Who will be able to stop Donald Trump? Nearly a month after the Republican president was installed in the White House, the list of potential brakes on his appetite for power is already looking short. Unlike in 2017, after his first election, activism and social movements have gone silent. A few demonstrations are in the works for February 17, on the President's Day public holiday, in front of the capitols of some 40 states. But Democratic voters have remained in a state of shock, watching unfold what, for them, is a scenario beyond credulity. "I feel like I'm living in a movie," one voter recently told Le Monde, in disbelief.

What about Congress? That would be wishful thinking. The Republicans are united in backing the president, and the Democrats are in the minority − invisible and divided between adherents of an all-out opposition and advocates of a strategic wait-and-see attitude, with a view to the midterm elections in 2026. Wall Street? Trump's policies could be "so self-defeating that (...) he has to pull back," said political scientist Francis Fukuyama, during a conference held on February 12 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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