'Something needs to change': Anti-Trump vendors flood Bernie Sanders resistance rally

CHICAGO — From crude to punny, rebellious to pleading, outside of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Chicago on Sunday, dozens of vendors sold a colorful array of shirts, hats and buttons slamming President Donald Trump.

Stan Sinberg traveled from San Francisco with a blue wagon he dubbed the “The Roving Anti-Trump ‘Save Democracy Tour!’ Band-Wagon.”

“Now in its 9th WTF Year!” read a sign Sinberg affixed atop an array of buttons he created and sold for $5.

Their slogans: “Non-Felon for President”

“Deport ICE”

“Don’t Drink the Bleach!”

“Border Personality Disorder" with a frowning photo of Trump.

For seven years, Sinberg has traveled with his “band-wagon” to protests across the country.

“When [Trump] lost in 2020, I had a banner that said ‘happily going out of business sale,’ but he didn’t leave,” Sinberg said.

“He tried to steal the election, and then he just kept being a presence.”

Sinberg has been protesting against Trump since he secured the Republican nomination for president the first time in 2016.

“I wanted to do what I could to prevent him from foisting himself on the rest of the country,” said Sinberg, who was living in Trump’s native New York at the time.

Sinberg wasn’t the only vendor to travel thousands of miles to sell merchandise outside the University of Illinois Chicago Isadore and Sadie Dorin Forum.

Bobby Murray from Alabama sold T-shirts and hats with JR Concessions featuring a range of rallying cries from “MAGA More Are Getting Arrested” to simply “F— Trump."

“I like old Bernie,” Murray said.

“Something needs to change, that’s for sure.”

Terrill Leathers sold black “Rage Against the Machine” shirts showing Sanders resisting arrest at a Chicago civil rights protest in 1963.

“It should be important for all Americans to come out because the things that’s going on right now is outrageous,” Leathers said.

A button vendor, Sunshine Tea, who uses a “stage” last name, lives on the South Side of Chicago but spent years in Vermont and once met Sanders.

“When I met him, he was in the grocery store,” Tea said. “He was sick, and he was a senator. He was buying his own groceries, so I know for a fact he’s the only congressperson that knows what a gallon of milk costs.”

Tajh Pordos from St. Louis sold T-shirts featuring the "Fight Oligarchy" slogan with photos of Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has shown up at some of Sanders' events on the tour.

“I really feel like this is a very good hustle,” Pordos said. “Overall, it’s a good thing.”

Sanders, an independent from Vermont, spoke alongside Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), a member of the progressive "Squad" with Ocasio-Cortez, and Illinois Sen. Robert Peters, who is running for Congress in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District.

Sanders called Trump "the most dangerous president in perhaps the history of this country" at the Chicago event.

"This is a demagogue whose function in life is to serve the oligarchy and to try to divide us up," Sanders said.