Office Hours: Where will the resistance come from?

Trump and his allies are already seeking to intimidate the four most likely centers of resistance.

Friends,

At a Monday press conference, Trump referred to recent visits he’d had at Mar-a-Lago from Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google; and other tech CEOs. “In the first term, everyone was fighting me,” Trump said. “In this term, everyone wants to be my friend.”

Since Trump won reelection, some of the most influential people in America seem to have lost any will to stand up to him as he goes about transforming America into the sort of authoritarian oligarchy he admires.

America’s CEOs are standing in line to kiss his tush. So are the titans of Wall Street. Even some influential Trump critics from the first term, like Joe Scarborough (whose “Morning Joe” program I was on yesterday) have made pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago to make amends.

So, where will the opposition to Trump come from? From what sorts of institutions can we expect to hear forceful criticism and defiance? Four possibilities come to mind, although Trump is gunning for each of them.