Demonstrations against Trump’s emerging police state are growing, not just in Los Angeles but around the nation. In New York yesterday, demonstrators walked through the streets after assembling in Lower Manhattan near a large government building that houses federal immigration offices and the city’s main immigration court.
Thousands gathered in Chicago, chanting anti-ICE and anti-Trump slogans while marching through the city.
This coming Saturday, in response to Trump’s display of military might in Washington (ostensibly to honor the 250th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Army but also to honor himself and his own birthday), many of us will be protesting in “No Kings Day” events across the nation. See here.
Trump says anyone who protests during his military parade in Washington will be met with “very big force.”
All of which raises some basic questions: What is the purpose of our protests, in concrete political terms? What should our strategy now be in the face of Trump’s emerging police state? How do we avoid playing into Trump’s hands?
I’ve heard four basic answers:
1. Do nothing. Roll over and play dead, and let Trump and his authoritarian regime overreach on their own. (This is the strategy suggested by James Carville, former political operative of Bill Clinton.)
2. Protest peacefully but in large numbers. This will show the rest of America — especially Republican lawmakers — our overwhelming numbers, and therefore our potential political power. Build on these demonstrations to create a network ready for state and local elections later this year and for the 2026 midterms, designed to mobilize and get out the vote.3. Engage in massive civil disobedience. Link arms around courthouses and around Trump’s troops, sit in strategic places, wear Trump masks during his military parade, block bridges and intersections. Force Trump’s troops to arrest us and haul us off. As with Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Mahatma Gandhi’s uses of civil disobedience, these acts can reveal the regime’s helplessness in the face of a disciplined opposition.
4. Let all hell break loose. Escalate the conflict. Don’t recoil from violence. Make Trump’s troops use overwhelming force. Enlarge the conflict so much that it consumes America — necessitating that Americans take sides for or against the regime. Advocates of this strategy say it will reveal the fascism at the core of Trumpism, and hopefully provoke a huge backlash against it.
So: What should be our game plan?
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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com