Biding Our Time: How to Keep Your Sanity in a World of Political Chaos

During the Biden administration, I often complained that the NYTimes “Breaking News” alerts I was getting weren’t actually breaking news. That’s no longer a concern—I’m now getting two or three times as many, and they all legitimately qualify. The flood-the-zone strategy is working: the media doesn’t have the resources to cover it all, and the public—quite frankly—doesn’t have the stomach for it. Reading the news right now is an exercise in flinching. Every new story delivers a pang of helplessness.

The Democrats don’t know how to respond. In fact, they seem partially paralyzed by an internal debate: Do they swing at everything, or do they wait for the right pitch? (That’s the baseball analogy Democrats themselves are using.) Meanwhile, a constitutional crisis is emerging, federal agencies are being stripped of funds, employees are being fired, Pete Hegseth seems to be abandoning Ukraine, and Elon Musk is basically trying to run the federal bureaucracy into the ground.

For what it’s worth, from what I’ve read, Trump’s immigration crackdown so far hasn’t been any more severe than Biden’s—his administration is just better at promoting its cruelty. Illegal crossings are down, which is arguably a success, but deportations remain flat and even below Obama-era numbers. (Obama’s strategy was to use ICE to apprehend undocumented criminals as they were leaving jails, making deportations both easier and less controversial.) Meanwhile, ICE is still begging for more funding, which I suspect is hard to secure while Musk is trying to shrink the federal government.

I think progressives—both in the media and within the Democratic Party—need a two-part strategy for dealing with this administration. The reality is, there’s not much we can do until the public turns on Trump. Every president gets some leeway in their first few months: Obama’s approval rating was +54 when he entered office. Trump’s was at +8 less than a month ago. He’s already down to +5. Obama’s numbers were cut in half within six months—and he was popular. Trump is not. By April, he’ll be underwater.

The best way to ensure that is to keep doing what we’re doing: highlighting their terrible actions. Honest to God, every time Trump speaks from the Oval Office, he loses half a point. Every time Elon speaks, he loses two points. Democrats have some power to stall and throw sand in the gears, but right now, this is mostly a PR battle. If Melissa Nathan can tank Blake Lively’s reputation in a few weeks, the Democrats can do the same to Trump and Musk. There’s plenty to work with—too much, in fact.

But for God’s sake, take a break. You can’t consume all of this 24/7 without losing your mind. Your blood pressure is literally spiking (seriously: Go check it). Doomscrolling Bluesky until you’ve lost all hope isn’t helping anyone. When my wife—whose literal job is to file lawsuits against the Trump administration—comes home from work, I just say: “The house is still standing. The kids are healthy. Dinner’s ready. There’s a new episode of High Potential on tonight.” You’ve got to put down the political news once in a while. I encourage you to read the main site, which we’re trying to keep largely Trump- and Elon-free.

The hardest thing we have to do is simply wait. The policies they’re implementing are going to be hugely detrimental to the country. Inflation is already rising (and Trump, of course, blamed Biden this morning—even though he promised to cut inflation on day one). The trade wars are going to sting. The cuts to the federal government will make America less safe and less respected. They’re trying to push through as much as possible as quickly as possible because they know the honeymoon will end. And when it does, Donald Trump will be a historically unpopular lame-duck president and the first buddy will be the CEO of a hugely unpopular electric car company.

These people are hanging themselves with their own rope and kicking the chair out from under them. Our job is to maintain our composure and sanity long enough to take advantage when they fall. It’s a war of attrition, but they’re mostly shooting blanks—issuing executive orders—and we just have to hunker down until they sink themselves into the mud. Then we pounce.

And remember this—and I don’t know if it actually helps, but it makes me feel better whenever Kara Swisher repeats it: No matter how much power or money they gain, Donald Trump and Elon Musk will always be profoundly insecure, lonely narcissists who will never truly understand how much strength comes from family, friends, and community. Cheesy? Yes. But no less accurate.