How the ACLU will fight Trump for four more years

The election results are in: Donald Trump will become the 47th President of the United States.

Trump’s victory came after a campaign in which he consistently targeted immigrants, transgender youth and other vulnerable communities with hateful rhetoric. He also threatened retaliation against dissidents and political opponents.

I know many of us fear what these results mean for our communities, our nation and ourselves. We know that a second Trump administration will be even more aggressive and effective than before — because Trump has repeatedly said so.

As outlined in Project 2025, under a second Trump administration, our federal government will deport immigrants through raids, target his political opponents, spy on private citizens, promote discrimination against marginalized communities, and control what we can and cannot do with our bodies. This dystopian view of American life threatens our fundamental freedoms. We know from past experience that our fear is real.

We also know that despair and resignation are not a strategy. At the ACLU, we choose to turn our fear into action. Together, we are strong enough to change the course of our nation’s history and defend our most basic rights and freedoms. That’s why the ACLU has a concrete plan to fight back. When President-elect Trump comes for our communities, he must penetrate all of us.

During Trump’s first term, the ACLU filed 434 lawsuits against his administration, successfully blocking some of Trump’s most egregious policies, such as the Muslim ban and immigrant family separation. As Trump once again set his sights on the White House, the ACLU’s legal and advocacy experts laid out a roadmap for fighting his administration head-on. On the first day we are prepared:

Once the 119th Congress is sworn in, we will urge members to use their constitutional powers to ensure oversight, investigate misconduct, and reject restrictive executive branch policies. At the state level, we will work with legislators to build a wall of freedom and enact laws that protect people from government abuses. In our communities, we work to educate people about what is at risk, what happens next, and how we can fight together for our freedoms.

This is my sixth presidential election as executive director of the ACLU, and I have no doubt that our organization is best prepared for this moment. We have more than a century of experience fighting political repression, we have some of the best legal and political leaders in the country, we have our nationwide network of ACLU affiliates, and we have all of you.

The anti-freedom and fundamentally anti-American policies of the Trump administration will be met with the full firepower of the ACLU, the power of our allies and the commitment of the American people. Above all, that gives me hope. The next four years will be challenging, but we are ready to take on the fight of the century. You can rely on that.