Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, there has been a dizzying torrent of executive orders and right-wing attacks on the population. In only two months Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, has gutted significant layers of the federal workforce, which has not only thrown hundreds of thousands of people into unemployment but also cut into programs for veterans, students, recipients of Medicaid and much more. In states including Texas, abortion has been further criminalized, with doctors now being charged with felonies for carrying them out. Gender non-conforming people have also had greater targets on their backs with policies such as denying passports that reflect their gender identities, thus making it harder to travel. Trump has moved to outlaw basic union rights for nearly a million workers.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that many of these policies have been extremely unpopular not only with Democrats, but among many traditionally Republican voters as well.
In a number of cases, these policies have generated the beginnings of a resistance that seems to be becoming more and more present. It is also true that many in the government implementing the Trump/Musk policies know very well how unpopular these policies are, which is why they are preemptively carrying out repression designed to intimidate others who might also think of resisting. This has been the case notably with the attacks on students such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, who have faced arrest, indefinite detention and possible deportation because they have spoken out against the genocide of Palestinians.
All across the country, there have been town halls held by members of Congress – often Republicans in their traditionally right-wing strongholds – in which their constituents have packed angrily into auditoriums and expressed their rage at the deeply unpopular policies such as the cuts to federal programs, and the arrogance of Musk and Trump as they gleefully brag about their destruction of programs needed by millions.
A town hall in Roswell, Georgia was flooded with people decrying the policies of Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), with people asking why was a “…supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach?” Video evidence of the confrontations at this town hall were briefly censored by Musk’s platform X. In another town hall in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a woman was aggressively carried out by plain clothed unidentified security guards for speaking out against the policies. In another town hall in Ashville, North Carolina, a man who identified himself as a veteran was applauded loudly and kicked out of the building after he shouted, “I’m a veteran and you don’t give a fuck about me! Fuck you! You don’t get to take away our rights. You don’t get to do this to us!”
The fiery outrage expressed at many of the town halls led the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, to discourage his colleagues from holding any other town halls and accused the critics of being “paid protesters.” Of course, Trump has also repeated this dishonest claim. They can deflect that all they want, but their policies will generate more and more outrage.
Thousands have taken their protests of the administration’s policies to Tesla dealerships. As a consequence of the association with Elon Musk and his now openly authoritarian actions, Tesla stock has dropped by almost half of what it was at the beginning of the year and Musk has reportedly lost $121 billion in net worth since December. In keeping with the need to repress and intimidate, he and Trump now threaten to find and prosecute those responsible to organizing these protests, even threatening to send them to El Salvador’s infamous prisons.
Simultaneously, the attacks against anything that could be labeled “DEI” have led to harsh yet sometimes absurd crackdowns on freedom of expression. A 6th grade teacher in Idaho was told that she must take down signs in her classroom with the benign messages that “Everyone Is Welcome Here,” and “In this room, everyone is welcome, important, accepted, respected, encouraged, valued, and equal.” Trump and the billionaires might as well put up signs in the classrooms that say, “only some people are welcome here!” The teacher ultimately refused to take down the signs, and students from the local high school and community members have rallied in support of her.
As part of the assault on freedom of speech, the environmental organization Greenpeace was just found liable to pay $667 million in damages to Energy Transfer, a fossil fuel pipeline company, for Greenpeace’s connection to the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The message is clear: non-governmental organizations must have nothing to do with any protest activities, or they will face at least extreme financial penalties.
During the first Trump administration, right-wing strategist Steve Bannon spelled out their strategy. Their goal is to, “…flood the zone with shit…Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover.” The Trump administration is now carrying out this strategy much more aggressively than they did in his first term.
But the very fact they are trying everything to silence us, scare us, and make us feel powerless shows that they understand that we hold the power to stop them, and that we hold the power to make real change. They are generating a new McCarthyism precisely because they see confrontations to come where large sections of the population will stand up against their policies.
Let’s not mince words: they are doing horrific things. But now the mask is ripped off their system and they are accelerating the violence and exploitation. we must take the opportunity to unite across struggles. We can unite to say, “Enough! You are playing with our lives and livelihoods, and we will no longer silently wait for another day of overwhelming news!”
We can reach out to the people around us, fight the isolation, and let others know we don’t have to be scared and overwhelmed alone. Trump and his financiers and supporters expect that divisions across race, gender, and other identities will continue to keep us isolated. But it’s now clear where the real line in the sand is: on one side, there are the super-rich, the only ones who stand to benefit from Trump’s policies. And on the other side are working people from all walks of life, documented and undocumented, of all gender expressions and ethnicities – all of us working people, in this country and around the world. The current chaos offers us an opportunity to clearly see what unites us and gives us the opportunity to come together.
When we stand alone, it is much easier for them to pick us off one by one. What will it take to truly be united? We must build up our capacity to stand up for each other and ourselves. We can start today.
