The Breakroom
Responding vs. Reacting
Welcome to the Water Cooler
Here at the water cooler, we gather around and share what we’re reading and thinking about. We made it through Day 1 of the Trump Administration. Here is to taking things one day at a time.
Today on Pantsuit Politics
Sarah and Beth will take some time to process the Inauguration of President Trump on today’s episode and share their conversation with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker (YES, HIM!).
You’ll hear the rest of the conversation on today’s new podcast episode, but we wanted to share a snippet to get you started on your day.
Senator Booker was reading and thinking about this article from The New York Times:
Stephen Miller, Channeling Trump, Has Built More Power Than Ever (The New York Times)1
Especially this quote:
As he works out his priorities, Mr. Miller appears to have learned two key lessons from the first Trump term.
The first is to flood the zone. He believes that those he regards as Mr. Trump’s enemies — Democrats, the media, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and portions of the federal bureaucracy — are depleted and only have so much bandwidth for outrage and opposition. Mr. Miller has told people that the goal is to overwhelm them with a blitz of activity.
The second lesson has been to operate with as much secrecy as possible to prevent anyone from finding ways to obstruct the Trump agenda.
Or, as the SNL Cold Open put it:
Pantsuit Politics Bulletin Board
Don’t miss our Premium Shows Good Morning and More to Say:
More to Say: And spend some time with Beth asking the question: are these times really unprecedented?
2025 Slow Read: Habits of the Heart
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Sneak Peak
Senator Booker talked about this song, and it’s resonance for these days. So, we wanted to share it with you:
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Yes. The new administration will need the rest of us to be disorganized, overwhelmed, reactionary. We will not be!! We will be steadfast, focused, grounded, and believing in Hope.
This is a weird thought I had but I'm going to ignore the news for a month or so and - wait for it -- just give Trump a chance. I loved his line about keeping us out of war, for instance. I am going to fight the knee-jeek reaction to him this time bc it almost killed me last time. We WANT our county to succeed, yes? We want people to succeed. Half the county voted for this change. Today I'm going to just try to let the anger go and give grace and let him try to do the job.