That is a pessimistic way of looking at it.
The wonderful thing about the pawn is that it is legion and no one is going to sacrifice their queen to capture a pawn. A pawn has to be out of place and lacking support on the board in order to justify taking it out.
For higher profile pieces, however, the scales begin to tip. Just because I can send my rook to take a bishop doesn't mean it is a good idea to do so. There is a fragile balance of power among the positions on the board and you work with that positioning.
Likewise, Trump can still be very much on our side and yet he can only be practically expected to work with the status quo.
Depending on what the goal is, of course.
If you wanted to start a war in America, then a President who went full chad on everyone and ordered arrests and the like would be the way to go. You may think this would be a short war and easily won - but the world would get pulled into the fray and what would emerge from that war would be nothing either side of it wanted.
You are not going to convince people that Kushner is a snake until he is allowed to reveal himself as such (and that is actually an insult to snakes which I feel I must appologize to them for). People will not realize the police will often go along with whatever tyrannical stupidity gets them paid until they are being arrested for defending themselves from a fucking riot.
You can't convince people, stuck in the delusion their institutions select for the most fit and honest to lead, that the exact opposite is often the case.
And the only way to make them realize that the reaper's blade is not to kill indiscriminately, but is to maintain the grounds, they will not pick up the responsibility, themselves.
Farm or be farmed. We either maintain our institutions and our society, or we allow ourselves to become cattle or crops for those who are.