Trump events do not draw big protests as Biden faces public ire
NEW YORK — When Donald Trump first ran for the White House, protesters filled the streets.
His inflammatory rhetoric and dehumanizing descriptions of immigrants spurred thousands to demonstrate outside his rallies. By this time in 2016, protesters interrupted his speeches, sparking clashes and foreshadowing Trump’s habit of encouraging violence against those he casts as his enemies.
“Knock the crap out of them, would you?” Trump once said as he egged on the crowd to go after protesters on their own. No longer.
As he runs again with an agenda that is more extreme than his previous campaigns, mass protests at Trump rallies are a thing of the past. When Trump returned to New York last week for a hearing in one of his criminal cases, just a smattering of detractors turned up. During a Midwestern swing Tuesday, Trump was interrupted briefly by a protest in Green Bay, but otherwise encountered minimal opposition.
In a twist, it’s now President Joe Biden who is facing a protest movement, largely by those opposing the administration’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas. During his first major rally of the year, Biden’s 22-minute speech was interrupted no less than a dozen times by detractors. Protesters repeatedly disrupted his fundraiser last week with former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
Nearly a decade after Trump launched his first campaign, organizers and others who participated in past protests describe a change in tactics as they focus their efforts on turning out voters in November. Some described a “Trump fatigue” after nearly a decade of outrage. Others say it’s Biden’s policy toward Israel that agitates them and turned their attention to protesting him.
“All the people that would be protesting Trump ... are now focused on protesting a genocide in Gaza,” said Thomas Kennedy, an immigrant from Argentina who participated in more than a dozen anti-Trump protests in 2016.
Kennedy still describes the former president as a “horrible threat.” But for “a lot of people ... who would have been ... protesting Trump, it’s just ... dispiriting. It’s not worth my effort and my energy.”
WARNING SIGN
That’s a potential warning sign for Biden, whose campaign aims to energize its base by casting Trump as a threat and framing the election as a test of the nation’s commitment to democracy.
“President Biden believes in the constitutional right of making your voice heard and treats protestors with (respect) — unlike Donald Trump,” said Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa.
Biden campaign officials note protest intensity hasn’t correlated with election outcomes. Trump won in 2016 despite the fierce resistance, and President Obama won despite demonstrations in 2012. They also point to Democratic wins in recent elections.
Some who organized Trump protests said the more muted approach this year is part of a deliberate effort.
Strongmen “need an audience and they need ... wind in their sails,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, a group that began as a demonstration against Trump’s inauguration in 2017. “The best thing ... people can do to combat Trump ... is not to give him a platform.”
It’s a perspective, she said, that took hold during the 2020 campaign at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when many activist groups opposing Trump decided to “stand down.” Instead, demonstrations turned to broader demands for racial justice following George Floyd’s killing by police.
Annette Magnus, the former executive director of Battle Born Progress, a Nevada group that helped organize anti-Trump protests during the 2016 election, also described a change.
“People are very focused on turnout ... and talking to voters, because that’s what’s going to matter,” she said. “I will do everything I can to make sure he is never elected again. It’s just going to look different because it’s a different election year and so much has happened since then.”
There are also safety concerns, with some organizers concluding that demonstrating against Trump isn’t worth the potential physical risk.