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Sen. Chuck Schumer<\/span><\/a>, D-N.Y., capitulated to President Donald Trump and the GOP over the budget this week<\/a>, sacrificing one of Democrats\u2019 last pieces of leverage as Trump bulldozes the federal government and jails activists. Schumer defended voting yes on the GOP budget that would neuter the legislative branch, arguing that he had no choice but to give in or face a government shutdown. He\u2019s not the first to make that kind of decision.<\/p>\n Leaders of businesses, universities, and nations across the globe face the same question: Should they fight Trump, or hope that by giving him what he wants he\u2019ll somehow do less harm?<\/p>\n Far too often, these leaders have chosen appeasement over resistance \u2014 and, in return, gotten nothing.<\/p>\n At Columbia University, leadership has remained largely silent over the Trump administration\u2019s arrest of recent graduate Mahmoud Khalil<\/a>, a Palestinian activist with legal permanent residency in the United States. The Trump administration has not charged Khalil with a crime<\/a>, arguing instead that his pro-Palestinian campus activism made him a national security threat. Rather than publicly defending its students, Columbia on Thursday expelled, suspended, or revoked degrees<\/a> of students protesting Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, sending a clear signal of where the university stands in regard to academic speech rights. The fact that the university opted to crack down on its students even after the Trump administration cut $400 million of federal funding <\/a>is a sign the school is still trying to appease Trump rather than resist him. In a letter responding to the cuts<\/a>, interim university president Katrina Armstrong wrote that Columbia was committed to \u201cworking with the federal government\u201d and said that combating antisemitism is its \u201cnumber one priority.\u201d<\/p>\n The university had a similar response to the Department of Homeland Security raiding two students\u2019 rooms earlier this week. In a campuswide email<\/a>, Armstrong refused to condemn the raids, writing that \u201cColumbia is committed to upholding the law.\u201d\u00a0Now it appears that another student<\/a> has been detained by immigration officials.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yet despite these conciliatory efforts to placate an increasingly powerful president, the Trump administration continues to target Columbia and its students. On Thursday, the Department of Education<\/a> threatened the school in a letter<\/a>, demanding further crackdowns on student activism, a mask ban, increased authority for campus police, and that the university place its departments of Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies on receivership, which could cede control of those departments to an external authority.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s any lesson from the early months of the second Trump term, it\u2019s that playing nice with Trump isn\u2019t just bad optics \u2014 it\u2019s a losing strategy. Resistance to Trump has netted some early victories, particularly in the courts<\/a>, where some cuts by Trump and Elon Musk have been put on ice, and in foreign trade, where some countries that responded in kind<\/a> to the threat of U.S. tariffs have seen those fees delayed.<\/p>\n \u201cConceding to the authoritarian agenda won\u2019t save us. The more we willingly give bullies, the more they forcibly take,\u201d said Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., in a statement to The Intercept.<\/p>\n Ramirez argued that these capitulations go far deeper than giving into Trump on the budget; it\u2019s about Democrats ceding ideological ground on a range of issues without so much as a fight.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of my colleagues have willingly conceded ground on immigration, cancer research, the rights to due process and free speech, Social Security, veteran benefits, environmental sustainability, and labor rights in the hope of gaining future protection or appeasing Musk and Trump,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir mistake. Musk and Trump will continue taking more of our civil rights, programs, and resources unless we find the courage to stand our ground and fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats cannot continue to move in a way that signals to the American people that they will not fight for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., agreed with Ramirez. \u201cThe ultra-rich are buying off our democracy and moving us towards oligarchy and authoritarianism,\u201d said Lee, in a statement. \u201cDemocrats cannot continue to move in a way that signals to the American people that they will not fight for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, an organization working to elevate the political power of women of color, argued that Democrats who have tried to placate Trump haven\u2019t gotten the scrutiny they deserve. \u201cWe need to pay more attention to the cowardly capitulation of Democratic leadership and institutions to pave the way for Trump\u2019s misdeeds; Senate minority leader Schumer is exhibit one of failing the moment,\u201d she wrote to The Intercept. \u201cWhile the majority of democratic Senators pledge a no vote on cloture and refuse to cooperate with Republicans, he bends the knee. His weakness in the face of the bald-faced dismantling of our democratic institutions and the federal government is a liability.\u201d<\/p>\n Allison said what happened with Columbia University was a perfect example of why appeasement failed.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Columbia example teaches us anything, it\u2019s that capitulation does not gain time and doesn\u2019t gain power, and it certainly does not protect vulnerable people or our deeply held values,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Justin Hansford, a Howard Law professor and founder of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center, argued that capitulation had only emboldened Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe more that they cave in, the more damage that gets done,\u201d said Hansford. \u201cNot only has the caving not changed Trump\u2019s approach, he keeps ratcheting it up.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n