and protect what’s right. Collective action is our greatest strength.
3. Remaining Resolved: We are resolved to fight for justice and a good jobs economy. Our vision and our goals are not altered one bit by the Trump administration and its cruel, bigoted policies. By staying focused on our vision of justice and dignity for all workers, and the good-jobs economy we all deserve, we can inspire others to join the fight and sustain our energy for the road ahead.

What You Can Do

The stakes are high, but we are clear-eyed and ready. Here’s how you can take action today:

• Get Informed: Visit Worker Policy Watch to stay updated on federal decisions impacting workers.
• Join the Movement: Support local and national campaigns advocating for workers’ rights. Organize in your community, speak out, and get involved.
• Stay Focused and Hopeful: Together, we can resist harmful policies and build a future where every worker is treated with dignity and respect.

The first 100 days of this administration have been designed to confuse and discourage us, but we are clear in our purpose, grounded in our actions, and hopeful in our vision. This is not the time to step back—it’s the time to step forward, together.

Power Up the Worker Policy Watch – Donate Now