Recent simulations conducted by left-leaning anti-Trump experts envision the U.S. facing an unprecedented erosion of democratic norms under a second Trump administration, according to Transition Integrity Project co-founder Rosa Brooks, who suggested the recent “war games” demonstrated the need for “creative” resistance and “harm reduction” tactics to counter what she describes as “autocratic” maneuvers President Donald Trump would employ.
In a Tuesday piece that appeared in The New Republic, Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown law professor and former official in the Obama administration who leads the Democracy Futures Project, a series of role-play simulation exercises, claims the results of the recent simulations offered “sobering” lessons.
“This is very bad, and we are not nearly ready for what’s coming our way,” she writes.
The alarmist “war game” scenario organized by the heavily Soros-financed Brennan Center for Justice, saw almost 200 “players” simulating a second Trump administration.
According to Brooks, the simulations anticipated the administration would immediately veer toward autocracy.
“The exercises were designed to better understand how a second Trump administration might play out—and which strategies might offer hope of countering the autocratic threats we knew were likely to come our way,” she writes.
Drawing from scenarios designed to portray Trump as a threat to democracy, these role-playing exercises reflect the same polarizing narrative Brooks and similar organizations have used since Trump’s first term.
Insisting that “we should not imagine that litigation will be an effective tool for stopping egregious Trump administration actions,” she suggests that “defenders of democracy” would need to engage in “creative” resistance, like symbolic protests and cultural pressure, as part of a determination to disrupt Trump’s potential presidency at every turn.
“We can learn a lot from the experiences of human rights and pro-democracy movements in other countries; we Americans have been fortunate, thus far, to avoid the challenges of living under a lawless autocratic regime, but around the world, there are many with deep experience of doing so and of developing tactics that are most effective under such circumstances,” she writes.
“For instance, sometimes work stoppages or symbolic gestures are as effective, and less risky, than street protests,” she added.
The simulations portray mass arrests, federal crackdowns on civil liberties, and an exaggerated portrayal of potential military use against protesters. Brooks insists Trump supporters would mischaracterize any left-leaning protests as violent, even using AI-generated deepfakes to stoke public fears:
In our exercises, large-scale protests on the streets and on college campuses consistently backfired. We live in a world rife with disinformation, and peaceful protests were quickly mischaracterized by Trump players as violent riots, even insurrection attempts. Throw in some agents provocateurs and AI deepfake videos, and peaceful protests led to “evidence” purporting to show out-of-control threats to public safety—which alienated the general public, triggered violent action by right-wing extremists, and was used by the Trump administration to justify draconian crackdowns on civil liberties, including mass arrests and the deployment of military personnel to “restore order.”
Noting that “autocrats succeed by sowing fear and mistrust, making people opt to stay silent when it’s most critical that they speak up and step up,” Brooks suggested that “to get through the next four years, we need to form disciplined opposition structures.”
“With the help of opposition leadership structures, we can establish and support protection networks that can quickly provide legal assistance, cybersecurity help, communications assistance, and even shelter or physical protection to those who find themselves under threat, whether the threat comes from politically motivated federal investigations or from violent private actors,” she added.
This disturbing portrayal appears to reflect a growing radicalism on the left that fears the electorate itself, not just Trump.
A Schwartz Senior Fellow at New America — a think tank funded by billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, Brooks served as a senior adviser at the State Department during both the Obama and Clinton administrations.
Her history sheds light on the ideologies at play.
Shortly after Trump’s initial victory in 2016, Brooks proposed extreme measures, even military intervention, to remove him from office, as well as calls to question Trump’s mental fitness and invoke the 25th Amendment.
Breitbart News previously reported on Brooks’ essay in Foreign Policy magazine, titled “3 Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020,” (though the piece actually outlines four ways).
In what seems to be a deliberate tactic, Brooks repeatedly questions Trump’s mental stability throughout, claiming that the president’s first week in office “has made it all too clear: Yes, he is as crazy as everyone feared.”
Brooks, who is not a mental health professional, offered no evidence for her psychological evaluation other than citing policies she disagrees with:
Remember those optimistic pre-inauguration fantasies? I cherished them, too. You know: “Once he’s president, I’m sure he’ll realize it doesn’t really make sense to withdraw from all those treaties.” “Once he’s president, surely he’ll understand that he needs to stop tweeting out those random insults.” “Once he’s president, he’ll have to put aside that ridiculous campaign braggadocio about building a wall along the Mexican border.” And so on.
Nope. In his first week in office, Trump has made it eminently clear that he meant every loopy, appalling word — and then some.
Brooks would go on to list four ways to oust a “crummy” president, including through a military coup.
“The fourth possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”
Regarding her suggestion, a creative Brooks proposed scenarios that she feared Trump might try to play out:
What would top U.S. military leaders do if given an order that struck them as not merely ill-advised, but dangerously unhinged? An order that wasn’t along the lines of “Prepare a plan to invade Iraq if Congress authorizes it based on questionable intelligence,” but “Prepare to invade Mexico tomorrow!” or “Start rounding up Muslim Americans and sending them to Guantánamo!” or “I’m going to teach China a lesson — with nukes!”
Brooks also spearheaded TIP’s 22-page report prior to the 202o elections, titled “Preventing a Disrupted Presidential Election and Transition,” which concluded that only a Biden win could prevent large-scale chaos.
The matter comes as progressive groups mobilize around fears of a second Trump presidency, while influential voices on the left signal the need for extraordinary resistance measures.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
