Trump’s second term has proved to be both unpredictable and exactly the kind of authoritarian atrocity many warned about. Amid the government’s methodical dismantling of due process and a more aggressive approach to geopolitics, a disturbing pattern of bullying and intimidation has emerged as the central governing strategy.
The tactics are varied but the intent is consistent – silence critics, punish dissent, and intimidate and threaten those who might challenge power. Trump and his allies deploy threats of prosecution, weaponized legal systems, harassment, economic and regulatory retaliation, and both physical and rhetorical violence. This approach cascades from the administration outward to emboldened corporations and their executives.
Trump has a history of weaponizing public institutions, legal abuse, and intimidation against opponents, and that trend has only grown worse during his second term. Some of Trump’s closest and richest donors (like Elon Musk and Kelcy Warren) have used similar playbooks. What’s significant is that the administration has created an environment where such tactics go unpunished or are even rewarded. Trump’s regime has set a tone for how corporations and powerful actors can behave, signaling to corporations that such behavior is not only acceptable but effective.
One potent weapon in this arsenal is the SLAPP lawsuit – Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. These abusive legal cases aim to silence free speech and chill the rights of individuals and organizations to criticize and question the powerful. Trump has continued his pattern of filing SLAPPs during his second term, notably against media outlets who report on his administration, such as the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Common characteristics include exploiting power imbalance, meritless claims, excessive claims for damages, forum shopping, targeting public participation, harassment, and the intent to exhaust the target’s resources and silence constitutionally-protected speech.
We are already seeing the tone that Trump has changed the way powerful industries act, especially tech and fossil fuels. The industries are taking advantage of Trump’s aggressive, no-holds-barred approach in a way that is directly harming our health, the climate, affordability, and even other business sectors.
Bully politics abroad
Trump’s abuse of tariffs, threats to invade Greenland, and other erratic actions have alienated longstanding allies. His unpredictable and violent use of military force against other countries has created substantial instability and cost many lives.
Many U.S. transnational companies have been capitalizing on Trump’s aggression and his willingness to do favors for them – especially Big Oil and major tech companies. But Trump’s inclination to break relationships with key allies also risks seriously harming international business opportunities for U.S. companies.
For example, Sunoco’s recent acquisition of TanQuid, one of Germany’s largest independent fuel storage companies, was met with concerns by the German Green Party. Sunoco is a major subsidiary of Energy Transfer, which is led by major Trump donor Kelcy Warren. The concerns focused on the security risk of allowing a company like Sunoco to acquire critical infrastructure in Germany, including pipelines that deliver fuel to military bases. The German government didn’t block the acquisition, but they did force TanQuid to sell off certain critical assets as a condition of final approval.
Trump’s behavior is increasingly a liability for U.S. businesses. Popular U.S. brand names are finding that U.S. foreign policy has made international customers take their business elsewhere. One journalist found that many foreign consumers no longer want to buy from U.S. companies that have historically been highly sought after, including clothing, food and alcohol, and software brands. Musk’s Tesla – once an exciting company bringing electric vehicles to the mainstream – was seriously impacted by the Tesla Takedown movement that followed Musk’s diabolical DOGE work in 2025.
U.S. companies have also echoed Trump’s bullying tactics to influence foreign regulations. SOMOS has reported that ExxonMobil, Chevron and Koch Industries have formed a cabal to tear down Europe’s climate and human rights laws (including the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive). Fossil fuel companies have been pressuring Europe to drop its new methane regulations for gas imports. Even the most recent meeting at Davos was overrun with tech majors “and their euphoria over the lucrative potential of the moment” rather than climate and human rights talks.
How far things escalate is unclear. Reports suggested Trump backed down on his threat to invade Greenland at Davos after considering the serious risk of triggering massive divestments from the US bond market. But Trump’s unreliable, turbulent posturing appears to be immutable.
A system of intimidation
The second Trump administration has distinguished itself with an integrated system of intimidation that threatens democratic freedoms, and is now being adopted by corporations. The SLAPP filed by Energy Transfer against Greenpeace entities isn’t an isolated tactic. It’s a piece of a system connecting corporate legal abuse with authoritarianism, corporate capture, and aggressive, unscrupulous foreign policy to create a pervasive climate of fear.
Domestically, this ethos enables the criminalization of dissent and mirrors Trump’s nationalism, which disregards established norms and justice for the assertion of power. Even local activism is being threatened by large corporate bullies. In Oklahoma, a man was arrested for speaking a few seconds over his time limit in opposition to a data center being built in his community at a Claremore City Council meeting. Is this what democracy looks like?
SLAPPs are a legal arm of a larger strategy that includes militarized policing, protest suppression, and aggressive foreign maneuvers that destabilize global security, fracture alliances, and endanger domestic peace. It’s a strategy that protects only the most powerful corporations and leaders, while stripping the fundamental rights of the public to resist. The significance of the Greenpeace International case in the Netherlands matters because it exposes a company led by a close Trump ally and shows how this playbook threatens organizations globally.
The fight against dangerous attacks on our basic rights like SLAPPs is about more than reigning in corporate power and resisting the Trump administration; it is a foundational defense of democracy. It is a direct counter to an authoritarian model that uses bullying and intimidation in courtrooms, on streets, and on the world stage to consolidate power and silence dissent.
Defending the right to protest and speak freely is essential to resistance.
