Washington DC—If the “No Kings Day” mass mobilization proved anything, it was that many Americans are very unhappy about Trump’s policies and his ICE roundups of migrants and green card holders across the country. Millions came out last Saturday in towns and cities across the country to take part in over 2,000 non-violent civic actions in opposition to his policies. Estimates placed the number of participants at between five and 11 million.
A multitude of civic actions significantly exceeded the “Hands Off” mobilization seen in cities on April 5, when an estimated several million took part in that event. In the DC-MD-VA region, No Kings Day included scores of Visibility Brigades banner drops coordinated by 1000s across Virginia. In Maryland, the group Rise Up also coordinated bridge banner drops. A 5-mile hands across Arlington demonstration drew thousands. The Tesla Takedowns continued in many locations across the region for their 19th consecutive week. On the day before No Kings Day, veterans groups protested in Washington, DC, and many took over and occupied the U.S. Capitol steps, where nearly 60 were arrested.
The Tesla Takedown boycott line this week was fresh off last week’s’ No Kings Day protests and still managed to draw healthy numbers.
On its 20th Tesla Takedown, the Arlington group, spearheaded by the grassroots organization Third Act, Northern Virginia, recognized Juneteenth as its theme. Organizers read out a list of quotes by civil rights leaders of bygone eras and the boycott line responded “Juneteenth.” Another speaker called out a list of issues Americans wanted resolved and the boycott line resounded their support.
Many have found a niche to support the weekly Tesla Takedowns in Arlington, which continue to draw increasing support from motorists each week who honk or give a thumbs up in support as they pass. One participant brought buttons which the line handed out to motorists; another brought snacks and drinks to share, while others brought ice, a wagon of signs, music and speakers to dance to, an awning for shade, and chalk. But everyone brought spirit and joy to encourage each other from succumbing to fear and hopelessness caused by the national trauma this authoritarian regime is wreaking in communities across the country.
One Third Act organizer, Lawrence MacDonald, said that he believed the sustained Tesla Takedowns created space for others to organize actions with their own theme. He added that the success of Tesla Takedowns helped the launch of other actions like the We Of Action (WofA) Bridge Brigades and the Hands Across Arlington action, organized by Indivisible and WofA. Both actions have drawn in 1000’s of participants to community safe-spaces expressing their displeasure with the rising authoritarian oppression across the country.
Tesla Takedowns Play A Role In Fractured Regime
A psychologist and podcaster specializing in the examination of political figures and the intersection of progressive politics, philosophical insights, and mental health, recently published his analysis of the Trump regime. In his published monologue, Dr. Russell Razzaque proposed that there is increasing weakness in Trump’s ability to reach a state of absolute control over American society. Absolute control is necessary for authoritarian regimes to flourish.
Dr. Razzaque first began publishing discussions of how Trump’s mental health impacted his behavior in politics, governance, and national policy after the January Inauguration. His findings give resistance fighters much to hope for—as long as they persist in their actions and continue developing a variety of strategies along nonviolent methods.
Dr. Razzaque points out that authoritarian regimes depend on three major avenues to consolidate power. He compared the power dynamics of an authoritarian regime to a three-legged stool requiring each leg to firmly remain in place for it to continue to stand and maintain its power and control. There are signs everywhere that the authoritarian stool is becoming wobblier. It is unable to fully support Trump’s objectives of absolute power and control over the population. But is it on the verge of collapse?
According to Razzaque, an authoritarian regime must accomplish and maintain three main objectives:
1) It must sufficiently suppress the people to acquiesce, make them afraid to resist, protest, or engage in protest against the regime,
2) The regime must have the ability to control the military to do what is required of them from the regime, and
3) The regime must hold firm and stay united and not have any fractures whatsoever.
Intimidation Tactics Against Citizens Falter
The first main goal of an authoritarian regime (the first leg of the stool) is to cause the population to acquiesce through suppression and fear. It must convince the population not to turn out to protest or engage in activism. It does this by creating false crises by which to declare emergencies. It arrests those who do not obey its emergency constraint. But the Trump regime is failing in this task because organizing and protests are expanding significantly and have been growing in leaps and bounds since February. And this is occurring while the arms of Trump’s apparatus curtail liberty, detain dissenters, and disappear vulnerable members of the community.
Tesla Takedowns continue unabated since mid-February. Even though Elon Musk has dropped out of the public view, Tesla Takedown boycott lines have not stopped their weekly protests. They are not fooled by Musk’s absence in the public sphere because the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to wreak havoc with federal agencies and departments across the government, including the Department of Defense. (By the way, it must be agonizing for Musk’s ego to be sidelined and not be able to capture the world’s attention he once enjoyed, because narcissistic personalities thrive on being noticed to build their image.)
Tesla Takedowns have created space for others to get involved since early February, when the protests started, as hundreds of federal workers began staging protests outside their agencies, and as DOGE first began its takeover of federal agencies, firing workers and stealing information from databases.
Federal workers aren’t going away either. They have been continuing to protest outside agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Health and Human Services. On Tuesday a group of fired Federal employees plan a rally at the Hart Senate Office Building.
The Presidents Day protests organized by 50501 in mid-February drew hundreds of thousands across the country. The Hands Off protests on April 5 drew several million, and the No Kings Day nationwide protests drew between five and 11 million participants. Clearly, organizers and activists are not afraid of being on the streets or showing up in big numbers. And the increasing numbers reflect reduced control over the population.
The ICE roundups of migrants and immigrant holders of green cards are another example of Trump’s slipping control over civil society. The roundups are drawing increasing resistance as communities shed their fear and confront ICE agents and begin to challenge them in the streets. At first the immigrant communities cowered in fear of the illegal kidnappings and disappearances, but now communities are mobilizing and rising up when agents show up.
