Days into the Trump administration, over 10,000 people showed up at senators’ district offices nationwide to demand the U.S. Senate reject President Donald Trump’s “Swamp Cabinet of billionaires, racists, and climate-change deniers,” as the organizers put it in a statement.
“[Trump’s] actions out of the gate against women, working people, and the planet demonstrate that he is the extreme, dangerous, and should be challenged at every single turn.”
—George Goehl,
People’s Action
Over 200 actions took place nationwide, targeting Republicans and Democrats alike.
“Activists urged Democrats to use every tool in their toolbox to delay and stop these dangerous nominees, including praising all of the Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for voting against Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, who has well-documented ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, marking the first time a nominee for Secretary of State doesn’t have support from both parties in decades,” the organizers wrote.
“At Republican offices, activists conveyed the need to oppose these nominees—marred by conflicts of interest, potential ethics violations, and extremism—or else prove that the promise to ‘drain the swamp’ was a lie,” the campaigners added.
The actions were part of a weekly protest campaign, called “Resist Trump Tuesdays,” which was started by the Working Families Party of New York during Trump’s transition. (Last week’s “Resist Trump Tuesday” saw protesters dressed as swamp creatures occupying the sidewalk in front of Goldman Sachs’ New York City headquarters.)
The series of weekly protest actions, now being organized by MoveOn.org, the Working Families Party, and People’s Action, is already being met with tremendous enthusiasm from people seeking any way to take action against the new right-wing administration. The campaign builds on “more than 500 recent community organizing meetings across the country, where more than 13,000 members of MoveOn.org, Working Families Party, People’s Action, and other allies joined with neighbors to plan how to fight for progressive values at every level of government and defend our communities from the Trump administration,” the organizers note.
“From the women’s march to Resist Trump Tuesdays, something big is brewing that is only going to grow,” said George Goehl, co-director of People’s Action. “The Trump agenda is not normal and we will not let it be normalized. His actions out of the gate against women, working people, and the planet demonstrate that he is the extreme, dangerous, and should be challenged at every single turn.”
“Millions of people marched against Trump on day one of his administration. Senators who wish to be seen as leaders had better do everything they can to block Trump’s dangerous nominees,” said Nelini Stamp, membership director of the Working Families Party.
“People are going to keep showing up to demand their lawmakers stand up to Trump and his agenda,” Stamp added.
People shared photos of the nationwide actions on Twitter under the hashtags #ResistTrumpTuesday and #SwampCabinet:
Tweets about #ResistTrumpTuesday OR #SwampCabinet