Water Break: Using Radical Acceptance To Understand Trump Administration Decisions & Prepare For Intelligent & Effective Response.

“While the force of primal aggression has been with us through human history, it is clear now that unless we can engage the better angels of our nature, we pose a clear and immediate threat to all species on earth.” – Tara Brach

Why is the Trump Administration (and individuals working on behalf the Trump Administration) making the decisions they are making? And what is the most intelligent and effective way for us to respond?

Let’s begin by breaking this down, and removing “Trump Administration” from the question.

Why do any of us make the decisions we make? 

• Beliefs.
• Fear of retribution if we do not act in accordance with someone or a group of people we are afraid of.
• Even if we don’t want to take an action, or our beliefs are not in alignment with an action, we may still take that action if we benefit enough personally. In other words, we may do something we don’t believe in or agree with if there is a guarantee of financial compensation, promotion, or an increase in our personal power or prestige. We may even do something not in alignment with our beliefs, morals, and values if it simply gets us attention, praise, or popularity; it helps us fill an unmet need.
• Operating – subconsciously – from an “adaptive child” state. This is when a much younger part of ourselves was wounded in some way by feeling threatened, insecure, or by having to adapt to survive. Adults can be making decisions from “adaptive child” state when they are under large amounts of stress, experiencing conflict, or are feeling the need to protect themselves. This leads to reactive behaviors like shutting down, becoming overly agreeable, or lashing out depending on the coping mechanisms utilized in childhood – especially considering the family role they may have played.

For the point of this exercise, we are going to focus on beliefs.

Where do our beliefs come from? 

• Lived experiences (see possible sources of suffering).
• Parents/attachment figures. 
• Family roles.
• People we looked up to or respected. Teachers, coaches, leaders, mentors, bosses, historical & political figures. 
• People we feared. Teachers, coaches, leaders, mentors, bosses, historical & political figures. 
• What we were/are taught (or not taught) in places of worship. 
• What we were/are taught (or not taught) in school. 
• Information we chose/choose to consume (books, news sources, what we follow on social media).
• Present day friends, family, children, colleagues. 

It is also important to note we have both conscious and subconscious beliefs: 

A “conscious belief” is a thought or idea that you are actively aware of and can readily express, while a “subconscious belief” is a belief that is stored in your mind below the level of conscious awareness, significantly influencing your actions and thoughts without you necessarily realizing it; essentially, conscious beliefs are what you actively think about, while subconscious beliefs operate “behind the scenes” shaping your behavior without your full knowledge.

Let’s take it back to the Trump Administration and understanding their actions.

In a moment, we are going to practice Radical Acceptance by engaging in an exercise focused on Pausing – something we discussed in the last blog post.

Why are we doing this?

Because practicing Radical Acceptance/Pausing will assist us in . . .

• Moving away from our knee jerk reactions of “this is egregious” or “finally, a politician who is doing what they said they would do”, “I am powerless and can’t do anything”, or “these people are ________________”, and move away from actions and decisions that arise from reactive reflexes rooted in grasping for certain outcomes, fear of certain consequences, or are rooted in a trauma response. It is is important to note here the difference between stress and trauma. Those of us who have experienced trauma are the ones who are more likely to go into a trauma response. If the actions of the Trump Administration are in anyway reminding us – consciously or subconsciously – of trauma or traumas we experienced, a trauma response can occur. We move from survival, drive, and instinct (primal brain) to problem solving, memory, language, judgment, impulse control, and reasoning (rational brain). Here is an excellent video by Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk discussing the difference between stress and trauma, and the changes that occur in our brains due to trauma.
• Returning to a situation, information, or reality with a new consciousness and clarity we did not have before. This often includes seeing the behaviors and actions of others differently. We may be able to see their pain and suffering where we were not able to before. We are reminded we are not separate. We all have experienced human suffering. We all suffer from the trance of unworthiness, it just presents differently in each of us. This doesn’t mean we come to agree with the behaviors or actions of the individuals. We just see their actions and behaviors in a new, more expansive perspective. We understand people and their behaviors as symptoms of much larger, more systemic, and generational issues and patterns.
• Seeking objective, unbiased information so we are better equipped to view situations with data, coherence, and precision. By reviewing the actual verbiage used in the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders & Memos, we gain insight & understanding towards what is motivating these actions and decisions. These Executive Orders & Memos are filled with belief statements, narratives, scapegoating, triangulating, and assumptions. There are very few citations or references used throughout these Executive Orders and Memos. These are not judgements; I am simply stating the facts. Let us get curious as to why these documents are written the way they are, and let us get curious about the individual beliefs, assigned roles, fears, motivations, unmet needs, and suffering behind these documents and corresponding actions. We then allow these new insights and understandings to inform effective and intelligent responses on an individual and collective level.
• Making more intelligent, mindful decisions not based in a primal, survival, or trauma response. Our pause allows us to move from controlling our experience and avoiding pain & we begin to pay attention to your emotional and physical needs (Brach p.55). We rest, and don’t react. By doing this we see ourselves, others, and the world more clearly, and are able to view a situation or individuals with wakefulness, choice, and “without bitterness”(p.38). We approach even the most terrifying or seemingly hopeless situations with a strong back and soft front. “We now have perspective, boundaries, courage, empowerment, and the willingness to protect ourselves and others from injury. We need the capacity to be fierce, to speak the truth, to fight injustice. We also need tenderness and caring that includes all beings, even when their behavior is harmful” (Brach xvii). We become part of the solution, not a perpetuation of the problem. We move into wise action.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE:

1. Review list of belief statements related to categories covering a range of topics linked to recent Trump Administration actions. Many of these belief statements come directly from Presidential Executive Order or Memo documents from the White House Presidential Actions website. You will be able to identify which statements come directly from these document because they will be highlighted to the link where you can find the entire corresponding Order or Memo. 
2. Notice your physical body reactions and emotions as you are read the belief statement. Consider a body scan exercise to assist with this. Nurture, apply self compassion, utilize a coping skill as needed. This is also a reminder that many folks may be experiencing a trauma response over the past two weeks. Some may be aware of this, some of us may not be aware of this. Engaging in mindfulness practices help reduce this trauma response and return us to a sense of emotional and physiological safety.
3. Assess how closely you believe or don’t believe the statement on a 0-10 scale. 0 = You don’t believe the statement at all. 10 = You strongly believe the statement. If you don’t agree with the statement, or you agree partially, try to write our your own belief statement.
4. Ask yourself, “Where does my belief or lack of belief on this topic come from? Is this from my parents, school, church, lived experiences, etc? If you are not sure, try to get curious. Talk about it with a friend or therapist. Journal. Reflect on this for a few days. Think about your family of origin. Ask your parents and siblings questions. Talk to your partner. 
5. Imagine the person or group of people writing these Memos and Executive Orders. Get curious about what is motivating them. Where do their beliefs possibly come from? What could their unmet needs be? What are the fears behind this? What kind of lived experiences lead someone to support the contents of these Memos or Executive Orders?
6. Imagine the person or group of people very much struggling with these Memos and Executive Orders. Get curious about their response. Where do their beliefs possibly come from? What could their unmet needs be? What are the fears behind this? What kind of lived experiences lead someone to be fearful or generally opposed to the beliefs and other content in the Memos or Executive Orders and the changes that will result from these actions?
7. Consider reviewing list this with someone you know who has a different political ideology than you have, and who is willing to engage in an open, compassionate, and respectful dialogue. (And look for a future post on engaging in difficult conversations)

CATEGORIES & CORRESPONDING BELIEFS

Government Employees/Civil Servants

• Government employees are lazy and inefficient. 
• Remote government employees are not doing their jobs. They spend a large part of their day not working. Related Executive Order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/return-to-in-person-work/
• A large portion of government employees need to retire, but refuse to do so because of their benefits and they can grow their retirement accounts and pensions. Related Order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-accountability-for-career-senior-executives/
• Current Federal hiring practices are broken, insular, and outdated. They no longer focus on merit, practical skill, and dedication to our Constitution.  
• Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of “equity,” or one’s commitment to the invented concept of “gender identity” over sex.  Inserting such factors into the hiring process subverts the will of the People, puts critical government functions at risk, and risks losing the best-qualified candidates.

Military

• The US military has been negatively impacted by allowing more women and individuals of color into the ranks.
• Women have physical limitations and therefore should not be placed in certain frontline positions. 
• Women are a distraction for men in the military.
• Women negatively impact team dynamics and morale, especially in close quarters combat situations. 
• A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member. 
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and their attendant race and sex preferences within the Armed Forces undermine leadership, merit, and unit cohesion, thereby eroding lethality and force readiness.  They also violate Americans’ consciences by engaging in invidious race and sex discrimination.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• It is not my responsibility to protect the rights of individuals and communities of people who have been marginalized.
• Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex. 
• Individuals who choose to put pronouns after their names are just trying to draw attention to themselves. 
• DEI efforts negatively impact white people. 
• Demanding acquiescence to “white privilege” or “unconscious bias “ actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity. 
• Illegal DEI and DEIA policies threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities. 

Environmental Justice

• Climate change is made up. 
• Climate change is real, but it isn’t a big of a deal as what everyone is making it out to be. Related: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/putting-people-over-fish-stopping-radical-environmentalism-to-provide-water-to-southern-california/
• It is not the US governments job to address climate change, it is every individual’s responsibility to do the right thing. 
• Climate change is real, but it is too late to do anything about it, and it is unrealistic – given human behaviors & social structures – to spend money fighting something that will inevitably occur. 

