By Ted Fong and Jack Hanna
Introduction
Democracy doesn’t die in a single dramatic moment. It erodes through systematic tactics that normalize the abnormal, silence opposition, and concentrate power. Many AANHPI immigrants came to this country to escape the horrors of authoritarianism. And now they find themselves confronting it again.
This guide documents the specific strategies the Trump administration has to advance its agenda. From manufacturing crises to justify illegal actions, to systematically firing government watchdogs, to weaponizing federal agencies against political opponents, these tactics follow a well-worn authoritarian playbook used by would-be dictators worldwide.
But understanding the playbook is only the first step. For every authoritarian tactic, there are proven counteroffensive strategies that communities can deploy. This guide pairs the abuses with concrete actions, including legal challenges, coalition-building, rapid response networks, and sustained organizing that turn outrage into effective opposition. Resistance requires moving beyond shock to strategy, channelling individual anger to collective power.
1. Using False Pretexts to Justify Illegal Actions
- Claiming that high levels of violent crime and drug smuggling constituted an “invasion,” invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to justify mass deportations without due process.
- Using a fraud case in Minnesota involving Somali immigrants as a pretext to send ICE into Minneapolis.
- Declaring that Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., were under siege and in a state of rebellion to justify federalizing and sending in the National Guard.
- Claiming that universities are hotbeds of anti-sematism to justify funding cuts
- Claiming without proof that Venezuelan boats were carrying drugs into the U.S. to justify bombing them.
2. Blaming without Proof
- Accusing Renee Good of being a “domestic terrorist” and Alex Pretti a “would-be assassin” to justify killing them.
- Accusing migrants for driving up housing costs, taking jobs from Americans, “poisoning our country,” and “eating the cats.”
- Calling any news organizations that are critical of it “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people”.
- Blaming the January 6 insurrection on Nancy Pelosi and the Capitol Police.
- Blaming non-citizens, dead people, crooked officials, and mail-in voting for voter fraud.
- Blaming Ukrainian leaders for the war with Russia.
3. Distraction
- Flooding the zone: releasing a stream of outrageous statements, social media posts, and executive actions to exhaust everyone’s attention to focus on one issue
- Creating new controversies: taking over Greenland, annexing Canada, and renaming the Kennedy Center.
- Using ad hominem attacks and nicknames for political opponents to shift focus from policy debates to personal drama.
- Gaslighting: Asserting that basic facts are untrue or fabricating events to create confusion and doubt among the public.
- Us vs. them rhetoric: using culture wars and imagined threats to motivate the base and distract from policy failures.
4. Lying
- The 2020 election was a fraud.
- We have the greatest economy in U.S. history.
- We have the biggest tax cut in U.S. history.
- “I’ve settled eight wars” in 10 months.
- The price of eggs is down 82% since March, and everything else is falling rapidly.
- “Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States”.
Counter Offensive Strategy: A Rapid Response
A rapid response to false allegations and narratives is critically necessary and should be based upon substantiated and documented facts and possibly include legal action if appropriate. That would entail organizing a rapid-response coalition of community and lawyers when possible organizing groups to publicly debunk false claims with actual statistics and evidence. This could also include creating alternative media amplifying local voices that contradict inaccurate or false federal narratives. As an example, Minneapolis residents must counter the false aspects of the Somali fraud narrative and document every false claim systematically to establish patterns of deception and then amplify it.
When officials falsely label activists as terrorists, mobilize independent investigations demanding bodycam footage, witness testimony, police records and unfortunately even autopsies when necessary. For anti-immigrant scapegoating, flood media with economic research showing migrants’ actual contributions to communities and economies. Create “truth squads” that follow official lies with documented corrections across all platforms. Center immigrant voices sharing their actual stories. Pressure media to stop amplifying baseless claims without immediate challenge. Organize media literacy sessions teaching propaganda recognition. Never repeat their lies even to debunk them—state truth affirmatively.
Develop organizational discipline to avoid chasing every distraction and outrage. Create focused campaigns around core issues—healthcare access, economic justice, democratic rights, climate action—and maintain and sustain them regardless of daily provocations.
When Greenland annexation dominates coverage, redirect conversations to actual policy impacts affecting real people. Train activists and spokespeople in message discipline: acknowledge the distraction briefly if necessary, then pivot immediately back to your agenda. Support journalism that analyzes patterns rather than breathless crisis coverage of each outrageous statement. Create communication protocols distinguishing between attention-worthy developments and deliberate distractions. Organize teach-ins on propaganda techniques. Set your own agenda.
5. Firing the Watchdogs and Experts in Government
- The “Friday Night Massacre” dismissal of 17 Inspectors General without the legally required 30-day notice to Congress
- The firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez after she refused to comply with demands from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to pre-approve vaccine recommendations without reviewing scientific evidence and to fire career scientists without cause.
- Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics was fired in August 2025 after Trump accused her of “rigging” jobs data, following poor economic figures.
Counter Offensive Strategy: Treat and characterize every possible improper or legally questionable firing as a constitutional breach that requires judicial review and immediate mobilization. Support fired inspectors general and scientists who are whistleblowers with legal defense funds and public platforms for their testimony including congressional investigations with subpoena power, especially when legally required procedures like 30-day notices are violated. Build alternative accountability infrastructure through independent watchdog organizations to create public databases tracking all dismissed experts, including their qualifications, and the pending investigations they were conducting. Pressure Congress to strengthen inspector general independence and scientific integrity protections with real enforcement mechanisms.
6. Weaponizing the Government Agencies to Seek Retribution
- Investigating FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell
- Launching a criminal investigation and issuing subpoenas to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey
- Attempting, but failing, to secure federal indictments against six Democratic lawmakers who published a video urging military personnel to refuse “illegal orders”
- Directing the FCC to investigate media outlets that provide negative coverage
- Investigating, extorting money, and terminating federal contracts of law firms representing Trump’s opponents or challenging his agenda.
