For a guy obsessed with “total authority,” Donald Trump is having a rough time actually, you know, using it.

Can you say, “flaccid?”

Voters just handed him and his Project 2025 fan club a humiliating beatdown on Election Day 2025. Democrats flipped Virginia’s governorship, held New Jersey, and racked up wins from New York City’s mayor’s race to key ballot measures. The Guardian+4Ballotpedia+4CBS News+4

Meanwhile, judges all over the country keep slamming the brakes on Trump’s ugliest Project 2025-style power grabs—blocking his attacks on trans kids’ healthcare, gay marriage, sex ed, clean energy, and even basic food assistance for poor families. The Washington Post+4American Civil Liberties Union+4American Civil Liberties Union+4

The big picture: Project 2025 promised an all-powerful “unitary executive” who would bend the country to his will. Instead, Trump is discovering something he hates more than anything else on Earth: limits.

Let’s break down how impotent this whole project is looking right now.

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Election Day 2025: Voters Reject Project 2025 at the Ballot Box

If Election Day 2025 was supposed to be Trump’s “proof” that the country loves his second-term agenda, voters just set that theory on fire and danced on the ashes.

Two governor’s races. Huge national attention. Trump’s shadow looming over both.

• New Jersey: Democrat Mikie Sherrill wins the governorship, keeping a blue hold in a state where Trump bragged about making “inroads.” She beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who had leaned into Trump-world to stay alive in a primary and never quite escaped the stench. AP News+1

• Virginia: Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, crushes Trump-backed Winsome Earle-Sears and becomes the state’s first woman governor, part of a Democratic trifecta (governor, lieutenant governor, AG) and an expanded majority in the House of Delegates. The Guardian+1

• New York City: Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani wins the mayor’s race, becoming NYC’s first Muslim mayor and arguably the biggest progressive victory since AOC’s 2018 upset. CBS News+1

Before the 2025 elections, Republicans held 27 governorships to Democrats’ 23. After Democrats winning both 2025 governor races, that balance tightened—and the GOP walked away from this cycle with zero new governors and two fresh bruises. Ballotpedia

Zooming out:

• Analysts across the spectrum are reading these races as an early referendum on Trump’s second term and Project 2025. Brookings+1

• Turnout stayed high, and voters tended to side with candidates promising to protect democracy, abortion rights, public education, and voting access—everything Project 2025 is itching to roll back. Brennan Center for Justice+2Leadership Conference+2

If Trump thought 2025 would be the year of fear and obedience, voters just replied: Nah. Try again, little man.

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Courts Keep Smacking Down Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda

Project 2025 is basically a wish list for an unhinged, imperial presidency: purge the civil service, weaponize DOJ, kneecap rights protections, punish anyone who won’t submit. Center for American Progress+2Leadership Conference+2

The good news: courts keep punching holes in it.

A few hits from just this year:

1. The anti-trans health care crusade? Blocked—twice.

Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 threatening to yank all federal funding from hospitals and providers who offer gender-affirming care to trans youth under 19. Act for Public Health+2KFF+2

• Civil rights groups and families sued in PFLAG v. Trump, arguing the order was discriminatory, unconstitutional, and cruel. American Civil Liberties Union

• In February 2025, a federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked the order, and another federal judge in Washington state followed with a second injunction, preventing enforcement nationwide. Silver State Equality+3American Civil Liberties Union+3Politico+3

Translation: Trump tried to make medical care for trans kids a hostage. The courts said no. Twice.

2. His war on food assistance? Running into serious resistance.

The Trump administration has been trying to stiff low-income families on SNAP food benefits for November, invoking “budget constraints” and “policy priorities.” Courts aren’t impressed.

• A federal appeals court recently ruled the administration cannot avoid paying SNAP benefits and essentially punted the final decision up to the Supreme Court while keeping the payments flowing. Roll Call+2SCOTUSblog+2

Is it over? No. Is Trump getting his way? Also no.

3. Retaliatory budget games? Judges are not amused.

Trump tried to cut counterterrorism grant funds—hundreds of millions of dollars—from Democratic-led states in what looked a lot like political payback.

• A federal judge in Rhode Island slapped a temporary restraining order on that stunt, calling the administration’s last-minute maneuvers “slapdash” and giving the states time to fight back in court. Reuters+1

Turns out even Trump-appointed judges don’t love being used as props in a petty revenge tour.

4. Culture war attacks on education? Also running into brick walls.

When the administration tried to yank funding from sex education programs that include content on gender diversity—demanding schools erase “gender ideology” to keep federal dollars—a federal judge in Oregon issued a preliminary injunction blocking that too. AP News+1

The court basically said: you can’t use federal money as a bludgeon to force states into your ideological fantasy world.

5. Waging war on clean energy? Not going smoothly either.

Trump’s push to halt major offshore wind projects under vague “national security” claims also hit a wall:

• A federal judge temporarily lifted the administration’s halt on the Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island and Connecticut, noting that the developers were likely to win on the merits and would suffer irreparable harm if construction stayed frozen. The Washington Post

So much for MAGA’s war on wind.

And all of this sits on top of a growing wall of lawsuits catalogued by groups like Just Security, which are tracking a voluminous set of challenges to Trump’s second-term executive actions across civil rights, immigration, health care, and environmental policy. Brookings+3Just Security+3Just Security+3

Project 2025 promised a steamroller. What it’s getting, over and over, is a speed bump named The Rule of Law.