International Assistance/USAID

• It is not the US government’s responsibility to take care of citizens outside of the United States.
• Assisting other countries, especially if those countries are not helping the US, is a waste of taxpayer money. 
• The U.S. should avoid international policies and alliances. 
• The U.S. should not get involved in other countries health and social problems. 
• U.S. humanitarian aid in the form of economic assistance should be avoided because these funds are largely misused or misappropriated. 
• The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.  
• The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy. They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.

U.S. Department of Education

• US Public Schools engage in “radical indoctrination” and “imprint anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our nation’s children.” 
• The U.S. Public education system is fails a large segment of society, hinders our national competitiveness, and devastates families and communities.
• It is important for families to have a choice in educational settings for their children (Universal K-12 scholarship programs) versus public school assignment based on geography. 
• Universal K-12 scholarship programs will help keep public schools accountable, and cause them to improve their performance. 
• Public schools directly block parental oversight. 
• In public schools, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics. 
• In public schools, young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed.

U.S. Data & Research 

• Data is important, but it needs to be kept private. It’s important to maintain the United States image. Sharing personal information about our country that in anyway highlights a potential area of weakness should be kept from public information so as to protect our nation strength.
• Data collection coming from the US Government cannot be trusted.
• Individuals collecting data on behalf of the US Government have their own agenda, therefore we cannot trust the data collected to be accurate.

Public Health 

• Personal health issues like sexually transmitted diseases, infectious diseases, and substance use and mental health are private and should not be discussed in a public forum.
• It is not the responsibility of the US government to get involved in personal health issues. 
• Federal funds should not be used for things like personal health. It is each person’s individual responsibility to take care of their own health, including their own behaviors, and not the federal government.  

Gender/Sex

• Individuals who deny the reality of sex are ideologues who have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers.  
• Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.  
• The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.
• “Sex” is not an internal, fluid, and subjective sense of self unmoored from biological facts.
• Women are biologically female, and men are biologically male. 
• “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
• “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.
• Invalidating the true and biological category of “woman” improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.
• “Gender identity” reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.

Citizenship and Immigration

• United States citizenship should not automatically extend to persons born in the United States. 
• United States citizenship should not be extended to individuals whose mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.
• United States citizenship should not be extended to individuals whose mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.
• A large portion of illegal aliens include potential terrorists, foreign spies, members of cartels, gangs, and violent transnational criminal organizations, and other hostile actors with malicious intent.
• All individuals found to be illegally residing in the US, in violation of Federal law, should be removed promptly. Individual or special circumstances should not be considered. No exceptions should be made. 

Mental Health & Substance Use

This is an additional section I am including based off information gathered from Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s HHS Secretary nomination hearings, and statements he has made leading up to the hearings

• 12 Step Programs are the “gold standard” are superior in terms of effectiveness in the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder vs. medication assisted treatment (Methadone, Buprenorphine, and Naltrexone).
• There is a connection between adolescents who take prescribed psychiatric medications and school shootings. Additional link for direct quotes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7RK3ijiFg
• Individuals who are prescribed psychiatric mediations are “addicted” to them.
• Withdrawal from Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’s) is more severe that withdrawal from Heroin.
• Using the term “addict” to describe someone who struggles with substance use is something I am comfortable with.
• Using the term “addict” to describe someone who is taking prescribed psychiatric medications is something I am comfortable with.

NEW (Updated 2.7.25)

Religious Freedom

• Previous administrations engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.
• Previous administrations engaged in politically motivated prosecution campaigns aimed at squelching faith in the public square by bringing Federal criminal charges to innocent people resulting multi-year prison sentences.
• Catholic churches, charities, and pro-life centers who sought justice for violence, theft, and arson perpetrated against them were ignored by previous administrations.
• Catholics and Catholic churches were unfairly targeted (and infiltrated) as domestic terrorism threats by previous administrations.
• Previous administrations sought to drive Christians to affirm radical transgender ideology against their faith, and sought to drive those who do not conform to certain beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity out of the foster-care system.

FOR HEALING THIS WEEK

Currently listening to: The FC Mobile 25 Soundtrack on Spotify (thanks to my 9, 9, and 11 year old for exposing me to this)

Still reading: The Will To Change: Men. Masculinity and Love by Bell Hooks

Self Nurturing Activity: Elderberry Immune Support Tea

Art: Any kind of Kintsugi pottery.

Bipartisan Resource of the Week: https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/50343-national-policy-proposals-with-bipartisan-support

Historical Political Quote of the Week: “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.” – from Niccolò Machiavelli’s “The Prince”.