Have you started putting together your group’s Life After Trump game plan?

Too soon? 

I can hear the reaction. “Whoa Frank, the midterm elections aren’t even here yet. And, however they turn out, we’ve still got to deal with what could be the two most dangerous years of Trump’s decade dominating American politics.”

Agreed. But here’s what I’m suggesting: If we want to advance the values we cherish and the causes we care about, we need to start simultaneously thinking, planning and acting on two tracks.

We can’t just close our eyes until the nightmare’s over. We have to check Trump chaos and corruption over the remaining 873 days of his presidency. (Yeah, I know, it’s a depressing number.)

As William Kristol wrote in a recent Bulwark post titled Desperate Men Do Desperate Things, “I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to say that the next two years could well be as decisive for the fate of the American republic as any since 1945.”

Whether it is orderly or contested, the end of the Trump presidency will substantially alter the landscape every issue advocacy group has been operating in for a decade. 

With that shift will come a raft of communications/organizational positioning challenges and opportunities. Groups working on everything from climate change to gun violence to immigrant rights will find themselves in different territory than they’ve recently experienced. Thinking through the shift from mostly playing defense to seizing the chance to go on offense has to start now. Laying the groundwork for those shifts can’t wait until January 2029.  

So, in today’s post, some opening thoughts on how to simultaneously confront what could be the most dangerous period of the Trump era and strategically prepare for its end.    

There are two ways that the onset of the presidential election cycle will influence the two-track strategy. First, once the results of November’s elections have been digested, the media narrative will focus your audience’s attention on the two tracks. They’ll switch back and forth between coverage of Trump’s final years and of the race to succeed him.

Whether or not your organization explicitly embraces the two-track perspective, your audience will begin encountering it in early 2027.

Here’s the second point of impact. An open seat presidential campaign often sparks a national conversation about the country’s direction. It gives both parties an opportunity to update and refocus their case. But, like all things Trump, the regular playbook isn’t likely to apply. 

Trump still has a hold on the GOP primary electorate and he’s unlikely to let the next nominee “look to the future” with anything but loyalty to Trump and admiration for his record. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, the millionth rerun of the “progressives” versus “moderates” narrative is likely to obscure a more useful debate about how to move the country forward post-Trump. 

The bottom line: Advocacy groups can’t wait for presidential politics to provide an organizing narrative. They will have to put one forward on their own.  

So, what’s the smartest way for groups to navigate the volatile and complex two-tracks landscape we’re about to enter? Here are some opening guidelines.

1. Don’t let planning ahead signal disengagement from current challenges.

First things first. Deep engagement in confronting immediate threats is non-negotiable. Any hint of a backing off on current crises or adoption of a “wait it out” approach will be read as a betrayal, not a defensible strategy.

2. Distinguish your group beyond a generic “anti-Trump” identity.

It happened during Trump 1.0 and it’s happening again. Individual groups across the issue advocacy landscape are seeing their unique identity blurred, fading into an overall anti-Trump choir. It’s an easy trap to fall into. Trump’s ability to dominate attention often drowns out individual messaging in favor of one, big Trump-centered conversation.

Remember your in-the-moment responses to Trump outrages don’t have to be generic. Before you take action, ask yourself this question: What can we say or do in this moment that no other group could?  That will have a double benefit. It will make your immediate reaction more authentic and it will strengthen the sense of connection with your audience over time. 

3. As you look beyond Trump, don’t just aim to reclaim your old identity.

Now is the time to lean into more clarity about your mission, your voice, the things that make your group unique. But be very careful. It’s not about reclaiming your old stance. It’s about creating your organization’s next identity—retaining what you’ve learned and become during the Trump years—not simply recovering what existed before.  

4. Draw the 2029 picture, then map your way towards it.

Moving away from generic anti-Trump messaging in favor of a clear, group-specific narrative isn’t something you can do overnight. The first task is to map it out. What parts of your identity have been blurred in the anti-Trump universe? How have your voice and personality developed amid the chaos?  Which new projects and initiatives would best express your updated organizational identity?

Next, you need to slowly but surely map your way to that fuller identity. It’s not about making a big announcement. It’s about working systematically to expose your audience to your fuller organizational picture. That way, come the time, your post-Trump voice and activities will seem natural and not as if they come out of the blue.

5. Plan early. But don’t get too far ahead of your audience.

I’m arguing for being smart and well-prepared for the two-tracks era. But, initially, a lot of that planning should be quiet, not explicit. You don’t want to signal to your audiences that you’re moving past confronting immediate Trump outrages. You just want to plant the seeds of your post-Trump content and organizational positioning.

6. Develop new landscape (as opposed to post-Trump)
organizational positioning.  

I opened this memo talking about your “life after Trump” game plan. And it’s certainly the case that, come 2029, we want to connect with peoples’ yearning for the day Trump is in the rearview mirror.

But we also need to recognize most people would rather talk about anything other than Trump. Real progress in 2029 means being able to address problems, meet people’s needs, advance new ideas – all without a Trump lens.

7. Don’t let “restoration” language lapse into “back to normal.”

After a period as jarring and disruptive as the Trump years, there will be a collective desire to restore our democracy and put core American values back at the center of  the national conversation. That’s bound to be a central element in  2029 messaging.

But slipping from that into “return to normal” language has to be avoided. For large parts of the electorate, “normal” wasn’t working for them at all. So going back to it isn’t an attractive destination. And as the 2026 success of progressive candidates suggests, there’s a real appetite for systemic change, not just a return to business as usual.

8. Prepare for multiple 2028 post-election scenarios.

Needless to say, “post-Trump” will have a different meaning if a Democrat wins in 2028 than if the nominee of Trump’s Republican party carries the day. In the latter case, we will be post-Trump, but maybe not post-Trumpism. 

It will still be different. Even if a Republican takes his place, no visible successor has demonstrated Trump’s ability to maintain his unbreakable grip on the MAGA Republican base or the same ability to bend Republican politicians to their will.

That said, it will be a far more ambivalent outcome than a Democratic win. So, it’s important to prepare multiple post-election scenarios – a Democratic win, a Republican one, and a result that is manipulated, disrupted or thrown into dispute.

Here’s a good place to start. Bring together your group’s strongest communicators and compile two lists. On the first, list the five most significant ways responding to the Trump era has altered how you describe and conduct your work. On the second, identify the five most important shifts in how you can best describe and conduct your work in a post-Trump world.