1 week Ago By Albert R. Hunt
The individuals and institutions who surrendered to President Donald Trump's shakedowns will face the ultimate judge: history. History rewards the courageous, not the cowardly. Look back at other challenging moments in our country’s history and consider whom we remember and how we remember them.
In the Red Scare witch hunt by Sen. Joe McCarthy, it was those who stood up to him – Sen. Margaret Chase Smith; journalists Drew Pearson and Edward R.
Murrow; attorney Joseph Welch – who left a positive mark on history. Today, the nation’s antagonist is a president on a revenge tour who is hellbent on destroying anyone who has challenged or defied him, from elite universities and law firms to businesses and politicians. Trump campaigned on a vow of ”retribution,” and his targets have nothing to do with principle and everything to do with his brittle ego.
Here’s my first-100-days cheatsheet on whom Trump has bullied into submission and those who have dared to stand up. In late February, the president started issuing executive orders targeting major law firms with ties to his critics and perceived enemies, suspending lawyers’ security clearances, canceling lucrative government contracts, blocking them from entering federal buildings and barring administration officials from communicating with them. His administration also sent letters to about 20 major law firms demanding information about their hiring practices to improve diversity, equity and inclusion.
Suzanne Nossel April 4, 2025 There’s a record of who bowed to the Don – and who didn't. Legal news site Above the Law created the “ Biglaw Spine Index ,” tracking who among the top 200 U.S.
law firms by annual gross revenue capitulated by deleting their DEI policies or agreeing to do more pro bono work for the president. Nine Big Law firms cut deals . It sounds funny when you say it, but some of the supposedly toughest litigators in the country agreed to do $1 billion in free work, collectively, for a man who cowed them into submission.
These lawyers may have been at the top of their classes at prestigious schools, voted best attorney and so forth, but they were unbelievably dumb to give in to a bully who preys on weakness; give an inch and he’ll seize a mile. Already, Trump is making more demands. Four firms refused to kowtow and are fighting back .
Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey filed lawsuits, and, so far, judges have sided with them. Other prominent firms – Williams & Connolly, Cooley LP and Munger Toiles and Olson – are bravely representing the firms under attack, as is a leading conservative Supreme Court litigator and former U.S.
solicitor general for George W. Bush, Paul Clement. With two other former solicitors general – Seth Waxman and Don Verrilli – on the team, I expect they'll win in court.
But Trump can still celebrate the damage he's inflicted on other Big Law firms. Of the 200 largest law firms, only 16 signed amicus briefs on behalf of the law firms challenging Trump's illegal demands. Republicans in Congress are standing by as the president wreaks havoc, firing thousands of federal employees, shuttering entire agencies, flouting the law to detain and deport people without due process and much more.
History will remember these quislings as collaborators – and voters in the 2026 midterms may, too. My award for Coward of the Year – and believe me, the competition was tough – goes to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a former Army National Guard lieutenant colonel who has spoken about being a survivor of sexual assault .
She knew Pete Hegseth, with his documented history of heavy drinking and allegations of sexual assault, was unfit to be secretary of Defense. Yet after threats from MAGA functionaries, Ernst cast the key vote to confirm him . Today, the Pentagon is in disarray, and Hegseth has endangered national security by sharing sensitive attack plans in not one but two group chats using an unauthorized messaging app, Signal.
Khalil Gibran Muhammad April 24, 2025 Only a few Republican lawmakers seem to have any backbone. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska is the first House Republican to call for Hegseth’s firing.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski broke from her party, publicly admitting that “we are all afraid.” Aside from them, it’s been mostly former elected officials raising their voices.
Erstwhile Vice President Mike Pence, whose political career ended – and whose life was threatened – when he refused to help Trump illegally steal the 2020 election, will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation on May 4.
In an embarrassing example of rolling over and playing dead, Columbia University was among the first to cave in to Trump’s demands to alter policies and even submit an entire department to outside oversight. In contrast, Harvard showed courage , resisting a government takeover. The chilling list of demands included auditing “viewpoints,” changes to hiring, retention and diversity programs and even government oversight of international student admissions.
Furious that Harvard said no, Trump cut off billions of dollars in federal grants for research on diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. He's threatened to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status. This week, Harvard filed a lawsuit fighting back.
Trump has accused elite universities of promoting or tolerating antisemitism. To be sure, there was some inexcusable antisemitism on campuses after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
But Trump is using antisemitism as a cloak for trying to seize control of universities that have already taken action to tighten rules on campus conduct and combat discrimination. Trump’s hypocrisy is staggering. He has personally hosted high-profile antisemites at his Mar-a-Lago club, including Holocaust denier and white nationalist Nick Fuentes and disgraced rap star Kanye West, who has frequently unleashed antisemitic slurs .
Perhaps the biggest cowardly lion in the media has been Disney, the parent company of ABC News , which paid Trump a $15 million financial settlement instead of fighting a frivolous defamation suit. They put potential profits ahead of principle. Last October, Trump sued CBS News for millions over what he claimed was misleading editing of then Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes.
” Unlike Disney, Paramount is fighting it. Though they are much less rich and powerful, Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register are putting principles first. They are fighting Trump's ridiculous lawsuit over a flawed Seltzer poll.
They will win this case, as Disney would have. Albert R. Hunt Feb.
14, 2025 A profile in courage goes to the Associated Press, the U.S.-based global news wire that refused to give in to Trump's preposterous demand that they refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” after Trump signed an executive order renaming it.
In retaliation, Trump severely restricted the AP's access to covering the White House. The AP filed suit and a court ordered the White House to reinstate the news agency. The AP says Trump is defying the court order .
Shamefully, some news organizations have been slow to rally to AP's defense. Topping the list of corporate capitulators is Amazon's Jeff Bezos . The Washington Post owner is trampling on his newspaper’s sterling journalistic legacy by muzzling its opinion section .
In an apparent bid to curry favor with Trump, Amazon has commissioned a documentary on Melania Trump, who's reportedly getting a $28 million payout from the deal. Next is Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has gone full MAGA , deep-sixing Facebook’s important fact-checking program and his company’s commitment to diversity and replacing his policy chief with a former Republican operative . Fortunately, dozens of companies have resisted Trump’s demands to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Costco defended its DEI policies as successful and popular with employees and shareholders. Coca-Cola also renewed its commitment to promoting women and employees of color. Rival Pepsico, which buckled to right wing pressure, gutted its diversity program .
Capitulators may profit in the short term. But in their obituaries and in history books, it will be remembered: When the going got tough, these weaklings caved in. Washington columnist Albert R.
Hunt has covered U.S. politics and presidential campaigns since 1972, previously for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and the International New York Times.
You can listen to his weekly podcast and read more on Substack ..
