Pillars of Support, Part 2
Who, What, Where, and How To Break Them
The state is not an institution that floats in the air: it is bulwarked by all the people and organizations (and infrastructure) that enable it to exist, and by the people and institutions that support them in turn.
These are the “pillars of support” under the Trump Administration.1
In order to effectively undermine the Administration, activists must focus on these pillars of support in addition to staging the many demonstrations and other efforts currently underway.
Our overall intention must be to recreate a democratic United States of America that functions better than it has before, and that is founded on the rule of law and the cooperation of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the US government: the vision that guided the USA’s founding members to create a country independent of the authoritarian rule of the King of England.
It has not been an easy task to implement the vision of President, Congress, and Courts working together in the best interests of all the American people.
This vision and model can still work. If we believe in a Federal government benevolently guiding the states, it must work. If it doesn’t, the country runs the risk (unless it’s an opportunity) of physically dividing into separate nations.
Today, on May 3, 2025, the Executive and the Legislative branches of government are “cooperating” with each other, in the sense that the majority of our elected Congresspeople are kowtowing to the Executive’s power.2
Some are loyal to the President instead of to their constituents or to other American citizens. (Should not a Republican Senator be concerned about people from all parties?)
But several in fact have stated publicly that they are afraid of the President. This is the threat of tyranny.3
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judicia[l] in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self–appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny” (James Madison, Federalist No. 51, 1788).4
The Judicial branch is taking its appropriate, Constitutionally-required stance, evaluating legal complaints about Presidential actions and ruling for or against them. The Court, from Supreme to local, is the only governmental branch that is exercising attention to the Constitution and the law.
Unfortunately, the Courts have few (if any) methods of enforcing recent rulings, and the President and his officials ignore and defy legal decisions against them. Law without consequences is no law at all.
Hence, the People must help the Judicial. We are the same side. While we may not be able enforce its decisions, there are other ways.
What Can We Do, and How?
We can help the Courts by attempting to persuade the state’s pillars of support to change sides.
Short of that, we can make daily functioning more difficult for the state’s pillars of support.5
The goal is to help them decide that it is not worth their time, money, energy, or personal well-being to remain in their positions of enabling the administration.
Broadly, the pillars of support include:
o Every Republican member of Congress or the Senate (excluding the one or two who publicly oppose the Administration),6
o Any elected official in any capacity, in any state, who supports the Administration,
o Every member of Project 2025, and any right-wing think tank,
o Every member of the Cabinet,
o Every Trump-appointee in any governmental or non-governmental position,
o Every business associated with any of the people above, domestic or international, including businesses owned by President Trump abroad,7
o Any business associated with the families or spouses of anyone above, including the President
o All businesses that are profiting from any Trump executive order or cancellation of previous orders or regulations,
o Any business in Washington DC or elsewhere that helps the Trump Administration and its above supporters to function in any way,
o Any local or regional utility company that enables the Administration or its supporters to function,
o All of the roads and means of public transportation that also enable the Administration to function,
o All of the people in various social media positions8 from X or TikTok influencers to newscasters at Fox News who report misinformation from the Trump Administration and the families and businesses associated with them, and
o Any member and their families of the J6 protesters and of the various ultra-right-wing groups in any state of the union.9
The work of the activist is to undermine this upside-down pyramid in any nonviolent way possible so that, finally, the Administration can no longer function and is replaced.
Please note that nonviolent activism is generally more effective than activism that resorts to violence. Specifically, we mean that nonviolent activism should NOT include deliberate harm to any person.
Nonviolent activism does not exclude actions that damage property or actions that break the law (such as the peaceful occupation or blockade of a government building).
You will avoid being hurt yourself if you vow not to hurt someone else. Instead of throwing rocks at counter-demonstrators, hand them flowers or cookies. (And avoid the temptation to distribute pot brownies).
Brainstorm: How to Chip Away at Those Pillars
Take the above list and expand it: it’s not exhaustive, and not all links to actual entities are provided above: fill in the blanks. Go to it!
Form a group of 5-10 people, and work together, first identifying all the supporting pillars you can imagine, and then identifying the pillars under them, and so on. Use the exercise available on the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict as a guide.
Make a schematic of the upside-down-triangle to better envision the pillars, imagine what could happen if you removed them, and then design a way of removing them.
For example:
We have already seen the effect of “TeslaTakedown”, as Elon Musk’s influence and enthusiasm appears to be waning as a result of the various actions that have caused Tesla purchases and stock value to fall.
