313 The #Resistance is NOT Muted an it now has a Genuine Martyr and Her Name is Melissa Hortman
I’ve certainly had more than my share of dark chapters as attempt to close this marathon of a book. It’s true that democracy is being threatened and imperilled during Trump 2.0 the Absolute Immunity Years as it’s never been before. But it’s also important to realize that despite it all there is plenty of reason to hope as despite all the savvy media commentary to the contrary the #Resistance is NOT muted this time-indeed it turns out quite the opposite as Rachel Maddow has done such a great job of demonstrating.
It turns out that protests are actually up compared to the Trump 1.0 years, in fact they’re way up.
A staggering four to six million people may have attended “No Kings” protests this weekend, a sign of just how much pushback has emerged toward President Donald Trump during his second term.
That crowdsourced estimate, as reported by former FiveThirtyEight editorial director G. Elliott Morris, is indicative of a surge in activism against Trump this time around compared to his first term, he says
Morris worked with other independent data journalists to arrive at this figure and cautions that it isn’t an “official” tally, though he does believe that it’s the most comprehensive currently available. The ACLU, one of the organizers of the “No Kings” demonstrations, has also estimated that more than five million people have attended protests this weekend.
Morris, citing data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, notes that there have been nearly three times as many political protests by this point in Trump’s second term as there were by the same point in his first term. His analysis shows that there have been 15,396 political protests in 2025 since Trump’s inauguration, compared to 5,043 in a comparable time frame in 2017.
The “No Kings” demonstrations, which organizers spearheaded to call out Trump’s abuses of power, are poised to be one of the largest outpourings of such activism. Per Elliott, the turnout at the “No Kings” protests has the potential to exceed that of the 2017 Women’s March, which he described as the “largest single-day protest in US history.”
Protests Are Surging During Trump’s Second Term
This is a dynamic I already suspected back in January-February-that the #Resistance is MORE not less powerful this time has now been self evidently verified. So while it’s really tempting now more than ever to go Doomer and feel as if we and our American democracy are totally f-ed quite to the contrary the #Resistance is stronger and better than ever this time. As Maddow argued on Monday just compare Trump’s utter dumpster fire of a birthday cum military parade on Saturday to the No Kings which once again set a record with 5 million protesting across the nation.
Maddow link.
And it’s important to appreciate this-that despite Trump’s relentless assault on our democracy we are fighting back in all kinds of ways very effectively.
See also: Timothy Snyder also makes a few important points
(775) MN Attorney General speaks about Rep. Hortman at No Kings protest – YouTube
CF:
(775) MN Attorney General speaks about Rep. Hortman at No Kings protest – YouTube