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WHAT DO I DO�IF TRUMP WINS?

NOTE FOR FACILITATORS

This workshop is designed to last 90 minutes. See timeline agenda.

This workshop is to help people build a personal “break in case of fire” plan — identifying behaviors I would want to if Trump wins to support my personal self. It is focused on individual resilience tools and resources — not organizational planning.

It’s designed as an online course. If you decide to adapt it for in-person:

You’ll need to adapt the warm-ups and closings.
You can either display the Kamala Harris videos as “pick-me-ups” or develop something else.

The rest will work.

You are welcome to “File>Make a Copy” to make your own adjustments.

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Agenda and Estimate Times

Warm-up

Slides 6-11
Uses breakouts groups (groups of 4)

Time Travel: 2016

Slides 3 to 5

What Trump is Likely to Do

Slides 12-16

Break (Slide 17)

Journaling: 4 categories of what I might do

Slides 18-22
Uses breakout groups (groups of 4)

Closing

Slides 23 to end

10 minutes

20 minutes

10 minutes

20 minutes

10 minutes

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WHAT DO I DO�IF TRUMP WINS?

A hopefully not completely terrifying exploration…

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“I want us to ask who benefits from our hopelessness, and to deny our oppressors the satisfaction of getting to see our pain. I want them to wonder how we foment such consistent and deep solidarity and unlearning. I want our infiltrators to be astounded into their own transformations, having failed to tear us apart.”

― Adrienne Maree Brown

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Get anything �you need �to be present

Remove distractions

Get a beverage

Get note-taking stuff

Center yourself

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Time Travel: 2016

We have some life experience to lean on. Just remember the election of 2016. Recall how you responded then.

What if you got to go in a time machine and gave advice to your 2016 self? �What would you say?

Spend 8 mins sharing in groups of 4. Each person write down their own advice for themselves.

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“To hope is to gamble. It's to bet on your futures, on your desires, on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty is better than gloom and safety. To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk. Despair demands less of us, it's more predictable, and in a sad way safer.”

― Rebecca Solnit

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Advice to ourselves

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Advice to ourselves

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Some additional advice

Take the time to grieve what was lost. I know we’re activists, but sometimes we do have to accept loss.

Take the time to share rage with your friends who can hear rage. Don’t only post — call them or hang out so you can benefit from feeling heard.

Those of us in activist groups can’t expect our organization to carry our fights. It’s just one org in the large movement ecosystem. ��Look outside our group for organizations that fill other parts of your needs, too.

Your friends and colleagues will handle this differently than you do. It’s okay.

It’s okay to have divergent strategies, responses, and inclinations. This is a good time to find those who speak to your condition.

FEEL THE RANGE OF FEELINGS

FIND SUPPORT �OUTSIDE OF OUR JOBS

ACKNOWLEDGE DIFFERENT STRATEGIES

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WHAT TRUMP IS LIKELY TO DO

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WHAT TRUMP IS LIKELY TO DO

Deploy Military Domestically

Federal Law Enforcement Overreach

Direct Investigations Against Critics

Give License to Lawbreaking

The Autocrat Won’t Leave

Regulatory Retaliation

From The Authoritarian Playbook

Directing Investigations Against Critics and Rivals: Retribution is the dominant theme of Trump’s 2024 campaign, and his allies are making plans to eliminate the Department of Justice’s traditional prosecutorial independence to give Trump greater personal control to direct law enforcement against his perceived opponents and insulate himself from accountability.

Pardons to License Lawbreaking: During Trump’s first term, he discovered that he could leverage the pardon power to induce witnesses against him into silence. In a second term, he has indicated he would further abuse pardons to incite political violence, incentivize lawbreaking for his benefit, and render himself above the law.

Regulatory Retaliation: In addition to steering prosecutorial discretion via the Department of Justice, Trump has vowed to consolidate and wield federal regulatory power to reward political loyalty and punish his critics, particularly those associated with the media. There are numerous reports of this regulatory retaliation happening during Trump’s first term, and plans for a second include ways of removing those obstacles that limited opportunities for more.

Domestic Deployment of the Military: A central hallmark of American democracy is that the U.S. military not be used against American citizens. But Trump plans to abuse the Insurrection Act to order military force to quash dissent and target vulnerable communities.

Federal Law Enforcement Overreach: Trump’s declaration that immigration is “poisoning the blood of our country” is a grim foreshadowing of how he will invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime provision dating back to 1798. Once Trump has that power, he has also expressed his will to expand the footprint of federal law enforcement to police cities and shut down lawful protests.

The Autocrat Won’t Leave. Trump has repeatedly flirted with staying in office beyond a second term. Given the actions of Trump-like figures around the globe attempting to stay in power, this threat becomes hard to ignore.

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What’s inside you right now?

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Practice with breath

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Break!

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Journal & small group

There will be a lot of fires — issues, people, violations that we care about.

We will be completely exhausted if individually we respond to every one of them. We’re going to explore triaging.

We’ll start with 5 mins in a journal exercise. It will be challenging. The exercise is just for you to explore which fires you want to work on — some perhaps with your paid job, and others as volunteer projects or outside of your job.

Then we’ll share how it was in small groups for 10 mins.

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Journal & small group

Grab your journal or �find a “break in case of emergency” journal (with resources) at:

bit.ly/trump-journal

(If you use this link, go to slide 4. You can explore the rest later.)

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What are some issues I will completely throw down on?	What are some issues I will do a lot about?
What are some issues I will do a little about (social media, share)?	What are some issues I care about but I may not do much of anything?

Okay, so here’s what we’re going to journal on.

There are a lot of things we could do: but you can’t do them all. So in each category try to identify at least one or two things you might in each category.

Read the categories:

What are some issues I will completely throw down on?
What are some issues I will do a lot about?
What are some issues I will do a little about (social media, share)?
What are some issues I care about but I may not do much of anything?

Explain this is JUST FOR YOU. You don’t have to show this with anyone. It’s personal and obviously you can change anything. It’s not a commitment or a promise. Because things can change.

However, it’s to give yourself some permission — if you can — for accepting what you can and cannot do.

Got it?

Send people into small groups with those categories. They’ll get a few minutes to write and then start sharing in their small groups. Try to alert the groups when half their time is used up.

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Debrief with large group (with screen share off.)

Provide lots of affirmation
Admit especially that 4th category can be extremely painful to explore
Encourage people to note that every organization (and your friends) will have to make a similar list
Help signal to people how to explore the movement ecology of what’s out there (one group won’t have perfect overlap with you — so you may need to connect with some other groups)
This is just muscle-building. You didn’t have to complete it or get it right. It is a challenge.

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Which Kamala is how you feel now?

IN CHAT: Share your number and one lesson you’re taking from this session.

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

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7 BEHAVIORS TO STAY GROUNDED

Share 7 tips for how to strengthen our spirits to resist and thrive in challenging times: FindingSteadyGround.com

An article specifically from a therapist writing post-2016 election: https://www.findingsteadyground.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Finding-Steady-Ground-in-the-Post-Election-Distress.pdf

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WHAT WILL YOU DO IF TRUMP WINS

Explore scenarios and consider your options with this choose-your-own-adventure style book!

You can explore the book or online at: WhatIfTrumpWins.org

(Also, interviews on how people have fought authoritarians and scenario-planning tools for teams.)

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AUTHORITARIAN PLAYBOOK

If you want to dive deeper into what Trump might do, I suggest The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025, created by Protect Democracy.

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POLITICAL VIOLENCE?

Community responses to political violence can both support victims and impose costs on those who incite and engage in abuse. We need to stand up to those who want to silence our voices, who try to deny us our rights, and who aim to bully their way into political influence through intimidation and violence.

Download the guide at:

https://www.endpoliticalviolence.org/

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Closing Remarks

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Thanks

This session was created by Daniel Hunter (danielhunter.org). Feel free to use and adapt this workshop for your own groups fighting for justice.

Design Credits: This presentation template is from Slidesgo, including Icons by Flaticon and infographics and images by Freepik. Additional images from People illustrations by Storyset