Stack-Ranking the Biggest Cowards of Trump’s Second Term
A wall of shame for those who rushed to sell out their principles.
Donald Trump swept back into office riding a wave of fear and intimidation. His political backers and handpicked cronies promised vengeance on their enemies. Meanwhile, the leaders and institutions who make up our civil society proved themselves all too willing to lay down before him, without even putting up token resistance.
Almost from day one, media companies rushed to prostrate themselves before the new administration. Billionaires who are protected by their money, power, and influence declined to offer a word of pushback. And the very law firms tasked with upholding the rule of law proved themselves woefully unequal to the task.
What follows is a stack-ranking of the most shameful instances of cowardice we’ve seen in Trump’s second term to date. It’s important to name and shame these sycophants, opportunists, and cynics, to serve as a warning against others who might contemplate the same path. Because ultimately, their surrender empowers Trump’s authoritarian designs and further weakens the guardrails of American democracy.
5. Mark Zuckerberg
He used to talk a big game about having big-tech platforms serve democracy, and even took substantive steps to counteract the hijacking of Facebook for nefarious political ends. But in recent years, Zuckerberg has warmed to Trump—or at least given the appearance of warming to him in order to curry favor with the administration.
Throughout 2024 and 2025, Zuckerberg took up the MMA aesthetic with gusto, started appearing on MAGA-friendly podcasts, and talked about bringing “masculine energy” back to his companies. He even adopted a new look and, when Trump was reelected, agreed to appear as a human prop at his inauguration, alongside several other big tech luminaries.
The man who once nurtured a fascination for Augustus Caesar seems to have finally made his way into the embrace of America’s own aspiring emperor.
4. Columbia University
The 271-year old school’s charter touts “the University’s function as an incubator of ideas and Viewpoints” and states that “the principle of free expression must be jealously guarded.” But it’s been busily undermining this legacy under Trump’s withering attacks on academic freedom. In March 2025, the administration cut $400 million in federal funding to Columbia over allegations that the school mishandled student protests against the war in Gaza.
Rather than fight the cuts, former interim president Katrina Armstrong responded by enacting a raft of policy changes friendly to the administration’s demands, before stepping down. Ultimately Columbia agreed to pay more than $200 million to the Trump administration to restore most of its lost federal funding. The deal also requires Columbia to allow an Orwellian “monitor” on campus to track its compliance with rules curbing antisemitism.
This is all the more disturbing because there were genuine instances of antisemitism present within parts of Columbia’s campus protest movement. It was—and is—incumbent on the university to root out this kind of prejudice, appropriately punish those responsible, and ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all students. But allowing a Trump takeover of campus isn’t going to do any of that; if anything, it’s likely to make the problem even worse.
America’s Ivy League is supposed to be a bastion for the most talented and distinguished people in the country. What does it say if truth and bravery are no longer virtues they ascribe to?
3. Big Law
Trump’s targeting of the nation’s leading law firms was a tour de force in how an incoming administration can neuter some of civil society’s most important independent guardrails. Using executive orders that revoked security clearances and threatened federal contracts, Trump systematically pressured major law firms that had represented his perceived enemies, or who had hired attorneys who had prosecuted him for his earlier crimes. This attack was aimed at poisoning leading firms’ brands and hollowing out their client bases, and it worked.
Ultimately, nine of the nation’s largest firms—including big names like Paul, Weiss and Skadden, Arps—capitulated, pledging nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services to Trump. The heads of these firms justified this action to themselves by saying that “the Administration is not dictating what matters we take on, approving our matters, or anything like that.” But this was a transparent attempt to dress up what was actually happening here: Big Law was paying off Trump to save its own bottom line.
The cowardice was particularly galling because the firms that chose to fight, won decisively. Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale all sued and secured permanent injunctions from federal judges who ruled that Trump’s executive orders were unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment.
The granddaughters of one of Paul, Weiss’ most eminent partners—both practicing attorneys themselves—wrote of the firm’s surrender: “We are confident that neither our grandfather, nor his colleagues with whom he built Paul, Weiss, would have negotiated a truce for themselves when the rest of the legal profession remains under threat for doing its jobs as lawyers.” It is to the surrendering firms’ own discredit that these words were not heeded.
2. Jeff Bezos
The Amazon founder bought The Washington Post in 2013 with assurances that “the credibility that an organization like The Washington Post brings is incredibly important.” The moniker “Democracy Dies in Darkness” still lives underneath its logo on the Post’s website, but is belied by Bezos’ own craven actions over the past year. In October 2024—just days before the election, when Trump’s ascent seemed ever more likely—Bezos spiked the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris, while trying to pretend publicly that he wasn’t doing just that. Then, when Trump won, he pledged $1 million to his transition slush fund and appeared at his inauguration.
This was a critical early signal to other big-tech oligarchs and media companies: Get onboard with the new regime or risk facing the consequences. One by one, others followed suit. If Bezos, with his $228 billion, can’t fight back, the thinking seemed to go, then what chance do the rest of us have? Bezos then remade his editorial page to take a much more Trump-friendly line—“personal liberties and free markets”—and presided over an exodus of talent and subscribers that has left the Post reeling.
Meddling with editorial content, cozying up to an authoritarian president, sending talent and readers running for the exits: That’s Bezos’ legacy at the Post. It turns out democracy dies in broad daylight.
1. Paramount Global
The media company was handed an unlosable case when Trump sued it for daring to edit an interview with Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes.” Serious legal observers agreed that the case would be laughed out of court. But under the leadership of chairwoman Shari Redstone, Paramount decided to settle anyway, paying Trump $16 million. All for doing something that media companies do every single day.
The reason is obvious: Paramount Global was seeking FCC approval for a multibillion-dollar merger with the company Skydance Media. Soon after the settlement, Trump’s handpicked FCC approved the merger, meaning Paramount got exactly what it wanted out of the deal. The controversy also led to the resignation of “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens, who showed more courage than his corporate bosses by stepping down, rather than accept Paramount's interference with editorial decisions. For good measure, Paramount even fired Stephen Colbert of “The Late Show” while pretending that this had nothing to do with his criticism of the president.
Thankfully, at least one Paramount property still knows how to fight back: A day after the settlement was announced, South Park released an instant classic episode, skewering its parent company’s cowardice and Trump’s caprice without fear of the consequences. It’s a shame the show’s creators are so alone in their willingness to say the plain truth.
Sarah Matthews is an Advisory Board Member and Spokesperson for Home of the Brave, a new initiative highlighting the harms of Donald Trump’s second term.
We can do our part by boycotting these entities whenever possible. My Amazon purchases are virtually down to nothing at this point. Amazon is overrated anyway. Most times I can find the exact item at a lower price somewhere else. And Prime? A total waste of money.
Mary Trump’s book Too Much and Never Enough perfectly describes these rich folks.