Ready for Anything
Zine #36 — December 2024
There’s a second Trump presidency on the horizon, and we’ve got about a month and a half left to get ready for it as we write this.
There are two things we absolutely should not do: we should not assume that everything is going to be fine. We also should not panic or despair.
We need to do what we always need to do: look soberly at likely possibilities, get as prepared as we can for those possibilities, and then try not to get lost in anxiety about every possibility we weren’t able to prepare for.
What is Possible
The realistic spectrum of possibilities with a second Trump presidency is frustratingly wide. A second Trump presidency could look a lot like the last Trump presidency: the normalization of far-right talking points matched with an escalation in rightwing policy from the government. A second Trump presidency could also mean the ushering in of a Christo-fascist dictatorship. It could also mean the collapse of the United States. We suspect it’ll be worse than last time but not outright the rebirth of Nazi Germany. We’ll see. We’ve got a wide swath of possibilities to prepare for.
Trump is an oddly honest politician. He follows through on his promises to the best of his ability. With that said, his ability might be constrained in some areas: let’s take his mass deportation claims as an example. The American Immigration Council has some good data on how much something like he has suggested would cost. Assuming 1 million deportations a year and 20 percent of undocumented people just leaving to avoid being deported, the cost of his plan would be about $88 billion a year. Meanwhile, a one-off mass deportation of 11 million people would cost about $315 billion, of which $167.8 billion would be spent on the detention costs alone. These are astronomical sums, and such a budget is unlikely to get much support. Even if it did, a mass deportation would require ICE to hire between 220,000 and 409,000 new staff between government employees and law enforcement.
This does not mean that life will not become significantly harder for undocumented people under Trump. It likely will. One of the areas where Trump did do meaningful damage in his first term was the rights of migrants. Both his use of Title 42, a public health law, and his so-called “muslim ban” inflicted real suffering on a great many people. Since then, Biden has increased DHS funding, handing Trump the tools to do more damage in a second term.
Biden also kept some of the tariffs Trump enacted in his first time, and it seems likely we might see more tariffs in his second. These could range from 10 percent to as much as 100 percent. In both cases these would drive up consumer prices, in the latter case they would cause a catastrophic rise in the cost of goods and make it even harder for already struggling working class families to get by. This could in turn have larger economic consequences, which at their worst could cause an almost total economic collapse. However this would not be in Trump’s interests, and one thing he has been consistent about is placing his own interests and those of his ultra-wealthy supporters above almost anything else.
Trump’s own interests do not seem to align with those of the christofascist right when it comes to bodily autonomy and reproductive justice. Trump has repeatedly said he will leave it up to states to decide if people have the right to an abortion, however it is possible that some of his appointees could make it very difficult for people to travel to obtain reproductive healthcare. The same could potentially be true of birth control, and even IVF.
People, especially children, receiving gender affirming care have been in the crosshairs of the culture war for the last several years, and it seems that the far right is determined to make life as hard as possible for trans people. This could possibly result in it becoming much harder to get federal identity documents with your gender on them, or to obtain gender affirming surgery, or hormonal therapy. The former would be a much easier change than the latter, and Trump’s very narrow majority in the house might make legislating this issue difficult. However a presidential appointee could make it difficult for trans people to get a passport with a single email. Even without any state action, the possibility of sporadic hate-based violence is significantly increased when that hate is being spewed by politicians and people in places of power.
What Can Be Done
Because the range of possibilities is so broad, it’s best to focus on preparedness that is worth doing regardless of what’s coming. Some of these things are easier than others, some are inherently risky, some may end up being uncalled for, while others might be vital to the survival of our communities.
To begin with, now is the time to make sure that any documents you can renew are renewed, especially if you find yourself in a red state. Complying with state bureaucracy is a burden now, but it may become an active risk in short order. If possible, trans and nonbinary people should renew any documents that have their gender markers on them now. It is worth considering whether it is important to you to hurry up to make sure your documents match your gender identity or whether it feels more important to you to delay any changes to your gender marker and name so that your ID matches a gender you can safely pass as.
Likewise undocumented people, in states where it is legal to do so, should renew drivers’ licenses or other ID documents. People on DACA should refresh their status if possible, and almost everyone should make sure they have a valid passport. Anyone with temporary revocable status in the USA should talk to an immigration lawyer if they have the means to do so.
