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Trump is my president. Let’s talk

In a democracy, the democratically elected president is the president. Citizens who reject this, promote an agenda against democracy itself.

I am a U.S. citizen and therefore Trump is currently as of October 2025, my president. This is the reality whether I like it or not. Trump is the democratically elected president of the United States. He won an election unanimously that was relatively uncontested by observers, and for the first time ever he is a Republican candidate who would still have won even if all non-voters had voted.

A common slogan in recent anti-Trump protests is “Not my president“. The slogan “Not my president” is a symbolic rejection of democracy. The (mostly Democrat voting) protestors reject the results of a democratic process. The implications of this protest message, are that the protestors would suspend democracy to have a different outcome if they could. The reason that it is ‘OK’ in this case to suspend democracy would be because Trump is “wrong”, “evil” or  “unhinged“. These are the same protestors who bewail the decline of democracy BTW.

The mass January 6th protest against the 2020 election results, and insurrection by those who tried to or forcibly enter the Capitol, is basically the same. It was based on rejection by (the mostly Republican voting) protestors of the Democratic election result of Biden as president. It, like the “Not my president” slogan, was a rejection of the Democratic system itself. Because one group did not like the outcome. The implications are that we should throw out democracy to have a different outcome.

The two sides who are regularly protesting one another because they see democracy as under threat, engage in protest messages and actions that themselves threaten democracy. Protest is a foundational element of democracy – a human right in my opinion. But I a skeptical of these democratic protests that seem to hypocritically suggest we suspend democracy. 

We, the U.S., are in a state of historically unprecedented partisan division. Each side claims moral authority, and in doing so rules out the opinions and preferences of the other side as illegitimate and wrong.

This is not a formula for democracy nor a cohesive society. It eliminates the possibility of communication. And communication is one of two ways to resolve conflict – the other being domination (conflict, elimination of the opposing position).

A necessary condition for successful communication is that all opinions are valid. That each person has a legitimate right to have any opinion. That it is OK to disagree with each others’ opinions, but that it is not OK to claim moral authority that others’ opinions are wrong (nonsense, evil, unethical, stupid, insane, etc.). By ‘not OK’, I mean, not OK to be shared in a communicative setting, leading to communication breakdown and conflict (mobilization, domination, war, etc.).

If someone says that they think black people are dangerous, untrustworthy and criminals; or that women and men should fulfill certain roles in society and families as dictated by genes and chromosomes, or by God; or if they say that children should not be allowed to change gender, especially not take puberty-delaying drugs. I will only effectively communicate with them if recognize their opinions as valid and provide a safe space for them to share these opinions. To try and understand why they have them, and to seek a way forward that doesn’t require them to give up their opinion because I say so.

If someone says that black people have been systematically oppressed, that race is not an essential feature of human beings and is instead socially constructed; or that it is right for the government to promote equality; or that we should ignore gender in social life and treat men and women identically in all situations. I again will only make progress in communication when recognizing these opinions as valid and create a safe space for them to be shared.

If I am not willing to sit that my opinion has no ultimate truth to it, or that it is morally or intellectually superior to others’ opinions, I am not supporting democratic society, but instead my own vision of a society where I dictate opinion for others. That’s not democracy. So I question what we are doing with claiming when we claim that our position is right and others are wrong, and thinking that this is a democratic process.

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