DC Defies the Trump Regime
Five takeaways from DC’s organized resistance to occupation
Donald Trump, the reality TV grifter turned president turned dictator, understands the power of a good visual. He knows how to exploit TV and video clips to his advantage. The Trump Regime’s occupation of DC is designed to give them plenty of red meat to throw at the MAGA base, which is why the military and law enforcement are being deployed in areas frequented by tourists, and where the millennials who moved to DC during the Obama Administration mostly live. They know MAGA won’t be able to get enough of a liberal city under occupation.
MAGA is a movement built on violent fantasies of jailing and executing marginalized communities and its political opponents. Trump wants to give his base a Tiananmen Square moment as much as they’re thirsty to see it (which is why so many red states are more than happy to deploy their national guard troops to the District). But as of yet, that hasn’t happened. There are plenty of visuals of DC under occupation, some of which are violence in the form of arrests. But most of the footage is of a city resisting an occupied force in creative, raucous, and even joyful ways.
DC is showing up and showing out to resist Trump. I’m not surprised. There’s a strong culture of local organizing, with an additional layer of change-makers and rabble-rousers who come from all over the world to work in politics, government, and advocacy. I lived in DC for many years, and it’s one of the few places I’ve lived where literally everyone you meet, no matter their actual profession, is politically active and aware.
What’s happening in DC right now will come to other American cities and communities eventually. Vice President Vance said as much this week. DC offers us all a model for how to fight back when the Regime shows up at our door. Here are five takeaways:
Organizing to build community and power.
Preparations began long before Trump announced that his Regime would send law enforcement and troops to DC’s streets. The 19th reports that the four women who founded Free DC, the organization at the forefront, began planting the seeds for an eventual resistance in October of last year. Because Trump repeatedly promised to take over DC in his speeches,they took the threat seriously. Free DC has held continual orientations to help residents prepare and offers strategies and tactics for how to organize on its website.
Per the 19th, Free DC has also: “mobilized rallies of support for fired federal workers, distributed call sheets to contact members of Congress, shared requests from organizations supporting unhoused city residents, and distributed hotlines for people to report where ICE and other federal law enforcement are active. There are currently grassroots efforts to protect the city’s youth by stationing adult volunteers at public transit stops and near schools to counter what one resident described on an organizing thread as ‘this moment of overpolicing and autocracy.’”
Localizing the fight.
Part of the reason DC has such a strong culture of local activism is that DC residents don’t have federal representation in Congress. They pay federal taxes but have no say in how they’re spent. Congress still controls their city budget. Free DC and allied organizations have consistently tied the occupation to DC’s lack of autonomy over its own affairs and the disenfranchisement of its residents from the political process. Allowing them to tap into existing organizing networks has made this a local fight with immediate impact, rather than merely a national one.
Posting their way through it.
Residents are documenting everything they see and experience and posting it online immediately. Every move the Trump Regime makes: arrests, harassment, violence, patrolling completely empty neighborhoods, it’s all caught on camera and amplified online. DC residents are also documenting their own resistance, from chasing goons away from schools and churches to heckling JD Vance, Stephen Miller, and Pete Hegseth as they visit an occupied Union Station.
Creating outlaw folk heroes.
The imagery of Sandwich Man is posted all over DC’s neighborhoods, with a play on a well-known Banksy mural being the most popular version. Americans love turning outlaws into folk heroes, and DC residents wasted no time in turning a viral online moment into a symbol for their movement.
Cultivating visibility, solidarity, and joy.
Fascism thrives on fear and isolation. Free DC’s five guiding principles for resisting the occupation are worth adopting for other purposes. They are:
Do not obey in advance.
Prioritize joy
Take up space
Be in solidarity
Organize
A sustained resistance movement requires all of these components. Cultivating them is a continual practice. You can’t win against the Trump Regime without constantly reminding yourself and those around you what you love and why it’s worth fighting for. On this front, DC is showing us the way.
ICYMI
DHS Speechwriter Linked to Hateful Social Accounts While Claiming American Conservatives Are Ostracized Like Jews in Nazi Germany (The Independent)
Meme Coins and Misogyny: What the Dildo-throwing Trend at WNBA Games Can Teach Us (The 19th)
Podcaster Tim Dillon Says Trump's National Guard Deployment to DC and Increasing Surveillance of Americans “Should Scare Everybody” (Media Matters)
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This week, in lieu of our usual GIF, I wanted to share comedian and soon-to-be retired podcaster Marc Maron’s spot-on impression of right-wing podcaster and comedian Theo Von. Enjoy!
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Ignore the occupiers, turn your back on them, and where you can't mock and ridicule them, but no physical violence, that is what Trump is waiting for and hope to provoke. I am waiting for him to use an agent provacateur to get the ball rolling so he can declare martial law.
It's time we start the national organization.
It was just announced that AI is reading our conversations and making notes, then the bots come to interfere.
WELCOME TO THE PEOPLE'S STRIKE FOR DEMOCRACY!
A Peaceful, Legal, and Nationwide Call to Action
We are everyday Americans who are done watching corruption, greed, and authoritarianism hijack our democracy.
We are teachers, workers, veterans, retirees, nurses, farmers, students — united by one truth:
This government no longer works for the people.
It is now our duty to stop cooperating with a broken system. That’s why we are calling for a National Strike.
A National Strike means:
No work
No school
No shopping
No silence
We gather peacefully at our state capitols or local courthouses to make one thing clear:
We will not comply with the destruction of our rights, freedoms, or future.
Where & When?
This is a state-by-state movement.
The date is up to US!
When your community is ready, you rise.
Each state has its own call-to-action you can post, print, or share.
You’ll find them in our toolkit and graphics archive.
What We Stand For:
Protecting democracy and fair elections
Ending corporate and oligarchic rule
Defending civil rights and human dignity
Opposing tyranny — in all forms
What We Will Never Do:
Promote violence
Target people over parties
Break the law
Stay silent in the face of fascism
This is not about politics. This is about power.
And it belongs to the people — if we’re brave enough to take it back.
🇺🇸 We are the majority. We are awake. And we will be heard.
🔗 Share this. Print this. Show up. The strike begins when we say it does!
Below sample which I'm currently working on for every state.
I'm unable to do much this week, my old dog is having surgery.
PLEASE BECOME AN ORGANIZER IN YOUR STATE AND GET SOME VOLUNTEERS. IT'S NOW OR NEVER.