I wish we had been wrong: A Wren Collective 2025 Year in Review
“One thing is clear: in the years to come, we will see a lot of horrible things happen. We will see our undocumented friends deported, political prosecutions increase, and surveillance over dissenters grow at an alarming pace.” — The Wren Collective Newsletter, December 2024
One challenge of being alive and paying attention in 2025 is the sheer speed at which our news cycle moves. How does one keep track of all the horrors threatening to undo our inclusive multiracial democracy? For our last 2025 issue of the Democracy Under Attack Newsletter, we review and reflect on some of the worst excesses of the new regime in power in Washington. In no particular order, we present to you Wren’s 2025 Top Ten Attacks on Democracy:
1. A secret police force kidnapping people off the street.
The mass deportation campaign’s violent tactics to target immigrants who overwhelmingly have no criminal record–from shooting a priest in the head with pepperballs to spraying cops or a baby with teargas–will become a source of deep shame for America for generations. Detaining and deporting toddlers with cancer or hundreds of U.S. citizens, throwing grandmothers to the ground for asking questions, the radicalism of this campaign of terror cannot be overstated.
2. Capital punishment is back on the rise.
After years of decline, the death penalty has been aggressively pursued by the Trump/Bondi DOJ with states following suit. Texas lost the competition for state-sponsored executions this year. That distinction belongs to Florida.
3. Welcome back, Jim Crow.
The DOJ has largely closed shop as a vehicle of civil rights enforcement, which has resulted in an exodus of competent lawyers and the end of the federal commitment to racial equity. This month, the DOJ announced they would no longer pursue civil rights litigation based on the disparate impact theory of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which has been a key lever to expose the most covert forms of racism. These policies cannot be separated from the immense influence of avowed, open racists in the Administration–from Paul Ingrassia to Nick Fuentes (and the President himself), and their apologists like J.D. Vance.
4. National Guard takeover of cities.
The Administration’s farcical commitment to public safety is nowhere more obvious than in the mobilization of the national guard to take over cities where violent crime has been declining (D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago) in a performative show of force, rather than a meaningful investment in resources to prevent or investigate violent crime.
5. Threatening universities that don’t fall in line.
The Administration has assaulted academic freedom through vengeful funding cuts to universities that will hobble American leadership in medical and scientific research.
6. Journalists under fire.
Part and parcel of Trump’s broader attacks on the First Amendment is banishment of reporters who don’t toe the line from the White House press corps and the publication of a “naughty” reporters list that even the White House subsequently took down.
7. Criminalizing and banning reproductive and transgender health care.
The widening criminalization of abortion and reproductive health care shifted this year to focus less on banning abortion care itself to preventing people who live in states with bans from accessing medical care in other states that haven’t outlawed reproductive health care. The result, besides making it harder for women to access medical care, is a bald attempt by states that ban reproductive health care to take away rights in states with complete access to health care. Looming federal Medicaid cuts are estimated to deny Medicaid coverage for more than two million women of reproductive age. Speaking of attacking access to healthcare, trans rights have also come under virulent assault this year. Just this week, the Administration announced it would deny federal funding to hospitals that offer transgender health care. The federal government has also issued executive orders to harm the health of LGBTQ+ people.
8. Attacks on entertainers.
Is there anything we need more right now than a good laugh? Trump recently came after Jimmy Kimmel (again) for making fun of him. And, in the wake of this week’s tragic murders of actor, director, and writer Rob Reiner and his wife, Trump’s unhinged and callous response to these deaths, because they were well-known critics of his, reached a remarkable nadir.
9. Government accounts are now internet trolls.
Public officials are throwing “themselves into full-time shitposting.” While immigration enforcement agents don masks to hide their identity, DHS itself has a no-holds-barred communication apparatus to spread its sadism, shocking in the depraved pleasure it derives from the suffering of people they imprison and deport– including disinformation and fake videos.
10. Slashing public safety investments.
Our so-called “tough on crime” federal leadership has gutted almost $900 million from bipartisan, proven public safety measures and billions from mental health and substance use treatment. At the same time, the President pardoned over 1500 January 6 insurrectionists, including people later arrested for child molestation, trying to bomb an FBI office, and threatening to kill the House Minority Leader.
We derive strength and hope for the many ordinary people who have stood up against these injustices:
- In Defense of Our Neighbors. Everyday people are fighting back against the billion-dollar deportation behemoth in ways big and small, from mapping out raid locations to buying tamales from vendors at risk of deportation; from memorializing kidnappings with handcrafted signs to creating safe passages for their neighbors while also thwarting the masked agents trying to whisk them away. “There is something going on here, with all of these cities coming together and protecting our democracy, in a way that I don’t know that I have witnessed in my lifetime,” says Beth Davis of NOLA Indivisible.
- Standing up for the Right to Speak Out. As corporate media continues to fold under pressure, individual journalists–particularly freelancers and reporters from independent and nonprofit newsrooms–are braving arrest, physical violence, and even deportation to tell the truth. Artists are refusing to bow to censorship and are channeling their collective outrage in their art. And comedians are urging us to mock, not fear, these dangers.
- Taking Fascism to Court. When the dust settles, our courtroom heroes will not be the well-heeled lawyers of Big Law, who were best-positioned but least-inclined to fight for democracy and the rule of law. They will be the solo practitioners and nonprofit lawyers who have taken on cases that others have refused in defense of the environment, human rights, and racial justice. They will be organizations like the ACLU and Democracy Forward and attorneys like Marc Elias, who keep suing–and winning–against tyranny. They will be immigration attorneys like Simon Sandoval-Moshenburg, who fought against Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s unlawful deportation even as others mulled over the political expediency of doing so. And they will be public defenders and court-appointed defense attorneys–some of whom have been working without pay–who stood up for those caught up in this administration’s crosshairs.
As for what to expect in 2026? Most Americans do not support the Administration’s agenda of dismantling civil and political rights; cruel and craven policies and rhetoric; and the expansion of the police state. And yet the political and policy landscape is likely to get worse before it gets better, with the real prospect of Congress and the White House advancing policies that expand the federal criminal statutory regime and punish states and cities that are trying to undo mass incarceration through less punitive policies. We are heartened by indications that the public doesn’t support these efforts. And that gives us energy and momentum to continue the fight in 2026.
Wishing you and yours a restorative holiday season and a happy, healthy and fulfilling new year,
The Wren Collective team,
Jess, Nikki, Julia, Jay, Adrienne, Henna, Candace, Leon, Becky, Josh & Cyn