Trump Has Swallowed Democracy—And He Won’t Spit It Out

New York, N.Y. — Americans are mesmerized by the viral video of a whale off the coast of Chile swallowing a kayak whole—only to spit it back out, miraculously leaving the kayakers alive. It’s the kind of near-mythical tale we love: swallowed by the beast, only to emerge unharmed, reborn, and back on course.

But fairytales aren’t real.

The whale is Donald Trump. The kayak is American democracy. And unlike the lucky Chilean kayakers, there’s no guarantee that we will be spit back out. In fact, there’s every indication that we won’t be.

For years, Trump has consumed the institutions, norms, and values that once defined the United States as a beacon of democracy. He has taken in everything—truth, justice, the rule of law, international alliances—and twisted them beyond recognition. His appetite for power is insatiable, and yet too many Americans still believe in a fairytale ending where everything goes back to normal.

This isn’t a storybook.

Democracy doesn’t just magically reappear once it’s been swallowed whole. It takes action. It takes resistance. It takes a conscious and relentless effort to fight back.

The Chilean kayaker survived because of pure, blind luck. But we cannot rely on luck to save our country. Trump won’t spit democracy back out—so it is up to us to kill the whale before it’s too late.

Swallowed by Whale: Trump and the Fate of American Democracy (2/15/25)

#SaveDemocracy #TrumpTheWhale #AmericaOnTheBrink #NoFairyTaleEnding #Resist #DefendTheVote

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