THE WOKETOPUS STRIKES BACK

A living tally of the actions that woke nonprofits have taken against the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump is off to an amazing start with his second administration. Already, we have seen orders to dismantle so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in the federal government, orders reversing the horrific damage of gender ideology, deportations of illegal alien criminals, orders combatting climate alarmism, and efforts to bring accountability to the administrative state.

The Woketopus—the vast network of far-left nonprofits that called the shots during the Biden administration—has not disappeared, however. Democrats may be in disarray, with some of them confused about the best way to respond to Trump’s historic reelection victory, but the woke activist groups are disinclined to find any common ground with the new president.

In fact, the Woketopus is already striking back. As I write these words, more lawsuits are coming, more activists are training illegal aliens to evade federal law enforcement, and more bureaucrats are plotting to oppose the president’s agenda from within.

I’m writing this article on Jan. 30, 2025, but I plan to constantly update it with small vignettes of what the groups in my book are doing to oppose Trump’s agenda.

WHO IS THE WOKETOPUS?

Here’s a brief refresher on what I mean by “the Woketopus.” In order to qualify as a member of this cabal, a leftist organization has to have leaders or staff meet with Biden officials at the White House, has to have enjoyed some funding from the Left’s dark money network, and must have had some impact on federal policy—either by sending its leaders and staff into the administration to make policy or by advising bureaucrats or by writing first drafts of executive orders or other policies.

Here’s my chart plotting the groups in my book and the influence they had on the Biden administration.

This post will be following these groups as they oppose Trump’s policies.

THE TICKER

Jan. 17

The National Education Association, America’s largest teachers union, held a webinar on Jan. 17, advising teachers on how to protect “undocumented” students from federal immigration authorities. The NEA enjoyed close access to Biden. It also funneled union dues to other parts of the Woketopus, supporting the Center for American Progress, among others.

Jan. 19

The day before President Trump took office, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Milwaukee published a YouTube video urging illegal aliens to “know their rights” and giving tips on how to avoid federal law enforcement. (While Catholic Charities is not part of the Woketopus, it is part of the Immigration Industrial Complex, the nonprofits who receive federal grants to move illegal aliens across the country.)

Jan. 20

The American Civil Liberties Union, which pressured the Biden administration to reject the “enforcement-based approach” to immigration and helped staff the Biden transition for the Department of Homeland Security, wasted no time in opposing Trump’s executive orders.

On Jan. 20, Trump’s first day in office, the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s executive order regarding “birthright citizenship.” The ACLU and the Legal Defense Fund represent the League of United Latin American Citizens in the lawsuit.

Trump’s order prohibits federal agencies from issuing or accepting citizenship documents for children born in the U.S. when neither parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of the child’s birth. Critics paint it as flagrantly unconstitutional, but it actually accords well with an originalist understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment. Furthermore, it helps preserve America’s sovereignty by removing the incentive for a pregnant illegal alien to try to reach U.S. soil before giving birth.

Jan. 20

Governing for Impact—a now-independent group that was originally a fiscally-sponsored project of the Arabella Advisors-founded nonprofit New Venture Fund—released a memo outlining what it calls the “Legal Vulnerabilities of Schedule F.” The report, dated January 2025, seems timed to coincide with Trump’s second inauguration and aims to undermine a signature reform the president needs to undermine the deep state.

Jan. 22

The ACLU filed a second lawsuit two days after Trump entered office, aiming to block the administration’s plan to fast-track deportations. The ACLU sued on behalf of Make the Road New York, an “immigrant-led” nonprofit serving a bevy of leftist causes. (It seems too “woke” for the mainstream woke causes. It even ditched the LGBTQ acronym for TGNCIQ—transgender, gender non-conforming, intersex, and queer.)

The ACLU’s Immigrant Rights Project claimed that fast-tracking deportation would “rip communities apart.”

The Trump order on expedited removal allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fast-track deportation, without needing to go before an immigration judge before deporting an illegal alien. The ACLU has fought to ensure that immigrants gain legal avenues to fight to remain in the country, often describing illegal aliens as “asylum seekers.”

Jan. 28

The Human Rights Campaign, the major force behind much of Biden’s transgender agenda, announced that it will file a lawsuit—along with the law firm Lambda Legal—to block Trump’s executive order rooting gender ideology out of the military.

The order states that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.” The order notes that “the Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion.” It also notes that “many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty,” especially conditions that “require substantial medication.”

Yet HRC frames the order as a “transgender military service ban,” and vows to challenge it in court.

Jan. 29

President Trump issued an executive order to resurrect Schedule F, a civil service reform he first launched in 2020 before Biden repealed it. Schedule F creates a new classification of federal employees that makes bureaucrats who make policy easier to fire.

On Jan. 29, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, one of America’s largest unions and an arm of the Woketopus, teamed up with the American Federation of Government Employees—which represents 800,000 federal employees—to sue President Trump and the Office of Personnel Management. The same left-leaning law firm that represented left-leaning nonprofits in attempting to block Trump’s funding freeze is representing AFSCME and AFGE.

AFSCME and AFGE claim that Trump’s executive orders aim to “policitize the civil service,” but these orders aim to prevent woke bureaucrats from undermining the president’s ability to deliver on his promises to the American people.

Jan. 30

Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, announced that the SPLC intends to file lawsuits against the Trump administration. While she did not state which executive orders she thinks violate America’s civil rights laws, she vowed to oppose some of them in court.

“We are absolutely determined not to allow this administration to get away with any of those actions,’’ Huang said in a news conference Thursday, USA Today reported. “We are going to be looking at litigation, at advocacy and at mass mobilization to make sure that this administration gets the message: ‘We're not going to stand for this.’ ‘’

I will update this article with new instances of the Woketopus striking back.