President Trump’s unilateral decision to launch strikes on Iran without consulting Congress suggests the president believes he has sweeping authority over the federal government. In the days since the attacks began, he has made no effort to sell the war either to Congress or the American people. 

This war is historically unpopular, though, indicating that most Americans do not want an unchecked executive. 

The administration has made good on their campaign promise to deploy ICE agents across the country to target vulnerable communities through racial profiling. These deployments seem designed to indiscriminately spread fear and intimidate potential critics, with dozens of documented instances where U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained. 

Elections are the most important tool of democratic accountability, and they’re the one the White House is working hardest to undermine. From the raid on Fulton County over the 2020 presidential election to idle threats to nationalize elections, the Trump administration is working systematically to undermine the integrity of this year’s elections. Luckily, there are ways we can push back. 

Deployments of ICE and border patrol agents to communities around America have created volatile circumstances where violence can occur. Even as those stories have faded from the headlines in recent weeks, there remains a significant possibility for further violence as the midterm elections near. 

Crucially, though, these deployments have not cowed Americans across the country who have come together to dissent and help their neighbors, and federal courts have continuously shot down the most aggressive overreaches from federal agents.

Even as they continue to perpetuate the Big Lie, the Trump administration is also spreading misinformation about the 2026 midterms and how they’ll play out. This misinformation is the groundwork for attempts to dispute the results of the election after the fact. Elections in the United States remain free and fair, but we have to work to keep them that way. 

As the Trump administration continues to politicize the DOJ, news that Attorney General Pam Bondi was subpoenaed by Congress and that grand juries continue to nullify the agency’s prosecutions suggest that that effort has not been entirely successful. While the administration has successfully politicized law enforcement, they are so far failing to successfully prosecute and intimidate their political enemies. 

From the deployment of troops on American streets to the remaking of the federal government to the targeting of news organizations and universities, the administration made varied efforts to silence prominent institutions and cities that might have dissented against their policies.  

Those efforts were met with a mix of resistance and capitulation, but Trump’s declining approval rating and the success of No Kings protests suggests that room for dissent is growing again.