As President Trump approaches 100 days in office, Adam Gabbatt surveys the resistance movement’s biggest moments so far, key groups, and challenges ahead

100 days of Trump Resistance: the wins so far and battles to come

It’s not just by chance that Donald Trump’s first 100 days have been so underwhelming. The president’s failure to pass healthcare reform, to ban people from entering the country, and arguably to achieve anything of note (beyond his supreme court justice) is down, in no small part, to the efforts of hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

Activists have pressured their representatives, held mass demonstrations and scrambled to protect those at risk in a rollercoaster few months. Trump has until January 2021 to turn things around, but there seems little sign of the resistance fading away.

The big resistance moments

Activists have already been rewarded with some tangible victories – whether by drawing attention to some of the president’s more egregious policies, or by contributing to some of his failures.

Women’s March

An estimated 500,000 people marched in Washington DC on 21 January. The turnout far exceeded the crowd at Trump’s inauguration a day earlier. An estimated 4 million people attended demonstrations across the country against the new president. Political scientists estimated that the marches were the single largest day of protest in US history.

The march cast a long shadow over Trump’s inauguration – at a time when the president’s staff were claiming, falsely, that Trump had drawn the largest crowd ever to an inauguration ceremony. In Washington, Metro officials said the day of the march was the mass transit system’s second busiest day in history – behind only Obama’s 2009 inauguration. More than 1m trips were taken on the subway, compared with 570,000 for the day Trump was sworn in.

The march served as an inspiration to people across the country, and laid the groundwork for action in the future.

Travel ban demonstrations

Thousands of people protested at airports in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Ohio and Orlando after Trump’s 27 January executive order which suspended immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

The Resistance Now: science gets its own March Read more

At the same time, groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center filed lawsuits against the executive order.

Amid the protests, on 3 February a federal judge ordered a temporary halt on the ban, restoring travel for refugees and people from the excluded countries, and on 9 February the ninth circuit court of appeals upheld that ruling. Trump issued a new executive order on 6 March, but that too was blocked by the courts.

Town halls draw activists

The congressional recess in February is traditionally a time for elected officials to hold in-person events with their constituents. Town halls this year were flooded with attendees who questioned both Republicans and Democrats about their commitment to Obamacare, to the environment and more.

Many congressmen and women decided not to host events, enabling activists to draw attention to their lack of interaction with voters, and even Republican politicians such as Alabama’s Mo Brooks noted that the turnouts were having an effect on “our more liberal, big government, weak-kneed, squishy-spined Republican senators and House members”.

Brooks predicted at the time that activists’ persistence at those town halls could prevent Trump’s Obamacare repeal. Whether it was the town halls alone, he turned out to be right.

#GrabYourWallet sees companies dump Trump

This campaign was launched in October 2016, in response to Trump’s infamous boasts that his fame allowed him to sexually assault women; specifically, to “grab them by the pussy”.

GrabYourWallet encourages people to boycott companies that have demonstrated ties to the president – either by selling his or his family’s products, or by endorsing him during the election campaign. Ivanka Trump, who is now an adviser to her father and is married to senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner, has seen her clothing line dropped by Shoes.com, Shopstyle and Nordstrom among the companies.

In addition to delivering a financial hit to Ivanka Trump, the campaign succeeded in upsetting the president, who tweeted in February that his daughter had been “treated so unfairly” by Nordstrom.

The key groups

Hundreds of organizations have been formed since Trump was elected in November. Some are focusing on local issues, others on top down change. Here are some of the most prominent.

Indivisible

Launched by former Democratic congressional staffers, Indivisible is a project aimed at resisting Trump’s agenda. The organization says the left should learn from, and deploy, Tea Party tactics to thwart the president and Republicans. Indivisible says it now has more than 5,900 chapters across the country.

The Resistance Now: Obama loyalists run for office Read more

Run for Something

More than 8,000 people have pledged to run for office through Run for Something’s website. The organization provides training and resources to progressive millennials interested in running for any level of political position. Run for Something, which was founded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign email director, Amanda Litman, promises it will speak to everyone who expresses an interest in running, and will even help fundraise for some candidates.

People’s Action

A progressive organization with more than a million volunteers and 600 paid organizers, People’s Action teamed up with MoveOn and the Working Families Party to launch #ResistTrumpTuesdays.

The sessions offer training in non-violent direct action and education on key issues, such as healthcare and immigration. People’s Action also plans to go door-to-door in “Trump country” to speak to voters about the gap between Trump’s promises and actions.

Our Revolution

The organization established by Bernie Sanders following his ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination has become a key dissemination point for activists, sharing details of demonstrations and events nationwide. Our Revolution has also endorsed progressive candidates for office, and encouraged its supporters to campaign on their behalf.

American Civil Liberties Union

One of a number of groups that filed lawsuits against Trump’s travel ban, the ACLU has since moved beyond legal action and into grassroots organizing. In March it launched People Power, which encourages local activists to work with sheriffs or police commissioners to effect change. As a sign of its increasing importance, the ACLU has tripled its membership since 8 November, and has collected more than $80m in donations.

The battles to come

Healthcare

After his first attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act foundered when Republicans failed to get 216 votes in the House, Trump declared that he would turn his attention to tax reform. Since then, however, the president has indicated healthcare may still be his priority.

CNN reported on Wednesday that Trump could reintroduce a bill similar to the first. The independent Congressional Budget Office said that plan could lead to 24 million people losing healthcare over the next 10 years. The White House may still struggle to please both the far-right Freedom Caucus and more moderate Republicans, however.

Taxes

Trump is yet to reveal his tax plan but reports have suggested he is in favour of cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%.

It is unclear when Trump will actually introduce a tax plan. His treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, initially set a goal of passing a tax reform by August but told the Financial Times on 17 April that that aim was “highly aggressive to not realistic at this point”.

The Resistance Now: Big corporations come at Trump on climate Read more

Climate

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to “cancel” the Paris climate accord, the deal signed by Barack Obama and 194 other countries which commits to limiting the increase in global average temperatures. While Trump cannot actually cancel the accord, he could remove the US from it, which could have devastating consequences.

Trump’s advisers postponed a meeting to discuss the potential withdrawal on 18 April, and environmental groups are calling on the president to remain with the deal, but nothing is certain yet.

The budget proposed by the president in March would cut a third of the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding, remove funding for the clean power plan and scrap climate change research plans.

Midterms 2018

Why Jon Ossoff – a symbol of the Trump backlash – offers Democrats hope | Ross Barkan Read more

The ultimate test for Democrats will come in November 2018 when the country goes to the polls. The results of the midterm elections will be key to determining how Democrats can influence the final two years of Trump’s first term.

There have been some promising signs so far – Jon Ossoff’s performance in Georgia’s sixth district on 18 April, for one – along with Trump’s historically low approval ratings – but nothing is guaranteed.

In the Senate, 23 Democrats – and two independents who caucus with them – are up for re-election, compared with just eight Republicans. Democrats need to win three seats to secure a majority.

In the House, Democrats need to make up more ground. They have 193 representatives compared with the Republicans’ 238 – at the time of writing four seats are vacant. But if Trump remains as unpopular as he is now, he is likely to drag fellow Republicans down with him.