Of course these things will not prevent state violence, but they may make people you care about less easy targets. For people likely to be targeted by the new regime, especially undocumented or trans people, it becomes even more vital to avoid negative interactions with the state. Something as simple as an unpaid parking ticket or a speeding fine could be the grounds for a deportation. If you know there are at-risk undocumented people in your community, now is the time to let them know to come to you if you’re able to cover those expenses or just keep an eye out for the meter maid on their behalf. Small actions, like fixing a tail light in a friend’s car, can make a huge difference and should not be undervalued as contributions to keeping our communities safe.
These are the easy, low friction, safe things we can do. It may come to pass that more massive direct action is needed. In the UK, deportations have been successfully prevented by massive community mobilization. This model is nonviolent and shows the strength of the support in our communities for undocumented members. In other societies where people are scapegoated and sought out for their gender, race, or national origin, history shows us that time and time again strangers have risked everything to shelter people from the state. Doing this in the USA may well be illegal, of course.
There is a similar spectrum of action that may be relevant to protect our trans friends. Testosterone, for example, is a controlled substance and manufacturing or distributing it is a crime; anyone doing so could risk significant consequences. However, travel between states is perfectly legal, and establishing residency can take less than a month. Offering LGBTQ friends a couch to crash on while they set up in a more friendly place is the essence of community care, and remains entirely legal.
In the event of outright attacks on our communities, it is important that we familiarize ourselves with the methods, laws, and moral questions around self-defense. These will be different for everyone, but beginning to prepare answers to the question “what if they come for us?” is something we all ought to do. Hate groups have already increased their rhetorical threats since the election; if these become physical threats, our communities ought to consider how to respond.
Some of the risks go beyond the community. A pandemic, for example, could be considerably more deadly with RFK at the helm of the CDC’s response. Stocking up on masks, hand sanitizer, and basic public health knowledge now could help us keep one another safe down the road.
We may also need to stock up on other items, as imported goods are likely to become significantly more expensive should tariffs be placed on imports from Mexico and China. This means taking care of any repairs needed on your vehicle now, and stocking up on electronics which may become much more costly. Hormone companies in particular, most of which are based in Europe, might pull manufacturing out of the US due to restrictive laws.
It’s a good moment to go through your social media accounts and lock them down, delete them, delete old content, or at least look for anything you have said that you would not like to have read by the security apparatus of a fascist state.
Remember that firearms are unlikely to become harder to buy under a Trump presidency and ought not be your first purchase–especially if you are scared, sad, or angry, do not suddenly decide to get into firearms. Firearms have a role in self- and community defense but for most people, with most threat models, they make us less safe instead of more safe. If you are already interested in firearms, this might be a good time to get your concealed carry permit–especially if you have your preferred gender marker on your documentation.
Checklist
So here’s your checklist:
● Documentation
● Get/renew passport
● Renew DACA / TPS
● Get driver’s license from your state if you are undocumented
● Concealed carry permit
● Basic Preparedness
● Store 3 days or 3 weeks of food
● Store 3 days or 3 weeks of water
● Store enough portable power to keep your phone and other essentials charged for 3 days or 3 weeks
● Build yourself a go bag
● Stockpile any prescription medications you need
● Keep your vehicle in running condition with at least half a tank of gas
● Get imported goods now, especially electronics, like solar generators (Jackery, Bluetti, etc)
● Get to know your neighbors
● Make sure vulnerable neighbors know you are a potential resource
● Connect with activist groups locally
● Build an affinity group
● Lock down, sanitize, or delete social media accounts
● Download Signal and use it for all messaging
● Get protonmail, Tor Browser, and a VPN
How to Not Get Lost in Anxiety
The reason to get prepared is to lower anxiety, not get caught up in spiraling thoughts about every possible thing that could go wrong. When you live in the woods, you put together a wildfire plan not so that you stay fixated on the threat of fire, but so that you can say to yourself “I have done what I can about that potential risk and no longer need to worry further about it.”
Bad times are coming, and for many people, bad times are already here. But all we can do is analyze the threat and prepare to meet it, then go about our lives as best we can.
The overwhelming majority of the people in the US are not far right extremists, despite how effectively the far right has captured political power. We are surrounded by people, and people are our best bet. We’ve got each other.