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Why Project 2025 Is So Dangerous — and So Unpopular

So what exactly are voters and judges reacting against?

Project 2025, cooked up by the Heritage Foundation and a network of hard-right groups, is built around a few core ideas: Legal Defense Fund+4Center for American Progress+4Leadership Conference+4

• Turn the presidency into an almost unchecked throne.
  Strip away guardrails and concentrate power in one person’s hands, especially over DOJ, the FBI, and the civil service.

• Purge the government.
  Fire tens of thousands of career civil servants and replace them with loyalists willing to carry out extreme policies without question.

• Weaponize law and policy against enemies.
  Whether it’s election officials, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, or blue states, the plan explicitly aims to punish and intimidate.

• Roll back fundamental rights.
  Civil rights groups warn it would gut protections involving voting rights, abortion access, LGBTQ+ equality, workers’ rights, and more. Congressman Steve Cohen+4Brennan Center for Justice+4Leadership Conference+4

Think of it as “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but with performance reviews and HR paperwork.

The thing is: most Americans hate this stuff once they actually see it:

• Voting rights, independent courts, and the idea that presidents aren’t kings are still broadly popular.

• Polling and election outcomes show that when the choice is framed as “democracy vs. authoritarian revenge fantasy,” democracy still wins—see 2022, 2023, 2024, and now the 2025 off-year elections. PBS+3Al Jazeera+3Brookings+3

Project 2025 is the political equivalent of a supervillain monologue: terrifying on paper, self-defeating in practice—because it tells everyone exactly what they’re planning to do to us.

And people are responding with a simple, clarifying emotion: Nope.

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The Backlash Is Here: How We Fight Project 2025 Now

Here’s the good news for the No Wimps Army “Wolverines”:

• The courts are still working.

• Voters are still awake.

• Trump’s fantasy of unstoppable dominance looks more like a slow-motion faceplant.

But none of this happens by accident. It happens because people show up, sue, organize, and refuse to shut up.

Here’s what “fighting Project 2025” looks like in real life, right now:

1. Keep turning elections into referendums on authoritarianism.

Election Day 2025 didn’t just “go well” for Democrats. It sent a message:

“If you run on Trumpism and Project 2025, we will retire you. Warmly. Permanently.” Ballotpedia+2Al Jazeera+2

Action items for readers:

• Vote in every off-year and special election.
  Project 2025 depends on people tuning out and skipping “small” races. Stop doing that.

• Support candidates who openly oppose Project 2025 by name.
  Make it politically toxic. Make it something Republicans have to run away from, not toward.

2. Back the people dragging Trump’s agenda into court.

Those injunctions against his anti-trans order, the blocks on retaliatory funding cuts, the pushback on SNAP games and energy sabotage—none of that happens without plaintiffs, lawyers, and organizations doing the grind every day. The Washington Post+5American Civil Liberties Union+5American Civil Liberties Union+5

Action items:

• Support groups like the ACLU, Lambda Legal, NAACP LDF, Democracy Forward, the Brennan Center, and others that are building the legal wall against Project 2025. Democracy Forward+3Brennan Center for Justice+3Leadership Conference+3

• Share their explainers and trackers so your friends understand what’s at stake and where the fights are.

3. Protect election officials and local democracy.

Project 2025 doesn’t just want to control Washington—it wants to intimidate and criminalize local officials who actually run elections. Brennan Center for Justice+2The Equation+2

Action items:

• Show up at local election board and county meetings in support of election workers.

• Push your state reps to strengthen protections for election officials and to fund secure, transparent election systems.

• Call out Project 2025 by name whenever a state-level flunky tries to copy-paste its agenda into local law.

4. Build the cultural immune system.

Trump’s whole game—especially with Project 2025—is to make cruelty, lawlessness, and government-by-revenge feel normal.

Our job is to make it weird again. Shameful. Dangerous to touch.

That means:

• Memes, posts, and conversations that mock the idea of Trump as an all-powerful king.

• Articles (like this one) that connect real-world court losses and election defeats to the bigger story: authoritarianism is beatable.

• A movement identity—like the No Wimps Army “Wolverines” & “No Kings”—that tells people: you’re not alone, you’re not crazy, and you’re not powerless.

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Final Word: Impotence, Defined

Trump wanted Project 2025 to be his big reveal—a master plan to turn the American presidency into a God-Emperor job with no real checks and balances.

Instead, here’s what he’s getting:

• Voters flipping and holding governor’s mansions against his candidates. Brookings+4AP News+4The Guardian+4

• Courts blocking his executive orders on health care, education, energy, and funding stunts. Reuters+5American Civil Liberties Union+5Politico+5

• Legal trackers filling up with case after case after case challenging his administration’s actions. Congressman Steve Cohen+3Just Security+3lawfaremedia.org+3

In other words: a guy who keeps swinging and hitting the wall instead of the country.

That’s not strength. That’s not dominance.

That’s impotence.

And as long as the Wolverines keep showing up—in courtrooms, in voting booths, in school board meetings, and online—Project 2025 is going to keep running into the same problem:

There are more of us than there are of them.

No wimps. No kings. No Project 2025.