On Sunday, April 6, at 3 p.m. a sea of signs and bodies filled Lewisburg’s amphitheater. Locally orchestrated by the nonprofit CommUnity Zone, the protest was against the Trump administration’s agenda and part of the larger national movement “Hands Off!”. Protesters paraded signs saying “We Are Not For Sale” and — like the movement’s title — “Hands Off!”. But what in recent times has caused so many members of Union County, Pa. which voted for Trump over Harris by more than 23%, to start protesting Trump? I believe that the recent controversies regarding billionaire-intervention, government layoffs and tariffs have brought an abrupt end to the Donald Trump honeymoon.
Firstly, there is an emerging fear of an oligarchy ruling over the United States. An oligarchy is a form of government in which a small group of influential people have control over the government and its various apparatuses. It comes as no surprise that Americans have been connecting the dots that billionaires, notably Elon Musk, have hijacked the government and have massive influence over the 47th President. One of the most public forms of billionaire-intervention is through Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This entity was created and endorsed by Trump to save $2 trillion in government spending and put the federal government in its first budget surplus since 2001 (a large promise by Trump on the 2024 campaign trail). While the general idea of the effort is respectable — there is certainly wasteful spending in the government—the way by which Musk and Trump have gone about their commitments are ineffective. DOGE laid off more than 60,000 American career civil servants and is nowhere near a $300 billion mark, let alone the $2 trillion mark. And, not-so-oddly enough, most of the civil servants that were fired often were from regulatory agencies that restricted some of Musk’s business endeavors like SpaceX and Tesla, hinting at the potential corruption of the new oligarchy. DOGE is scrambling to try and frame their layoffs as a policy win — although they now have over 60,000 agitated voters to deal with. And Trump is hoping to extend his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which is a $4 trillion tax cut that would add $4 trillion to the government deficit; in order to balance this deficit, Musk would have to add another $2 trillion onto his plate to cut. It just doesn’t make sense.
Along with a new oligarchy of corporate CEOs, there has been an uproar of confusion and frustration from the American public regarding Trump’s tariff policies. April 2, 2025 was supposed to be a “Liberation Day” according to Trump; he was going to put reciprocal tariffs on countries around the globe to eliminate all trade deficits, bring back American manufacturing and put an end to any “scams.” And, like the efforts to reduce the government deficit, the idea of balancing trade and bringing back industry to give Americans jobs is valiant — but once again, the way he’s going about it is incompetent. Not only did a conservative think tank provide a flawed and incorrect equation to the government to calculate tariff rates on countries but the tariffs were put on every product, including things we don’t produce like bananas and coffee. How are we supposed to boost our banana industry with tariffs and compete internationally if we never had one to begin with? We can’t. And now, Americans will have to bear the burden of more expensive goods. What we can take away from this is: prices of almost everything are likely to go up; industrial investment won’t increase because of the uncertainty from Trump’s backtracking (“Will the tariffs stay?”); stocks are seeing their worst week since that of the 2020 Covid Crash, wiping $6 trillion in a day on “Liberation Day”; and the relationship between Trump and Putin has never been stronger given that Russia was one of the only nations not included on the list of tariffs — very strange.
There are many more factors (like Trump’s attack on law firms and universities and his incorrect deportation of legal immigrants to El Salvadorean gang prisons) that are contributing to a new national distaste for the 47th President. As he continues to violate constitutional law and trample presidential precedent, many are asking what Americans are doing to stand up to this authoritarian-wannabe. Well, there have been some great examples of courage and resistance by various lawmakers. Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey protested the Trump agenda for 25 hours and five minutes in a non-stop marathon address on the Senate floor. There’s also Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) from New York’s 14th congressional district, who have been on a nationwide tour called “Fighting Oligarchy.” Their aim, according to their mission statement, is to “take on the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.” And then there are amazing local actors like CommUnity Zone who organize awareness campaigns and protests to let the American people know the true pulse of the nation. In a time of uncertainty and political tension, the best thing to do is stay well-informed and spread knowledge to others because as the slogan for the Washington Post goes: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
