Canada

No, I'm not being optimistic. I'm being observant.

You can assume the worst behaviour of people like Trump without falling into defeatism. He doesn't have superpowers. He lives in the same reality you and I do.

We know for a fact that major economic slowdowns such as the bond markets getting "yippy" (his word, remember?) will cause him to back off. There are things he's not willing to break and he's proven that.

And we know that despite all his rhetoric about ignoring courts, he never actually seems to follow through. The National Guard got redpployed to other cities. Abrego Garcia got brought back to the US. The shutdown ended before he could actually be tested on his threat to not hand out food stamps. He never actually defies the courts, when push comes to shove. Instead he relies on running ahead of them.

That's still bad. It's why new cities are being picked as targets for crackdowns, and they're now trying to deport Abrego to a different country. No one is defending him here, or implying that he's in any way respectful or subservient to the rule of law.

But he exists in reality. He's not a demon or a god or a phantasm from another dimension. He operates within the rules of the same reality we inhabit. There are limits on what he can do, and if you're paying attention you can start to piece together what those limits are.

That's not optimism, that's just knowing your enemy.