‘Your focus is resistance’: Trump wants to overwhelm you and it’s working

For the last couple of weeks, Donald Trump has pulled North America into the worst case of “on again, off again” the entire continent has felt in some time. Tariffs are on! Tariffs are off! Tariffs are back on! Tariffs are back off! Tariffs are back on but only cover specific items, and now they are more!

This “on again, off again” shtick is turning the economies of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico into one megalomaniac’s playthings. It’s causing anxiety among government officials and normal people alike and is even crashing the stock market—the success of which was previously important to Trump. CNN’s incredible “Fear and Greed Index” currently shows that the stock market is driven by “extreme fear”.

If this violent flipping of continental economics was the only thing going on, that would already be a lot to deal with. But in the past week alone, the Trump administration has used ICE to seize Mahmoud Khalil, a legal, green card-holding Palestinian immigrant, laid off 50% of the Department of Education, and said that violence towards Tesla dealerships counts as domestic terrorism while using the White House lawn as the grounds for an extended Tesla sales pitch. And that’s before you have time to think about the recent Zelenskyy meeting.

One dark thing happening at a time would be difficult enough to digest. But this is a lot, happening all at once, faster than our brains can process. While we digest one story and figure out how we might respond to or organize around it, another one pops up. You easily and quickly feel overwhelmed.

This isn’t a symptom of the second Trump administration. It’s a feature. It’s by design.

The Trump administration is purposely overwhelming you

Saying that overwhelming is a purposeful tactic being utilized by the second Trump administration isn’t conjecture. People in Trump’s circle—past and present—have talked about the plan, as John Oliver dug up for a Last Week Tonight segment. “Because they’re dumb and they’re lazy, [the media] can only focus on one thing at a time,” former advisor Steve Bannon said in an interview. “I said, ‘All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day, we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done.'”

That’s exactly what’s happening. There are new examples every day. Media outlets are struggling to keep up with the pace of developments unfolding from the Trump White House. Democratic politicians have seemingly been zapped into a state of near-complete inaction. And we’re left doom-scrolling, finding out more and more horrible things.

Doom-scrolling, though, lends itself to disempowerment—and to feeling overwhelmed. It makes us feel like passive NPCs with no agency. Not to be corny, but these people are supposed to work for us. If we’re each able to focus, or to be active, on just one area of socio-politics, that’s how we get through this.

Resist with your focus

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted the second Trump administration’s “flood the zone” tactic as well, adding that it’s a tactic often used by authoritarian regimes to paralyze their citizens into passivity. Actress Anna Akana also cited multiple points from sociologist Jennifer Walter in a popular Instagram video, noting that the rate of events is literally exceeding our cognitive functions, which means we shut down.

But Ocasio-Cortez pleaded with her supporters not to give up. “We need to try. I don’t want to hear, ‘Oh, we can’t do that. That’s impossible.’ That’s called consenting in advance,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Still, where to try? Walter-via-Akana suggests picking two to three issues you really care about and focusing your energy and attention towards those issues. It could be Gaza and women’s right to choose; it could be immigration and Medicaid; it could be education and informing people about how stupid tariffs are. Figure out what’s most important to you, and let those be the areas you engage with.

This might mean drawing boundaries where you wish you didn’t have to. That might be painful. But we have to strengthen our communities to get through this, and one huge pro of that is trusting others to tackle the issues most important to them. To be blunt, you can’t help as much if you’re burnt out. You have to take care of yourself as well. Attention is resistance. Self-care is now an act of resistance, too.

Know that you’re not alone in feeling overwhelmed. We’re trapped in a bad situation. But we’re only powerless if we’re passive. Call your Congressperson. Go to a town hall if your representative has a spine and is still hosting one. Find your community and organize locally. Take breaks to scream into a pillow and watch a dumb movie. Whatever it takes. We can get through this. You can get through this.