Sixteen Ways Trump Has Been Defeated, Blocked, or Forced to Back Down Since He Won the November Elections

Photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash

In these early days of the second Trump administration, many folks, especially Democrats, are expressing astonishment and exasperation that Trump is seemingly getting away with everything and doing whatever he wants without any checks on his power.

Except, well, it isn't actually true that Trump is getting away with everything, or that no one is checking his power. As I intend to show with this article, since his victory in the November 2024 elections, Trump has actually been stopped, slowed, or forced to back down on at least 16 occasions.

As a followup to my Thursday article, "All the Lawsuits Against the Trump Administration, Listed," allow me to present to you a list of sixteen ways that Trump has been slowed, blocked or forced to back down since November 5, 2024:

• Matt Gaetz withdraws. In November 2024, Donald Trump's first choice for Attorney General, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration after it quickly became clear he could not be confirmed by the Senate.

• House Democrats and Republicans joined together to vote down Trump's attempt to raise the debt ceiling. In December 2024, over three dozen Republicans and nearly all House Democrats joined together to resoundingly defeat Donald Trump's attempt to raise the debt ceiling. Democratic votes will eventually be needed to raise the debt ceiling later this year, since dozens of Republicans will once again oppose it. Expect more concessions from Trump at that time.

• Trump's threat to adjourn Congress dismissed. Also in November of 2024, Trump had threatened to adjourn Congress indefinitely and install whoever he wanted in whatever position in government he wanted. Congress quickly rejected this idea.

• Birthright Citizenship executive order blocked. Trump's attempt to block birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants has been blocked, in very harsh language, by multiple judges, including an appointee of Ronald Reagan.

• Funding freezes blocked. Multiple judges have also blocked Trump's funding freezes, once again with very harsh language.

• DOGE access to Treasury system blocked. In consultation with a federal judge, the Department of Justice has limited the so-called Department of Government Efficiency's access to the Treasury payment system to a single employee, Tom Krause. Further, this employee has read-only access to data.

• Buyout offer for federal employees blocked. A federal judge has blocked the infamous Donald Trump/Elon Musk buyout plan to all federal employees.

• Trump backed down from tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Trump reversed his threats to hit Canada and Mexico with tariffs after minimal to no concessions from the two nations.

• The White House backed away from some parts of Trump's "plan" for Gaza. The White House quickly walked back several elements of Trump's “plan” to turn post-war Gaza into a resort community.

• Trump’s legislative agenda hasn't gone anywhere. Two days ago, Politico described Speaker Mike Johnson's plans to pass Trump’s agenda as being “at risk of collapse.”

• Government funding talks are going nowhere. With a March 14 deadline to fund the government approaching, Trump's many unilateral, illegal freezes of funding approved by Congress have resulted in the collapse of talks to fund the government. A government shutdown this early in Trump's term is going to look really bad for him, but Democrats aren't negotiating until Trump stops impounding money. And, yes, Democratic votes are needed in both the House and the Senate to pass a government funding bill, even now. See Axios, Politico, The Hill, and NBC News for more on this.

• Concessions from Pete Hegseth. I admit that this is pretty small potatoes, but Sen. Joni Ernst did win some small concessions from Pete Hegseth before voting to confirm him.

• Concessions from RFK Jr. In what looks like more than small potatoes, Sen. Bill Cassidy appears to have won significant concessions from RFK Jr. in exchange for voting his nomination out of committee earlier this week.

• Legal aid to migrants restored. In a complete reversal, the Department of Justice has resumed allowing legal aid to be provided to immigrants in federal detention centers and immigration courts.

• Transfer of transgender inmates blocked. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from transferring three transgender inmates to a men's prison.

• Special election disaster for GOP. On January 28, in a special election for an Iowa sate Senate seat, the Democratic candidate—a former public school principal—won by 4 points in a district that Trump won by 21 points, flipping a red seat blue. Notably, Democrats have outperformed Kamala Harris's November 2024 vote share in every special election held so far in 2025.

This is only a partial list, as of 1:45 PM ET on Friday, February 7. By the time you read this article on Saturday, I would not be surprised if there have been more ways that Trump has been stopped, delayed, or been forced to back down. If so, please add what happened in the comments.

While it can be tempting to just throw your hands up in the air and say things like "Trump is getting away with everything," or "no one is doing anything to stop him," a more attentive, more determined, and calmer response shows that Trump actually has been meeting quite a lot of resistance, and occasional defeat, over these past three months.

I urge you not to engage in fatalism, to look closer, to remain calm, remember that this Trumpian moment is fleeting, and to stay engaged in the fight for democracy.