After having attached the day before to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval office, JD Vance intended to enjoy a well-deserved weekend in the family with the family. Missed. Hundreds of demonstrators were waiting for the vice-president in a Vermont ski resort, waving Ukrainian flags and signs like: “Go skiing in Russia!”. After a period of shock and paralysis, following the avalanche of decrees signed by Donald Trump, the opposition is slowly starting to emerge. Demonstrations are organized regularly in front of the Tesla dealers, the brand of Elon Musk (named to cut into public spending). And thousands of Americans paraded in national parks across the country to denounce the massive layoffs of forest guards.
These movements remain of a limited scale compared to those of the president’s first mandate. In 2017, we had attended immense rallies, especially after the decree which prohibited access to the territory to nationals of Muslim countries. This time, resistance is struggling to organize. The fault of the weariness of activists, to the fact that Donald Trump won the popular vote for the first time and that the Republicans control the congress.
The Democratic Party, badly recovered from his defeat, seems above all to absent subscribers. He has no real leader, is divided between centrists and progressives, and seems unable to articulate an effective message against the republican compressor roller. To the chagrin of its base, exasperated by its reluctance. Hakeem Jeffries, their leader in the House of Representatives, advised its members to target their attacks on unpopular subjects such as the cost of living and tax cuts for billionaires. For the moment, the main presidential presidents of 2028 make a low profile. The only one who manages to be heard is Bernie Sanders, the senator of Vermont and ex-presidential candle. At 83, he embarked on a tower of the Conservative States and made a packed room, calling for mobilization. “Trumpism is not going to be defeated by Washington’s politicians, he harangues, but by you, the voters!”
Democratic elected officials, in the minority, have little power in the congress. As for the Republicans, they are completely under the thumb of the White House. They confirmed the most sulphurous candidates like Robert Kennedy Jr at the Ministry of Health or Pete Hegseth in La Défense. And do not raise any objection against the dismantling of institutions, the end of international alliances, the rapprochement with Moscow … Rare are the voices like that of Lisa Murkowski, the senator from Alaska, who defend Ukraine: “I have a heartache because the administration seems to move away from our allies and kiss Putin”, she declared on X. scholarship “, one of its most important prerogatives, and to let the executive decide on the use of voted funds. A staggering capitulation which is explained by the intimidation campaign carried out by the president and his allies. They violently attack any potential opponent via social networks and the right -wing media, and threaten them to torpedo their re -election.
“Chaos is not beneficial for the country”
The next battle will take place in mid-March. The Democrats of the Chamber plan to use one of their rare weapons to block the vote of the budget. The Republicans, who only have a majority of three seats and are very divided on budgetary reductions, may need the votes of the other camp to pass it.
So far, the judicial branch has constituted the only real counter-power. Multiple groups as well as a coalition of Democratic Generals General Prosecutors of various States have launched nearly a hundred legal actions against the administration. They have often won. The judges temporarily blocked the freezing of public subsidies, the decree on the abolition of soil law … but they also lost in several cases. It is only the beginning of a long legal battle that will end before the Supreme Court. Trump is counting on majority republican judges to rule in his favor.
In the meantime, polls seem to point out a beginning of disenchantment in the population. According to that of Washington Post-Ipsos, 48 % of Americans disapprove of the president’s action against 43 % who support it. And 57 % believe that he has exceeded his authority since his arrival. Several Republican elected officials such as Richard McCormick in Georgia had to face, during electoral meetings, with snarling crowds which reproached them with the clear cuts of Elon Musk. As the effects of civil servant dismissals, deletions from public subsidies and other assistance programs will be felt, the discontent could be amplified. “People start to realize that chaos is not beneficial for the country,” insists the billionaire Mark Cuban, hostile to the president.
.