However, in terms of DOGE and its employees, while they are active, they remain a threat. In this pillar of support context, then, it could be fruitful to erode their ability to work.
Here are some possible ways to work against DOGE:10
o The parent of one DOGE employee has a food business. One could boycott that business, in person or as a larger online campaign. The trickle-down effect could result in the resignation or demoralization of the DOGE employee. Similar efforts could be applied to the family or friends of all DOGE employees.
o The DOGE employees, many of them young men, must rent rooms, eat, drink and entertain themselves while in Washington, DC. Find out where they eat, and encourage boycotting that restaurant, deli, bar, and so on.
o Find out where they live, and boycott that place of residence (hotel, AirBnB, etc) and/or loudly demonstrate outside when they are trying to sleep (if these people ever do sleep).
o Find out where they go in the evenings – bar, restaurant, night club, etc – and go there yourself. Engage with them in conversation, and attempt to understand. If that seems fruitless, perhaps you accidentally spill a drink on them. Or, demonstrate outside the establishment with the usual protest signs, in hopes that the establishment will think better of serving these DOGE boys.
o Butterworth’s, in DC, is said to be a MAGA hangout; visit, and see what you might do to make it an unpleasant place to be for DOGE and any other MAGA supporter.11
The point is to be creative, crafty, a little mischievous, brave, and determined; and, to strategize as a team.
Strategy and tactics must move like water, adapting to every situation.
Other pillars of support must be removed in different ways, shaped to the characteristics of each pillar. (Concrete pillars can be broken with sledgehammers; steel pillars need a welding torch).
For example, consider elected Republican Congresspeople and Senators. How can they be dislodged from office, or persuaded to at least vote against Trump proposals? One can chip away at these pillars through active campaigning, going to their town halls, and using all the tools typically employed in real elections.
That’s all for now.
We are running a fundraiser to raise money to provide free handbooks that describe these methods in detail. Please consider donating.
Consider buying the handbook itself, available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. (We understand the Amazon issue and listed the book there reluctantly in April; it was a quick and easy way to get the word out).
Soon the book will be available in independent stores too (you can ask your local bookseller to order it through IngramSpark), and, chapter by chapter, here in this Substack newsletter, as mentioned in previous posts.
Other work to do too: build a new pyramid to support those who are worthy of support. Donations, people, organizations, businesses, alternative news, alternative politics, find suitable leaders, get people off their asses and into the streets.
Footnotes:
Workshops on International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resource/pillars-of-support-2/
“The Republican-led Congress isn’t just watching the Trump administration gobble up its constitutional powers. It is enthusiastically turning them over to the White House.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/us/politics/trump-republicans-congress-power.html
ABC News on Senator Lisa Murkowski, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-lisa-murkowski-fellow-republicans-afraid-trump-musk/story?id=119956519
Bill of Rights Institute, https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/separation-of-powers-with-checks-and-balances
“By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct trafc, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep food supplied to the markets, make steel, build rockets, train the police and the army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services to the ruler through a variety of organizations and institutions. If the people stop providing these skills, the ruler cannot rule.” – Gene Sharp from The Politics of Nonviolent Action quoted at The Commons Social Change Library (https://commonslibrary.org/pillars-of-support-upside-down-triangle/)
Full lists of Congress reps and Senators can be found here https://www.gop.gov/about/members.htm and here https://www.republicanleader.senate.gov/senate-resources/republican-senators
Such as companies in India and elsewhere, for example: https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/trump-towers-india-expansion-business-model-125032000904_1.html
Such as Laura Loomer (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly8y27dwgpo) and Jack Posobiec, profiled expertly by the Southern Poverty Law Center here https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/jack-posobiec/ and mentioned in a recent New Yorker article here https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/28/how-trump-worship-took-hold-in-washington
US Capitol Police arrest record on January 7, 2021: https://www.uscp.gov/media-center/press-releases/us-capitol-police-arrests-january-6-2021
Full list of J6 protesters: https://www.npr.org/2021/02/09/965472049/the-capitol-siege-the-arrested-and-their-stories
DOGE employees listed in NY Times and elsewhere, including this article from Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-doge-silicon-valley-corporate-connections/
“Right-wing tastes have changed dramatically from the first administration. We’re selling more bone marrow than I’ve ever sold in my entire career. We’re going through cases and cases a day. Both of our fryers are only filled with beef tallow. I’ve always done that one way or the other, but they are particularly excited about that. We run out of martini glasses every single night, for sure.” - from The Washingtonian review and interview with Butterworth’s chef-owner Bart Hutchins.