Newton’s third law is this: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That’s physics.

It’s politics, too. In the Trump era, on just about every front, Sir Isaac’s principle applied.

KINSELLA: Newton's third law is being applied in dealing with Donald Trump Back to video

At the outset of Trump II, however, it didn’t. Most of us expected Trump’s second White House tenancy to be a lot like the first: Outrageous things said, notably fewer outrageous things done, and then obligatory pushback by Congress, the courts, media and — ultimately — public opinion. Between 2016 and 2020, Trump lost a lot more than he won. There was always an equal and opposite reaction — two impeachments, among other things. A criminal conviction, too.

Reincarnated Trump like tornado

American voters perhaps thought a second Trump term would again be like that: Proverbial bark worse than proverbial bite. They, we, were wrong. The reincarnated U.S. president has been like a tornado in a trailer park: He means what he says, and he does what he means.

On tariffs, on immigrants, on Ukraine, on Venezuela, on DEI, on gutting Obamacare, on vaccines and science-based health policy, on ICE, on foreign affairs, on using the power of the state to go after political critics: Trump’s destructive rhetoric has been matched by honest-to-goodness action, much more than in the first go-round.

The reaction of the world, in 2025-26, was a bit like Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief: There was denial, followed by anger, then bargaining, then depression, and finally acceptance. In Canada, we were witness to this playing out with two prime ministers.

Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney — and the rest of us — didn’t believe it, at the start. Trump must be joking, right? When we realized he wasn’t, when we realized that Trump was actually serious about tariffs and his manifest destiny madness, Messrs. Trudeau and Carney pinballed between anger and bargaining. Trudeau was angry (“make it make sense!”), while Carney chose to bargain — playing the role of a grinning supplicant, enduring ritual humiliations at White House press briefings. None of it worked.

Then came a different kind of acceptance — that Trump was not playing a parlour game, that it was really real. Carney’s historic Davos speech was the start of that, and — with acceptance — the start of the resistance. The rest of the democratic world saw, and applauded it. Floor-crossers cited it. Carney’s numbers skyrocketed, and they haven’t come down to earth yet.

So, now, we are seeing the Newtonian third rule playing out, but in political terms. Everywhere, Trump is experiencing an equal (and sometimes overwhelming) opposite force.

The despotic, terroristic Islamic Iranian regime is arguably more powerful now than they were at the start of Trump’s war. Not militarily: On that front, they’ve been beaten. But, because they also had nothing left to lose, the Iranians have been transformed into a regional economic superpower by Trump’s miscalculations and incoherent strategy. By choking off the critical Strait of Hormuz with minimal effort, by raining down cheap drones on the energy infrastructure of America’s allies, Iran turned itself into an adversary to be reckoned with. They have won the war of survival simply by pushing back economically.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney didn’t win Monday night’s byelections, or defeat a formidable Conservative opponent last year, by some native political skill: He’s a total newcomer to politics. Carney is, however, a very lucky guy. He arrived on the scene just as Canadians were concluding that Second-Term Trump was very different from First-Term Trump. They wanted a prime minister who would resist, and Carney fitted the resistance-fighter job description better than Pierre Poilievre.

The Europeans, historically reluctant to offer strong opposition to anything, have acquired a backbone during the second Trump term. They had an actual plan to fight American troops over Greenland; they have rejected Trump’s ideological co-conspirators, as in Hungary on the weekend; they have adamantly refused to back Trump in Iran; and they have turned away from America on trade, entering into (risky) deals with the likes of China. In short, they have started to do the opposite of what Trump wants, across the board.

The first American pope, Leo, has calmly resisted Trump’s thuggery, saying he is not afraid of the U.S. president. Clearly astonished that his usual playbook isn’t working, Trump made a seismic error that will cost him dearly in the days ahead: Posting an AI-generated image of himself depicted as Christ. The reaction to that, even among Trump’s evangelical base, has been shock and outrage. The Pope, meanwhile, has been unmoved, and has continued to voice opposition to Trump’s military manoeuvres.

No one seems to be cowed by Trump’s late-night threats thumbed out on Truth Social anymore. No one believes that America is going to come to its senses anytime soon.

The resistance — the equal and opposite force — is real. And the only one who seems unable to accept that reality is one Donald J. Trump.

© Edmonton Sun