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On Monday, Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States for the second time. This is a moment that many of us worked tirelessly to avoid, but the election results are clear. Trump was elected. He has slim Republican majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. He has a handpicked 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court. And he has the backing of the billionaire class, including the world's richest man Elon Musk, ready to spend their fortunes to wield his power as though it were their own.

His agenda is clear — punch down the vulnerable and redistribute wealth upward, to the rich. The Trump administration will bombard our communities with mass deportations, attacks on abortion access and disability rights, and denial of rights of our transgender neighbors to distract from his oligarch's agenda of cutting taxes for the wealthy and continuing to remove any checks on corporate power. Trump's authoritarian actions will be bolstered by his billionaire boosters, as well as right-wing extremists and MAGA-loyal media who prey on Americans facing deep economic uncertainty to undermine democratic freedoms and self-governance.

There is no doubt that this is a frightening moment. Our communities, and our whole nation, face an uncertain future. Americans everywhere must be clear-eyed about what is to come. Trump's "divide and conquer" politics stands in stark contrast to how DFL majorities have made progress on the things that matter to Minnesotans. We must be prepared to defend the victories that Minnesota workers and families fought for years to deliver: free school meals for every child, access to paid family and medical leave for workers, protecting reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights, expanding access to health care and making prescription drugs like insulin and asthma inhalers more affordable, bold action on climate change, and creating more opportunities for Minnesotans to buy a home.

This progress is all part of our unfinished vision to create a Minnesota where all people have the freedom to live their best life. Each of these freedoms is at risk, simply because Trump and his corporate allies want more power and wealth for themselves. We can't let them take us backwards. There is still so much progress we need to make, so much work yet to do to ensure Minnesotans are able to build a future where everyone can get ahead, not just the rich and powerful.

As legislators in Minnesota, we are proud of what we have accomplished, and we are prepared to fight to protect those accomplishments. We have the advantage of our successes. For decades, we have strengthened protections for our refugee and immigrant neighbors, ensuring access to critical services like health care, education, and a driver's license. Minnesota was the first state to protect transgender people in our Human Rights Act, and in 2023 we became a trans refuge state to ensure everyone coming to Minnesota has those same protections. After the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, Minnesota was the first state to codify reproductive freedom.

And now, with the return of Trumpism, Minnesota's leaders must be prepared to use the power and platform we have to protect our communities and all the policies put in place to serve Minnesotans. This group of 15 state House and Senate members have been doing our part. Immediately following the election of Donald Trump, we formed a working group to respond and to push the state government to take every preparation to defend and protect individuals, families, whole communities and our entire state from what's certain to come from the encroaching fascist government that this Trump administration promises.

One of the most effective tools in the authoritarian toolkit is fear and uncertainty. The Trump agenda is clear, but the chaos that will follow his inauguration and his official acts as president are unpredictable. It is this uncertainty that generates the greatest fear for our most vulnerable.

What comes next will be hard. We must not pretend otherwise. There are limits in our ability as the state Legislature to fight the weaponization of the federal government and ward off federal cuts. We must not pretend otherwise. The road ahead is uncertain and rocky, and it will have consequences for every town and city, county and state in this nation.

But we are Minnesota, and Minnesota is for everyone. We will do everything in our power to keep it that way.

Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, is a member of the Minnesota House. This article also was signed by the following members of the Minnesota Legislature: Rep. Sandra Feist, Rep. Cedrick Frazier, Rep. Aisha Gomez, Rep. Emma Greenman, Rep. Mike Howard, Rep. Liish Kozlowski, Rep. Kelly Moller, Rep. Sam Sencer-Mura, Sen. Liz Boldon, Sen. Scott Dibble, Sen. Jen McEwen, Sen. Lindsey Port, Sen. Erin Maye Quade and Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten.