Immediately following the Brexit vote in June, Remain protesters took to the streets of London to demand the nullification of the vote.

“We are the 48 per cent!” they cried, simultaneously acknowledging their minority status while drastically revising down their estimations of themselves from 2011, when many of them were part of the Occupy protests chanting “we are the 99 per cent”.

But soon enough, the protests subsided. In part, those participating got bored. But what should be concerning to the likes of President-elect Donald Trump is the far more nefarious activity that has risen up in its place.

For the left — which is far more organised when it comes to matters of usurping people and taking over institutions — protests are little but a forerunner or sometimes just a smokescreen. It is a “holding pattern” while they get their house in order.

Which is why the protests sprung up immediately after the U.S. election, right on cue, and hardly grassroots inspired.

And it is also why on the morning of Friday, November 11th, you had Senator Jeff Merkeley (D) tell CNN: “On many of his ideas, for example ignoring religious freedom in America, and setting up religious tests for people entering the country, we will oppose him. We celebrate the diversity of America. We celebrate our constitutional vision of religious freedom, and so, some of the ideas that trump has put forward we’ll vigorously oppose within the chamber of the Senate and House”.

So far, so expected.

But when asked: “Since you’re not the party in control… how will you actually stop what he wants to do?” the establishment tactics were, perhaps accidentally, revealed.

Sen. Merkeley responded: “Certainly for many of these ideas, it’s going to be many of our colleagues across the aisle who also do not share the precise vision that or every element of the vision that Trump put forward during his campaign.

“I will tell you one of the things I’m very concerned about is the Supreme Court seat. The appointment of this seat rightly belongs in the hands of President Obama. What the majority in the Senate has done is to basically steal that from one presidency and try to deliver it to another, which is going to greatly and profoundly affect the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. And that’s doing major damage to an essential institution in our constitutional vision”.

Do you see what the Senator did there? It was basically the same thing the Democrats were goading Donald Trump about before the election. Hell, I even got quizzed about it by establishment journalists in London. The “legitimacy” of U.S. institutions is now being called into question just because Hillary Clinton lost the election.

And not just any old institution: arguably the most important in the U.S. system of government, the Supreme Court.

In Britain, the establishment moved to undermine the legitimacy of direct democracy, of the referendum itself, not just by shifting the balance of power to a Remain campaigner-led government, but also in their latest ruse, by using the High Court to toss the decision back to a Remain-centric House of Commons.

In the United States, the protests will soon subside and give rise to something far more dangerous.

And just like the the protesters themselves: if the establishment has to tear down everything around it in order to re-establish its control, it will. President-elect Donald Trump will need to safeguard against this, and plans to combat such tactics must be devised right now.

Follow Raheem Kassam on Twitter for updates