Heidi Stevens: Trump has treated the country as his stage. But Americans are not extras in their own life stories

Chicago Tribune

02-05-2025

Of all the roles that Donald Trump has held during the course of his life, the most consistent has been performer.
Whether he's helming a real estate company, backing a string of casinos or bankrolling a football team; founding Trump University or purchasing Miss Universe; running for president or running the country, he makes sure to perform the part for all the world to see — chronicling his endeavors in self-aggrandizing books, splashing his name across buildings, launching his own social media platform when he was banned from the others.
'The Apprentice' may have been his first reality TV show, but America has been serving, in Trump's estimation, as his cast, crew and set all along.
And now that his main character vibes and commitment to artifice are back in the White House, he's determined to remake our past, present and future in his image, once and for all.
Whether it's threatening universities that don't bend to his will or axing the entire team of scientists compiling a massive report on the effects of climate change or laying waste to programs he doesn't care for — programs that feed hungry people and educate children and create a safety net for seniors — his vision won't be blurred by inconvenient truths.
Whether it's ignoring a unanimous Supreme Court ruling or arresting a sitting judge or detaining a Tufts student over a co-authored oped or deporting U.S. citizen children, including one with cancer, his story won't be sidetracked by laws.
Whether it's banning parts of history from being taught in our schools or purging military heroes who weren't white men from Defense Department websites or banning words like equality, Black and inclusion from government documents, his commitment to whitewashing is absolute.
Whether it's issuing an executive order declaring that the United States doesn't recognize transgender individuals or refusing to engage with reporters who use gender pronouns in their emails, there's always room for cruelty in this show.
One thing that doesn't fit neatly in the Trump narrative is thousands upon thousands of fed up Americans flooding the streets and sidewalks of small towns and bucolic suburbs and giant cities.
So many people. So many signs. So much righteous indignation at what's transpired in 100 days. So much determination to bend this narrative back toward constitutional adherence and democratic ideals, away from economic ruin and global isolation.
So many Americans who refuse to be relegated to extras in the stories of their own lives.
'Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now,' Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a recent speech to New Hampshire Democrats. 'These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soap box and then punish them at the ballot box.'
Earlier in his speech, he had this to say:
'It's time for us to be done with optimism about their motives or their objectives. It's time to stop wondering if you can trust the nuclear codes to people who don't know how to organize a group chat. It's time to stop ignoring the hypocrisy and wearing a big gold cross while announcing the defunding of children's cancer research. Time to stop thinking that we can reason or negotiate with a madman. Time to stop apologizing when we were not wrong. Time to stop surrendering when we need to fight.'
The governor's been getting some blowback from critics who say he's inciting unrest. But megaphones and microphones are not violent weapons. They're tools for change, and they're constitutionally protected. He's right to encourage Americans to exercise their rights.
He's also not alone.
No less than David Brooks, a longtime conservative commentator — he described himself as 'a happy member of Team Red for decades' — is making a similar plea.
'So far, we have treated the various assaults of President Trump and the acolytes in his administration as a series of different attacks,' Brooks wrote in the New York Times on April 17. 'In one lane they are going after law firms. In another they savaged U.S.A.I.D. In another they're attacking our universities. On yet another front they're undermining NATO and on another they're upending global trade. But that's the wrong way to think about it. These are not separate battles. This is a single effort to undo the parts of the civilizational order that might restrain Trump's acquisition of power. And it will take a concerted response to beat it back.'
This isn't normal politics, he argues.
'We're seeing an assault on the fundamental institutions of our civic life, things we should all swear loyalty to — Democrat, independent or Republican,' he wrote. 'It's time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It's time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement.
'I'm really not a movement guy,' he concluded. 'I don't naturally march in demonstrations or attend rallies that I'm not covering as a journalist. But this is what America needs right now. Trump is shackling the greatest institutions in American life. We have nothing to lose but our chains.'
It's not how Trump would script it. But America isn't his show. It's our nation. It's our communities. It's our values. It's our shared history and sacrifices and sweat and triumphs and traditions and dark chapters and hard-earned lessons and joy and art and cherry blossoms and mountains and 125,000 lakes and everything we've been trusted to care for and leave in better shape than we found it.
It's real. It's fragile. It's all of ours.