With Trump, every day is 'Groundhog Day.' A nightmare over and ...

Every morning is the same shock. Will we wake and see he launched an attack on Greenland? Or, as he announced Friday, imposed tariffs on allies like Canada and Mexico? What nuttiness awaits us?

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Trudeau says Canada 'won't relent' if Trump tariffs are implemented

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said "we won't relent until tariffs are removed," after President Trump threatened Canada and Mexico with tariffs.

As Americans gather to celebrate Groundhog Day – the varmint-y-est of all holidays – those of us who haven’t been MAGA-brainwashed could care less about six more weeks of winter. We’re stuck in the nightmare of four more years of Donald Trump.

It’s like living the time loop Bill Murray made famous in his 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” – we wake each morning as if we’re living the previous day over again, checking to see what madness the new president has unleashed or what horrific nonsense he spouted overnight on social media.

Will we rise to learn he has used a national tragedy to demean people with disabilities, as he did this past week by trying to blame the tragic Washington, D.C., plane collision on diversity, equity and inclusion? 

Will we wake and see he launched an attack on Greenland? Or, as he announced Friday, imposed tariffs on allies like Canada and Mexico?

What nuttiness awaits us, courtesy of a complicit Republican Party that paved the way for this unfolding fiasco?

We are in a Groundhog Day-like doom loop with Donald Trump

Those of us who can still sift lies from facts and know an attack on America’s value and democratic system when we see one are stuck. It’s an every morning anguish, one I’m sure delights the huge swath of Trump supporters driven only by own-the-libs hostility.

Our groundhog is a 78-year-old convicted felon who occasionally peers out from his Mar-a-Lago palace of insecurity or the White House, only able to see himself. It’s a Trump-centric world, and we’re doomed to four more years of it.

How do we fight waking up every morning to see what Trump has done?

What do we do? In the "Groundhog Day" movie, Murray's character slowly realizes he’s a self-centered jerk and then escapes the time loop by learning to be a good, loving person.

I don’t see Trump undergoing that transformation, and I certainly don’t have plans to change myself to align with his absence of values. You probably don’t, either.

So I’ll ask again: What do we do?

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Maybe the answer is to pay attention but not be taken aback

Many quickly say, as they did during Trump’s first go-round in the White House, that we just need to ignore him.

He’s a troll who feeds on attention. Don’t grant him what he wants.

That’s all true, but there’s a difference. Trump is not some random dude on the internet with white-nationalist views and a big mouth. He’s the president of the United States of America, with white-nationalist views and a big mouth.

To ignore him is to stop caring about what happens to our country and the world. I can’t do that.

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So my suggestion for fellow liberal folks and any American disgusted by our unfolding Trump-loop "Groundhog Day" is this: Stop being surprised.

Energy spent stressing about Trump can be directed elsewhere

For the foreseeable future, we will wake up each day and learn about things done to our country or in the name of our country that we don’t like. Trump will say outlandish things because that’s his default setting, and he will do outlandish things. No morning should be more of a surprise than the next.

Pay attention. Watch it unfold. Protest where you can. Direct your energy toward helping those harmed by this administration’s actions. Declare loudly and often who’s to blame. Connect the dots, over and over again, for people who stubbornly refuse to engage in dot-connecting.

The only way we get out of this "Groundhog Day" loop is if the damage Trump does is felt by the people who support him most, from voters to the lawmakers who kiss his loafers.

We’re going to feel that knot in our stomachs every morning, just like last time. The only thing that might relieve it a bit is not acting shocked when it hits.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk