
Immediately after Donald Trump was sworn into office, his administration began implementing their authoritarian agenda. The dozens of executive orders issued on his first day back in the White House included an emergency declaration at the U.S. southern border. Authorization to begin the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Elimination of birthright citizenship, a right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. Federal Schedule F reinstatement, making it easier for Trump to fire civil servants deemed not loyal to him.
Trump also followed through on another campaign pledge, granting clemency to nearly all of his 1,500 supporters convicted in connection with the insurrection he incited at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th, 2021 to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election he had lost to Joe Biden. He issued pardons to the Jan. 6th defendants, many of whom had attacked Capitol Police officers. Trump also commuted the sentences of 14 members of the extremist right-wing Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia convicted of seditious conspiracy. By doing so, Trump made clear his support for political violence and domestic terrorism.
Who organized the People’s March and why?
But just three days before Trump took the oath of office, tens of thousands of Americans marched and rallied in Washington D.C. and dozens of other U.S. cities, to oppose the repressive agenda of the twice-impeached former president and convicted felon, who was found liable for sexual assault. In this segment, Between The Lines’ Scott Harris brings excerpts of speeches and interviews with some of those who participated in the People’s March, organized by a coalition of groups including Women’s March, Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club and Movement for Black Lives. We hear first from Rachel O’Leary Carmona and Tamika Middleton of Women’s March, who kicked off the rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
RACHEL O’LEARY CARMONA: It is 2025, but in 2017, millions of people showed up to march. And it was something we had never seen before with all of these people who had never protested before, coming to make a stand together, just like today!
So back in 2017, we made history. And today we are here to make our future. That’s right. Today we have a choice to accept a future that is forced on us or to fight for the future that we want. And a future that is what? Compassionate. Joy filled. Just. Democratic. A future that is free.
And folks keep asking, what is this March? What are we marching for? Who is this March for? And that’s it. At the People’s March, we are calling out the people who use power to strip our freedoms. We are calling in “We the People,” and we are calling on all of us to fight. And are you all ready to fight?
(CROWD CHEERS)
RACHEL O’LEARY CARMONA: I don’t know, I like, I don’t. It might be kind of cold. I didn’t really hear you like, are you all ready to FIIIIIIIIGHTTT?!!!
Why activists traveled from afar to the People’s March
SCOTT HARRIS: Debbie Dalke drove to the People’s March with her husband from their home in Bowling Green, Ohio.
DEBBIE DALKE: Democracy really is the main issue, as my sign says.
SCOTT HARRIS: Read me your sign.
DEBBIE DALKE: My sign says, not my dictator.
SCOTT HARRIS: With a picture of Donald Trump.
DEBBIE DALKE: With — yes, smirking.
So, I mean, there were some issues, starting with Trump when he was president the first time. And then Jan. 6 was just such a kicker when we came so close to having a legally elected president overturned — that really, really concerned me.
So I know that Trump, he won. He won in the Electoral College. He won the popular vote. Although last count I heard is he doesn’t have 50 percent of the vote. So that means that 50 percent of the population doesn’t want him to be the president.
But we need to to fight back against some of the things that he’s going to do for particularly for certain segments of the population, a population for immigrants, for people in the LGBTQ community and for seniors, for Social Security.
So there’s just a lot of issues that concern me.
SCOTT HARRIS: Dee of Roanoke, Virginia, took a bus with friends to express her opposition to Trump at the People’s March.
So what scares you most about the coming four years under Donald Trump and what gives you most hope?
DEE: Literally as soon as I knew that Kamala wasn’t going to win. I texted my husband and I said, My daughter and I, we won’t be safe.
And as a maybe lower-middle class, Caucasian, educated woman with pretty good standing in life, if I’m fearful, I’m pained for people with less resources. I feel like I’m going to be put to the test to defend. So I’m, I’m nervous about that.
Honestly, my only hope is that potentially, Trump is more bluster than bite. That, I’m relying heavily on that. I still don’t know if this is a Weimar Germany moment or not.
SCOTT HARRIS: I asked Tamika Middleton, the managing director of Women’s March, about the difference between resistance during Trump’s first administration and today.
How do you think the resistance is different today than it was eight years ago when Trump first took office in 2017?
I mean, back then there was a lot of spontaneous things happening, right? A lot of people came out to the airports when the Muslim ban was enforced. A lot of people were very keyed up about issues back then. You think it’s the same kind of resonance and immediacy today or is it? If it’s different, how is it different?
TAMIKA MIDDLETON: I think eight years ago, a lot of it was so surprising and shocking. There was a level of disbelief that that kind of rhetoric could be entrenched in policy in the way that it was eight years ago. And, you know, administrative policy and legislative policy and, what we spent the last eight years doing is really living with the aftermath of that: Preparing ourselves for what comes next.
So I think the spontaneity is not necessarily there, because there’s been a “getting ready” that has been in motion. And so, whereas eight years ago, when, you know, the family separation policy went into effect, for instance, it was surprising and people were reacting to that.
And now when it’s been announced that Tuesday, deportations will start. Well, folks have been training to do immigration defense for months now. You know, so there has been this work that has been already moving.
So it won’t feel as spontaneous because we have a sense of what’s coming.
Those were some voices from the Jan. 18 People’s March in Washington, D.C., the first major protest action that pledged resistance to the authoritarian policies of Donald Trump’s second presidential administration.
For more information on the People’s March, visit peoplesmarch.com and the People’s Toolkit at peoplesmarch.com/act.
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