It has been dismaying to see people who should know better—I won’t name names yet—excuse the dangerous and chaotic first month of the Trump Administration as a victory for localism. Hey, they say, he’s shrinking the federal government, pulling the United States out of wars around the world, imposing tariffs to expand local production, deregulating businesses, moving controversial issues like abortion and education policy back to the states, and sticking it to Big Pharma through RFK Jr. There are grains of truth in these observations—but also shovels full of steaming bull pucky.

Let me articulate nine principles of localism, and explain how Trump is betraying all of them.

(1) Localists Need a Functional Federal Government – Localists believe in the principle of subsidiarity, where power and decision-making rests first and foremost at the local level. A powerful federal state is treated with suspicion. But localists still need a functional federal state, and what Elon Musk and his DOGE Boyz are doing right now is disabling the federal government, not shrinking it. As The Economist recently noted, DOGE is failing to reduce federal expenditures in any meaningful way. Instead, it’s slashing the very functions we most need a federal government for, such as scientific research, pandemic prevention, food safety, air traffic control, and disaster assistance. No localist wants a country with second-class universities, pandemics, food poisoning, plane crashes, and destitute victims of hurricanes, floods, and wildfires.

(2) Localists Want a Diversity of Independent Communities – Localists believe that America’s 36,000 towns should be free to choose their economic, social, and political priorities. Let Alabama be Alabama, and California be California. What the Trump Administration wants is for every community to be Alabama (or maybe Mar-a-Lago). Using every top-down executive power available (many illegal), the administration is forcing communities to abandon congestion pricing programs, climate protection initiatives, ESG criteria in investing, and DEI programs. Whether you like or dislike these programs is irrelevant. Communities should be free to decide these matters for themselves.

(3) Localists Want Free(r) Trade – As I’ve written elsewhere, tariffs are a dumb form of localization, because they raise prices for all consumers, impede business innovation, and inflame international tensions. Smart localization encourages and motivates consumers, businesses, and government agencies to buy, invest, and hire locally. Dumb localization limits choices, while smart localization improves choices. One reason the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, and other mislabeled “free trade” treaties were so awful is that they impeded local preferences. Localists want communities to be as self-reliant as possible, but also want an affordable global shopping market for things they cannot produce themselves.

(4) Localists Detest War – Wars are, at best, a terrible distraction from strengthening local economies, and at worst a menace if they decimate cities and communities (think Eastern Ukraine). Trump’s supporters say he’s ending wars in Ukraine and Gaza. We all know that’s nonsense. He’s now supporting Putin’s expansionist dreams and Netanyahu’s repressive nightmares, and just laying the foundation for future, more destructive wars. He’s also threatening Denmark to snatch Greenland, saber rattling Panama to seize control of “our Canal,” and pushing European allies to embrace proto-fascist political parties. He appears to be angling to wreck NATO, which has kept Europe free of world wars since 1945. And he has replaced disciplined generals with second-rate loyalists who he can command to carry out petty wars, some of which may be waged against American protestors in the streets.

(5) Localists Love Small Business – Small businesses are the foundation for local jobs, wealth, and democracy. Trump is creating a team of billionaires and an era of oligarchy akin to the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, when the American economy was dominated by monopolistic trusts in every sector of the economy. As of late December, thirteen billionaires had high-level positions in his administration. Many are implementing policies that enhance their wealth at the expense of small competitors. And in just a month, they have taken apart consumer protections and fired antitrust regulators that small businesses need to compete on a fair playing field. Privileging Jeff Bezos’s Amazon means decimating Main Street retailers. Greenlighting more bank mergers means destroying community banking. Big Pharma didn’t raise a single objection to RFK Jr’s nomination as HHS secretary because they know their drug and IP monopolies are safe.

(6) Localists Need a Vibrant Democracy – Democracy thrives with strong checks and balances, both within all levels of government and through decentralized power. Instead, we have a self-described “king” who wants the power to rule by executive decree. One by one, he is eliminating checks on his power, including departmental auditors, ethics whistleblowers, and an independent justice department. (If DOGE were really trying to root out corruption, it would partner with these people, not fire them.) What will happen when Trump follows JD Vance’s advice to defy court orders? Be very worried.

(7) Localists Embrace Free Speech — Localists believe in free speech, because by definition, their views, the parochial views of their community, are always different than those of the larger society. I appreciate that many Trump supporters believe he’s an avatar for the First Amendment. They detested federal efforts to correct misinformation about COVID, and proliferating speech codes (some driven by DEI extremists) at universities and on media platforms—and delight in Trump’s smashing of these. But what I see is a President who is saying, pro-Trump speech or no speech. In just a few short weeks, important government data sources (on weather patterns and disease research, for example) have been taken offline. The Associated Press has been kicked out of the White House press pool for not going along with Trump’s silly renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. Lawsuits have been initiated against The Des Moines Register for publishing an unfavorable poll, and against CBS for its editorial decisions in a teaser ad for 60 Minutes. Vocabulary sheets on gender have been circulated throughout the federal government that are as embarrassing as the DEI speech codes they were designed to remedy.

(8) Localists Need a Stable Economy – Inflation led to the ousting of governments of every political stripe across the world, and it helps explain Joe Biden’s unpopularity and Kamala Harris’ defeat. Trump ran on bringing down the price of eggs. In case you don’t grocery shop, egg prices are skyrocketing because of avian flu that is running rampant, in part because DOGE fired (and then incompetently rehired) federal workers responsible for impeding it. But it’s far worse than that. Americans are now bracing for rising prices across the board. And the pace of inflation will likely accelerate because of tariffs (which make imports more expensive) and immigrant deportations (which will create labor shortages in our farms, meat packing plants, and construction sites). We are hurtling toward an economic disaster, which will weaken local businesses, bankrupt local governments, and eviscerate democratic norms. Trump’s planned takeover of the historically independent Federal Reserve will only make matters worse. Don’t forget the relationship between inflation and democracy: Hitler used Germany’s hyperinflation as an excuse to dismantle the country’s wobbly democratic institutions in 1933-34.

(9) Localists Are Constitutionally Conservative – What I mean is that most of us value stability, and want to introduce change slowly, carefully, mindfully. The most localist country in the world, Switzerland—also one of the richest and most socially innovative countries—has shown us the value of avoiding wars through neutrality, unleashing creativity through powerful cantons and communes, and having a strong participatory democracy through regular referenda. Over 500 years, it has carefully developed a powerful, stable, constitutional system of decentralized government. The contrast with the United States today—in almost every respect—is striking. In just over a month, Trump has created chaos everywhere, blown up agencies, fired public workers willy nilly, flouted the Constitution, centralized power, squelched dissent, and begun what some fear is a slow-motion coup.

In the coming months, I worry that the list of Trump’s affronts to localists will grow significantly longer. Sure, there will also be opportunities for localists. And when they arise—crowdfunding reforms, for example—we will advocate for them. But right now, dear localists, we need hypervigilance and clarity of thinking. We still have 1,423 days to go.

---