From Dread to Defiance: A Conversation with Leah Greenberg, Katie Bethell, and Maurice Mitchell

Movement leaders look back on the first year of Trump's second term

Where are we today compared to where you hoped we would be after last year’s presidential election?

Leah Greenberg: After the presidential election, I feared that Donald Trump and the MAGA movement would successfully consolidate power into an authoritarian regime, and I believed that the central challenge of this year was to build a pro-democracy movement capable of halting that process of authoritarian consolidation and catalyzing massive backlash.

A year later, we’ve seen indescribable, unfathomable levels of harm—to our families, our neighbors, our democracy—but we’ve also seen the explosion of a powerful pro-democracy movement, the fracturing of the MAGA coalition, and the unpopularity of Trump’s own horrendous actions catch up with him. We’ve held open the political and civic space necessary to keep the fight going, which was the single most crucial mandate for 2025.

Katie Bethell: Trump, his administration, and the entire Republican Party were not ready for all of us to fight right on back for our fellow Americans and our communities. Millions of us have peacefully taken the streets in historic numbers—with tens of thousands more protests held already in 2025 compared to the first year Trump took office. As we close out the first year of the second Trump administration, remember this: When they won last November, Donald Trump and Republicans were counting on us to give up and let them take over our country. We haven’t and we won’t.

At the same time, we can’t sugarcoat the heartbreaking reality of where we are one year later. With the backing of a Republican-led Congress and a MAGA majority on the Supreme Court, President Trump has inflicted pain, suffering, and chaos on the American people. Republicans have stripped away health care, ripped immigrants away from their families, taken a wrecking ball to our freedoms and democracy, and more.

Maurice Mitchell: Looking back to last year, I felt a profound sadness as I realized the full intention behind MAGA movement and a deep sense of dread, fear, and concern for all those who would be harmed. But I also felt a powerful defiance. I believed that to overcome that dread, we would have to earn our way through organizing. Every day since, we have focused on building the broadest, most diverse, and most leaderful movement possible. Now, a year later, while I still remain concerned about the Trump administration, I feel great momentum and encouragement. I believe we will win. The past election was, to me, a rebuke.

What are moments during 2025 that have given you the most hope and encouragement?

KB: I fiercely believe that humanity will overcome the harshness as a result of the countless acts of courage, care, and compassion emanating from both passionate grassroots activists and everyday Americans. But I realize that you can’t take in the news this year without coming face to face with the unrelenting cruelty coming from this administration. Every day MoveOn members and Americans are coming together to push back and overcome this pain from the Trump administration and the growing affordability crisis. It’s remarkable to see joyful, peaceful protests, from neighbors protecting neighbors against ICE raids to those flooding their town halls to save health care. And these demonstrations and acts of resistance are not just happening in the big Democratic stronghold cities, but in ruby red rural communities, by people young and old and every age in between.

One of the most inspiring stories I’ve heard this year comes from MoveOn’s community activist cohort in Arizona, District 1. Every Monday, since early June, they have been showing up to collect food donations to raise awareness about the budget cuts to the SNAP program that Trump and Republicans in Congress enacted. They have collected more than 3,500 pounds of food for local food banks in the Scottsdale region!

MM: Our electoral victories affirm the movement we are building. At their core, elections are an honest process of votes, tallies, and clear outcomes. The resounding victory this past November was a win for democracy and an even greater triumph for the Working Families Party. Every election leading up to November, and those since, confirms that our argument powerfully reflects where working people stand. It is a persuasive case, coalescing new coalitions—a truth we saw in mayor’s races from New York to Seattle, in city councils from Jersey City to Fort Collins, and in special elections and primaries like the one in the Tucson area. Again and again, these results affirm that our movement is rowing in the right direction.

LG: The Hands Off, No Kings, and No Kings 2 rallies were moments of incredible hope for me. We saw mass mobilization on a literally unprecedented scale, millions of people flooding the streets, and the seeds of hyper-local organizing sprouting in thousands of communities across the country.

There have been periods like the one we’re in throughout history. Who are the resistance heroes you look to for inspiration during times like these?

MM: I think it’s important to talk about the contributions of Black Americans in the anti-fascist fight. Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. Du Bois and many of the folks who fought against lynching, they explicitly talked about it as an anti-fascist movement. There were also a number of Black people who went to Spain to fight against fascism informed by their struggle against white supremacy in the United States.

So, yes, we can look at modern-day Brazil that defeated Bolsonaro or the legacy of fighting fascism in Germany and Europe. But we also have this legacy of fighting fascism right here in the United States.

LG: I’m inspired by Diane Nash, an architect of the Nashville lunch counter campaign, Freedom Rides, and one of the key organizers of SNCC. Her extraordinary courage and strategic vision allowed her to organize effective challenges to the systems of segregation and racial authoritarianism in America.

What makes you optimistic going into 2026? Where do you see the movement going?

LG: For every horrific act by the Trump administration, there are a hundred regular people who are taking real risks to defy this hateful regime, protect and support their neighbors, and stand up for our values and our democracy. There are more of us than there are of them and in 2026 we’ll prove it in the streets and at the ballot box.

KB: Across the movement and at MoveOn, our members are more energized now than they have been in years. And, as we predicted when Trump was elected, his chaotic and anti-American agenda has only resulted in historically low favorability. Our pressure is working. The MAGA dam is breaking.

I’m optimistic that, as they see the leadership and energy of the grassroots, we will see more Democrats wielding their power and leverage to ramp up the pressure against Trump’s authoritarian rule, his federal takeover of our cities, his health care cuts, his terrorizing ICE raids, and other deeply unpopular parts of his agenda. I’ve been proud to see elected officials like Senator Chris Van Hollen doggedly working to return his constituent Kilmar Abrego Garcia home to his family, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker enacting laws to blunt Trump, whether to protect immigrants from ICE or to protect the privacy of Americans with autism. And there are many more Democratic champions out there, who are raising hell and not afraid to get their hands dirty in calling the administration out and standing with everyday people.

More people are also thinking about what’s next—we cannot only be anti-Trump, we have to show the country we’re fighting for a new system that works for them. There’s growing distrust and outrage from people of all walks of life over the growing economic and political power concentrated in the hands of billionaires. Together, we can continue turning that outrage into action. History has shown us that with each hurdle, our fight for progress comes back stronger, louder, and more effective.

MM: The past election was a rebuke of MAGA and Trump—a rejection of his failed policies and his economy. It was an affirmation that everyday working people, across all races and regions, are facing economic hardship and reject the cruelty and chaos of MAGA. This moment presents a possibility, an opening for the broadest solidarity movement to come together in 2026—but only if we build it, only if we organize it. There is a hunger for a grassroots economic populism, grounded in the principles of solidarity, and it is our mandate to meet that demand in the hearts of working people everywhere.