Protests flow in waves. After Trump was removed from office in 2020, it lost a lot of energy. The protests in his first term did successfully getting voted out of office and limited the damage. Now it’s growing again after a period of stagnation

Look at the AFD protests and you’ll see they too also died down and then started growing again

I think you mistake what I am saying. I am not saying their shouldn’t be larger numbers. I am telling you why it has been difficult to get those back again. But the movement is starting to grow again. Comparisons to the crescendos of other movements isn’t helpful to understand what it takes to make that happen

Yes, it’s not new which is also why protestors are burnt out. There were millions protesting across the US during his first term and that movement did work - it lead to him getting voted out in 2020 and limited his damage to be less than it was this time around

But five year have now passed between him getting voted out of office and so the movement against him lost energy. It has to be re-build essentially. Now people are much more cynical after he was re-elected. The 1st time people were absolutely pissed about him getting elected. No one like him had in their lifetimes. But now, it’s no longer “how could this happen?”, but “this is happening again”. That’s a much harder starting point for a movement - one with less hope

Plus, the US media environment is actively worse - making the news about pushback harder to find. The protest aren’t covered anything close to as much as they were in 2017. The US media is now much more concentrated in billionaire control than it was in 2017. Since then Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post and made changes, CNN’s new billionaire owner John Malone has shifted coverage, Elon Musk bought twitter, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the LA Times and blocked endorsements of Harris, and so on

There has been plenty more resistance that aren’t just protests right now too. For instance, in the courts with more success in getting him to stop things than you otherwise might think. Yes, he has been somewhat ignoring the courts, but mostly following them and they are blocking a lot. Hundreds of lawsuits are ongoing, many of which were filed on day 1 of his 2nd term. Here’s one tracker

There has also been more resistance from state and local governments too - at least ones where Democrats have control. States and cities have a fair amount of power in the US. For instance, many have been blocking collaboration with ICE using local police and such (which slows the federal government down a lot)

I think you misunderstand what I am saying. Once a movement has grown it can organize things more quickly, but you’re looking at things at way too short of a time scale here.

I assume you are referring to the recent protests in Germany based on your description. There were already growing protests of the AFD in Germany well before the CDU/CSU’s actions. That large protest wasn’t the first at all. There were protests growing earlier in 2025 and even some smaller ones going back to Jan 2024

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024–2025_German_anti-extremism_protests

The fact that things are declining at such speed in a weird way makes getting protests spread harder. It’s a lot easier to unify around a single bad thing than five thousand things. Nothing feels shocking in that environment. Keep in mind that Trump’s strategy is to flood the zone with so many bad things it’s hard for anything to break through the noise. It’s designed to make people so numb they don’t think they can do anything. It takes time to remind people they can

Especially with the online social media environment in the US repeatedly telling Americans that no one is fighting back. Comments like “we’re cooked”, “why is no one doing anything”, “where are the people protesting”, etc. have more of a negative impact than you would think

Protest movements take time to grow. Especially when most within the US don’t have any idea they’re going on. Because the media coverage of protests is limited (though not zero, yes)

I know Indivisible is trying to get a larger DC specific group together on April 5th if you’re looking for larger in one place. Though there will also be protests in all 50 states that day too

People are protesting locally in tons city not just every state capitol. It’s helped get local news coverage when national news orgs have limited converage. It helps the average person be more likely to run into them and learn about it as well

There are people protesting, you’re just not seeing it because the media is suppressing coverage of it

Here’s a protest yesterday in DC

Here’s another for Ukraine aid the other day in DC

I also think you underestimate how big the US is. 2-3 hours would be if you’re close by DC. People on the other side of the country in California, Washington State, Oregon, etc. are 5 hour plane rides away or 40+ hours of driving

They are being suppressed in media coverage, but there are people protesting. Media coverage paints a false picture that no one in the US is fighting back

Here’s one from today with 1000 people in Boise, Idaho

Here’s a super incomplete timeline with just a handful of the nationwide protests. I’m missing a lot, I’m just showing your the photos I had from recent memory

8 days ago there were national protest for science funding cuts. Here’s the main one in DC

11 days ago there were nationwide protests in all 50 US state capitols + DC + Many cities within those states. This was part of the 50501 movement

Portland, Oregon

Monroe, Wisconsin

San Fransisco, California

Albany, New York

Raleigh, North Carolina

Richmond, Virginia

Austin, Texas

Protests Outside Fox News in New York City

16 days ago there were large protest in the Iowa Statehouse

19 days ago, a protest in Cherry Hill, New Jersy outside Tesla Showroom as part of a nationwide movement protesting Telsas. There have been tons more than just this one and these happen basically every day

21 days ago, large protests in DC for Ukraine aid

And so on. There’s a lot more going on than just this

Watch for any movement / build up of troops. He could still be bluffing here, but this is more than what he’s done for other places as far as I’m aware. His actions and orders from here out will be much more telling than any of his words will be