A lot has happened in the past few days. Don't be afraid.

Trump is trying to create chaos and fear while bringing the attention back to himself. People forget that he's not capable of anything else.

As we’re all attempting to get our footing at the very start of 2025, we’re facing the end of President Biden’s administration and the beginning of the second attempt at fascism by Donald Trump. In between, there’s a high-profile funeral for one of the most selfless presidents to ever exist, Jimmy Carter.

All of these are related.

Many listeners to my SiriusXM show this week were determined to push Democrats out of their stupor as we see too many who are acquiescing to Trump, thinking the route for Democrats is to “work with” him. We need more of this—the pushing of Democrats—and people need to be calling them nonstop.

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Other callers, however, are expressing fear about Trump’s moves this week. The rambling presser was boilerplate—from windmills to washing machines—except for the power grab to take Greenland and Panama—even Canada—even if it means via military force. Trump talked of using economic blackmail if not military action, including putting tariffs on Denmark. Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but it is also semi-autonomous, with its own prime minister. Trump spoke like an imperialist out of the 19th century, showing that America First also means land grabs and colonization, native peoples be damned:

We need Greenland for national security purposes.

People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security.

This is like saying people don’t really know if the U.S. has any legal right over Florida. And the “national security” argument is ridiculous, as countries don’t need to own pieces of land in the 21st century to protect themselves strategically. There is a U.S. military base in Greenland, which is also part of the EU and NATO—aligned with the United States—and thus providing all the strategic national security the U.S. needs.

There's been talk of precious minerals in Greenland, but again, there's no reason why companies can't independently work with Greenland to extract those—and they are, some with U.S. government subsidies. Buying Greenland for a billion dollars or seizing it by force would be enormously costly and counterproductive. And how does any of this lower the price of eggs?

Denmark and Greenland are taking Trump's threats more seriously than in his first term—planning to talk more about military arrangements with the U.S.—and they probably should, since he is unpredictable, and I’m sure Denmark doesn’t want those tariffs. Though, as we all know, it’s Americans who will pay for the tariffs, and it will cause the price of Ozempic—which is made by a Danish drug company—to soar, which I’m not sure will make a lot of MAGA who are battling weight problems very happy.

But Denmark and Greenland are also telling Trump it’s not going to happen—as are France and Germany. And they’re right to push back against a bully. The problem is that everyone has to take him seriously, even if it’s all bullshit, because the media and Republicans in Congress jump on his every word and help fuel his insanity.

But let’s be clear-eyed that Trump is using fear and intimidation to bring attention to himself, angry about his sentencing in the New York case, furious at President Biden for using a law to stop ocean oil leases in the future, and truly annoyed by all the attention President Jimmy Carter’s funeral is getting.

Trump already was angry about flags flying at half-staff in honor of Carter through the time of Trump’s inauguration. But now Trump is dealing with all of the focus in Washington for days—at least early in the week—on Carter, a president who is being lauded for his humanity. That is frightening to Trump. He has no humanity. He knows he’ll never be discussed in even remotely similar terms. And now he has to attend the funeral himself.

Then came the brutal, horrifying Los Angeles fires—another heartbreaking reminder of climate change—a terrible crisis and one that begs for leadership. Thankfully, Joe Biden is still president and is providing that leadership. But Trump, once again faced with an event that was soaking up news hours and also required leadership, couldn’t deal with it and attacked Governor Gavin Newsom for causing the fires. Grotesque and outrageous. But vintage Trump.

It’s understandable why a lot of people are looking at Trump’s actions this week and feeling anxiety and dread. A lot of us probably blocked out how bad he was and got used to having a normal president.

But everything Trump is doing is typical of him and all about causing chaos. Don’t be sucked into it, and realize we have to look elsewhere for leadership. Organize and focus on the energy that is happening already in response to the 2024 elections.

Yesterday, Republicans underperformed in special elections in Virginia. Earlier in the week, media were saying this was going to be the first big “test” of Democrats’ energy post-election. And as it turned out, they passed that test big time and kept control of both chambers of the legislature. Of course, the media didn’t give it as much attention as they did when they thought Democrats would lose. But that’s par for the course.

So, focus on the organizing and the wins. And keep pressuring Democrats to wake up and hit Trump hard.