A delegation of clergy showed up at immigration court hearings according to a published report in Times of San Diego, and ICE agents quickly left the courthouse. “On
World Refugee Day, masked immigration agents weren’t leaning against the off-white walls, waiting to grab people. They scattered Friday after seeing a clergy delegation led by Bishop-elect Michael Pham,” according to the published report.
Guerrilla journalist videos published on social media platform Bluesky show instances of enraged communities taunting, chasing, and even running ICE agents out of hotels, shopping centers, and housing developments. This is a far different scenario, and one which no one could have imagined in April, from when ICE agents began raiding businesses, restaurants, and immigration courts to increase their deportation numbers.
Keeping Generals In Line—AKA Herding Cats
The military birthday parade for Trump was a $45 million flop. A published report leaked inside information that “Trump reamed out Hegseth” over the empty bleachers, unsynchronized marching soldiers, and the poor turnout of tens of thousands of viewers instead of the anticipated quarter million. The parade equipment allocated by generals included vintage squeaky tanks and drones hand-carried by out-of-step troops. It was a far cry from the “menacing” machine Trump wanted for his birthday. “It didn’t send the message that he apparently wanted, which is that he was the commander- in-chief of this menacing enterprise,” according to the Daily Beast.
For that, Trump lit up Hegseth with a tongue-lashing, according to presidential biographer Michael Wolff.
DCMediaGroup photo comparisons reflect that there were far more people attending the April 5 “Hands Off” rally against Trump’s policy agenda than there were in the stands viewing the military parade.
The reason for this comes down to the present state of generalship in the armed forces. Many experienced generals have been relieved of duty based on diversity, ethnicity, and inclusion (DEI) reductions carried out by Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth has also forfeited a significant component of leadership. Trust and confidence in him from his subordinate senior leaders at the Pentagon has flatlined in the wake of Hegseth’s Signalgate Chat scandal. Chief Editor Jeffrery Goldberg of the Atlantic revealed he was mistakenly included in a chat thread of released classified information related to real-time U.S. military attacks on Yemen. The fallout over his bombshell first-witness report damaged the reputation of the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD). Hegseth’s integrity was called into question during a meeting at the Senate Arms Committee. Further, the OSD is having trouble finding qualified personnel to staff its critical functions in the wake of the public ridicule Hegseth received. The Signalgate story lingers in military circles like an eagle with a broken wing and it drags down the ship of the Department of Defense like an anchor on the sea floor. As long as Pete Hegseth remains, he will be seen like a crack in the armor of respect for the U.S. military.
Generals and their subordinates engaged in “malicious noncompliance” in planning and carrying out the parade, according to Dr. Razzaque. They did what was required and no more. This is a sign that Trump has rickety loyalty at best among his generals, who, in turn, mistrust Secretary of Defense Hegseth.
Internally Divided Authoritarian Regimes Fold
There are many outward signs that the internal dynamics of the Trump regime are as fractured as a fracked coal mine.
The GOP senators so far cannot agree on Trump’s spending bill because it will eliminate so much social support from their constituents. Red states are heavily dependent on Medicare coverage and SNAP benefits, and these are major priorities slated to be cut under the spending “Big Beautiful Bill” also known as HR1. Veterans’ benefits will also be hammered.
Steve Bannon, once a major Trump supporter and former White House Chief of Staff, has stood up to Elon Musk and Trump over Musk’s plan to hire foreign workers on H-1B visas. He has also challenged Trump over the recent attack on Iran. Tucker Carlson, also once a big Trump supporter, is firmly against another war in the Middle East. He lambasted Senator Ted Cruz over his support of an attack on Iran, during a multi-hour interview.
The public social media meltdown between Elon Musk and Trump on the afternoon of June 5 was the crack that calved the iceberg.
In a series of tweets on X and Truth Social, the dueling narcissists chopped each other to bits. It began with Musk’s criticism of Trump’s spending bill as being too expensive and wasteful. Musk also criticized Trump’s tariffs. Trump said he would have won the state of Pennsylvania without Musk’s help. Musk argued Trump would not have won without his help. It escalated further as the day wore on. Trump threatened to cancel Musk’s government contracts and Musk tweeted he was canceling the Dragon Crew Spacecraft project, the only space vehicle capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station. He also called for Trump’s third impeachment and alleged Trump’s name was in the Epstein files and that was why they were not released. Trump called Musk “crazy” and implied he was a drug addict. He also said he was selling his Tesla.
The dramatic irony is that Tesla Takedowns have won the golden grail of activism: getting the President to say what they had been saying since the first day of the Tesla Takedowns: sell your Tesla.
The volley died a semi-quiet death as cooler heads prevailed in the days to follow, but the fireworks of that day left much damage to the Musk-Trump presidency. The damage lingers.
There were other tiffs, such as public insults of Peter Navaro at the hands of Elon Musk. These public fireworks demonstrate that the Trump regime is really not marching to the beat of a single drum. It’s in disarray and, as more opposition rises to oppose it, it will undertake more drastic measures to force people to acquiesce to its demands. However, by continuing to resist Trump’s regime and in supporting each other and allies in different campaigns, the people can and will grow more formidable.
A Harvard study of social movements and opposition to authoritarian regimes determined it takes 3.5% of a population to effectively change the direction of such regimes. The ‘3.5 Percent Rule’ study found “Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.” No Kings Day came close to or exceeded that number, with many millions showing up. The key is the people must remain committed and courageous enough to persist.
Trump has always wanted to be respected and worshipped like a king. He wants recognition and has expressed a desire to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Who knows, when it is all said and done, it may be American protesters who win the Noble Peace Prize, not Trump.