Counter Offensive Strategy: Document every retaliatory investigation to establish clear patterns of political prosecution showing correlations between criticism and targeting. Support targeted individuals with legal defense funds, pro bono representation, and public solidarity campaigns. File ethics complaints and bar association grievances against attorneys participating in politically motivated prosecutions that violate established legal and judicial standards. Pressure Congress to exercise oversight through hearings, document requests, and appropriations restrictions on agencies conducting retaliatory investigations. Demand recusal of political appointees inappropriately attacking administration critics. Build coalitions between targeted lawmakers, governors, attorneys general, and media outlets to present unified resistance and share legal strategies. When law firms lose contracts for representing opponents, organize legal and business community pushback. Support legislative reforms strengthening prosecutorial independence and special counsel protections. Refuse to be silenced by retribution.
7. Using Fear, Intimidation, and Violence to Promote Political Agenda
- Masked ICE agents terrorized and killed Minnesotans to send a message to the rest of the country.
- Mass workplace ICE raids with military-style tactics in meatpacking plants, construction sites have created panic in immigrant communities nationwide.
- Threats against prosecutors and judges: The administration has publicly attacked state prosecutors investigating Trump associates, with supporters subsequently making death threats that forced several officials into protective custody.
Counter Offensive Strategy: Build a protective infrastructure by creating a network of legal observers, immigration attorneys, and community defenders who can mobilize within minutes of ICE operations beginning. Establish sanctuary spaces—churches, community centers, schools—trained in constitutional rights and prepared to document abuses. Organize comprehensive know-your-rights workshops in multiple languages teaching people to refuse warrantless entry, remain silent, and contact legal help. When violence occurs like the Minnesota killings, demand independent investigations beyond the federal government. Train legal observers to document everything: badge numbers, use of force, statements made. Pressure local officials to refuse ICE cooperation. Counter fear with visible, sustained solidarity.
8. Hypocrisy
- Standing up for the 2nd Amendment while saying it was wrong for Alex Pretti to bring a legally permitted gun to a protest
- Exonerating Pete Hegseth for Signalgate while demonizing Hilary Clinton for having a private email server.
- Kidnapping the president of Venezuela for drug crimes, while pardoning the former president of Honduras, who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking.
Counter Offensive Strategy: Make every double standard impossible to ignore through relentless documentation and visual comparison. Create side-by-side charts, videos, and social media graphics showing identical behaviors receiving opposite consequences: Pretti’s legal gun versus Second Amendment rhetoric, Honduras pardon versus Venezuela kidnapping. Build media literacy campaigns teaching people to recognize double standards as domination tactics demonstrating “rules for thee but not for me.” Support journalism that systematically tracks hypocrisy rather than treating each instance as isolated. File legal challenges arguing equal protection violations when laws are improperly applied selectively based on political affiliation. Organize coalitions around principle-based positions: if private communication is a security risk, it’s a risk for everyone; if gun rights are protected, they’re protected for all. Refuse “everyone does it” framing.
9. Demonizing Liberal Culture to Dismantle Government and Funding
- Portraying universities, journalists, diversity programs, and public health agencies as ideological enemies.
- Casting cultural institutions as corrupt elites.
- Pitting multiculturalism against nationalist priorities.
Counter Offensive Strategy: Expose the material stakes and the adverse consequences behind culture war rhetoric by connecting attacks on “woke universities” to actual research funding cuts affecting disease cures, agricultural innovation, and technological advancement benefiting everyone regardless of politics. Engage with and farmers and others how USDA research improves their yields, rural communities, how public broadcasting serves their information needs, how veterans diversity programs improve VA healthcare quality, and how small businesses consumer protection prevents fraud. Force culture warriors to explain why cancer research is “woke” or clean water standards are “elitist.” Support alternative funding while fighting for public investment and reach out and partner with unknown and unexpected allies who benefit from a functional government that protects the interests, health and public safety of the community.
10. Performative Behavior
- The Wolf Persona: Centralizing power through unpredictability and fear
- Relying on spectacle and show of force (ICE) to appeal to base instincts
- Acolytes and members of the inner circle mirror the mob boss’s combative behavior to show their loyalty.
Counter Offensive Strategy: Refuse to amplify or validate the performance—and counter their narrative with documented refutation that denies them the propaganda victory they seek. When ICE conducts televised deportations or stages border photo ops, don’t share the footage or give them free media coverage. Instead, create counter-programming showing real impacts: families separated, communities disrupted, resources wasted on theater while actual problems go unsolved. Organize alternative events demonstrating actual community values—when they stage cruelty, stage massive solidarity actions, respond by asking “What did this actually accomplish?” Build campaigns that make performative governance politically costly by relentlessly highlighting the actual failures and wasted resources that they are attempting to hide. Document officials prioritizing performance over performing the important and critical tasks they are legally charged to perform. Encourage journalism and the public at large to examine gaps between rhetoric and results by make them defend measurable outcomes, not attitude or theater.
Conclusion
Authoritarianism advances when good people feel overwhelmed, isolated, or powerless. But history proves that organized communities can resist even the most determined attacks on democracy. Every tactic in this playbook has been defeated before, when people refused to be silent, built protective networks, demanded accountability, and sustained pressure over time.
Your resistance matters. Start locally: organize your neighbors, document abuses, support targeted communities, and refuse to normalize cruelty. Connect with established organizations doing this work. Remember that authoritarians rely on our exhaustion and division, so counter it with joy, solidarity, and stubborn persistence. Democracy survives through the daily choices of ordinary people who refuse to surrender it.
