This is an adapted excerpt from the April 20 episode of “Velshi.”
In the three months since Donald Trump returned to the White House, he hasn’t done a lot to ease his critics’ concerns. Whether it’s tariffs, mass deportation or the attempts to eliminate federal agencies, his policies have caused chaos and confusion at every turn. There are also legitimate concerns about his disregard for the law, the Constitution and people’s civil liberties. The speed with which his administration has been making these changes has been destabilizing.
For a while, people were trying to figure out how to fight back. While there hasn’t been one big, unified response, there are signs that momentum for the resistance is building.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have been on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which has received a tremendous response. They’ve been drawing large crowds since last month and drawing attention to billionaires’ influence in government. Last week, tens of thousands of people from California to Montana turned out for their rallies.
Maybe what we’re seeing now is a different kind of resistance: one that’s learning to adapt and sustain to become a more lasting movement.
Meanwhile, constituents have flooded town halls all over the country. Many people have been angry and want answers from their representatives. They want to hold them accountable — and in many instances, they want them to fight back against this administration.
There have also been individual actions from members of Congress who have galvanized support as well. The latest example of that is Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland’s visit to El Salvador to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the U.S. government admits was mistakenly deported to the country.
For some, it’s been a relief to see people come out and stand up against this administration, partly because there were concerns early on that the resistance movement that greeted Trump at the outset of his first term had grown weary, or that people had no energy nor appetite to fight back this time around. But maybe what we’re seeing now is a different kind of resistance: one that’s learning to adapt and sustain to become a more lasting movement.
On Saturday, that movement continued. People in hundreds of towns and cities across the country gathered again for a day of action, at the White House, at state capitols, at public institutions, at national landmarks, and so on, to protest a number of things this administration has done and is continuing to do.
There were signs that called for people to “resist tyranny,” which also called to mind that Saturday marked the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War against Great Britain. Some events were even billed as a “No Kings” protest, which was a particularly popular message in Massachusetts, where the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the Revolutionary War, took place.
Other causes also brought people out to the streets, including defending due process rights, a key issue at the heart of Abrego Garcia’s case. Abrego Garcia was initially sent to a notorious Salvadoran megaprison, though he told Van Hollen last week that he has since been sent to a different facility. But the Trump administration sent about 200 other men to that prison. And they’re trying to send more, using a rarely invoked wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act.
One protester in New York City told NPR that that was the No. 1 issue that brought him out to protest Saturday: “Congress should be stepping up and saying, ‘No, we are not at war. You cannot use that.’ ... You cannot deport people without due process, and everyone in this country has the right to due process no matter what.”
Other causes also brought people out to the streets, including defending due process rights.
There are other signs that people are continuing to pay attention and figuring out how to engage in their own ways. One of the organizers of Saturday’s day of action, the group 50501, whose name stands for 50 protests, 50 states and one movement, said that there were more than just rallies taking place. There were also community-oriented events like food drives, teach-ins and volunteering opportunities.
While a significant number of people turned out for Saturday’s protests, most estimates and reports suggest it was smaller than the demonstrations from two weeks ago. But, as they say, courage is contagious.
Sarah Brenner, a stay-at-home mom who attended a rally in Everett, Washington, told The Seattle Times that large protests like these “show everyone else who might be feeling alone that there are people who feel the same as them and are feeling brave enough to speak out.”