The resistance gains traction.
March 12, 2025
In a clear sign that grassroots protests are working, Trump staged an intervention on the White House lawn to bolster Tesla’s flagging prospects and toxic reputation. In a truly grotesque commercialization of the Office of the Presidency, Trump shilled for Tesla like a used-car salesman trying to meet a month-end sales quota. (No offense intended to used-car salesmen.)
As Trump extolled the virtues of Tesla cars, he spoke from notes that listed Tesla models, colors, options, and pricing. He even bought a Tesla (or so he claims). Trump is the same guy whose 2023 Christmas greeting included “Electric Car Luna[tics]” in his enemies list, upon whom he bestowed the unconventional holiday greeting, “MAY THEY ROT IN HELL.”
It’s funny what $290 million in campaign contributions can do to change Trump's mind about electric cars, right?
The cringe-worthy sales pitch was so awkward that Saturday Night Live could run the unedited video as its “cold open” this weekend. The fact that Trump and Musk debased themselves in a product demonstration unworthy of a grade-school show-and-tell reeks of desperation. Good! That desperation is a sign that the protests targeting Tesla showrooms are working.
In another sure sign that the protests are effective, Trump called the protesters “domestic terrorists” in a post that tied the Tesla brand (“Elon’s baby”) to the increasingly radioactive Musk.
Trump posted,
Elon Musk is 'putting it on the line' in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s 'baby,' in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for.
Trump promised to label any violence against Tesla dealerships as “domestic terrorism.” See Reuters, Trump says violence against Tesla is domestic terrorism.
So, to everyone who has protested outside a Tesla showroom, take a bow and keep up the good work!1 Your voices are being heard, and your criticisms are being felt by the thin-skinned petty tyrants who seek to destroy the health, safety, and financial security of our lives.
If you are interested in the Tesla dealership protests, see this website: TeslaTakedown - Action Network.
Readers continue to send me photos of protests from across the country. Thank you! Although I would like to publish the photos, I am hesitant to do so when they include identifiable participants who may not want their photos distributed in my newsletter. If you send photos, please frame the image from the back of the crowd looking forward. Thanks!
As a substitute, I offer this collection of protest photos from around the nation in The AltMedia (Substack) by Adam Parkhomenko Donald Trump Will Not Silence Resisters Rallying Across Country. The article includes photos from #TeslaTakeDown protests, International Women’s Day marches, March for Science, and protests to cuts to Medicaid, veteran’s healthcare, research, federal land access, the fight against climate change, and more (including a protest calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil).
Trump's erratic behavior continues to cause market losses
Trump is acting like a raving madman. He continues to lobby for the hostile takeover of Canada, and the media pretends it does not hear an idea so lunatic that any other president uttering the idea would be removed from office under the 25th Amendment within hours.
Trump's daily ritual of imposing and lifting sanctions is so erratic that the stock markets are falling because of the uncertainty caused by his behavior. See APNews (3/6/25): Trump's erratic trade policies are baffling businesses.
On Tuesday, within the span of six hours, Trump imposed and then lifted 50% tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel. Not surprisingly, the stock markets fell (again) on Tuesday. See CNBC, Dow drops more than 450 points, S&P 500 posts back-to-back loss over Trump tariff uncertainty.
By the end of the day on Tuesday, the US commerce secretary planned to meet with his counterpart from Canada—and the market losses stopped.
Democrats had planned to force a vote in Congress challenging Trump's declaration of an “economic emergency,” a finding that is a prerequisite to the imposition of tariffs. To prevent a protest vote on the tariffs, House Republicans slipped in a provision that effectively eliminated Congress’s ability to override Trump's tariffs—circumventing any Democratic effort to hold a protest vote over the tariffs. See Reuters, House Republicans block Congress' ability to challenge Trump tariffs.
By deleting the right to review presidential declarations of emergency, the House continues to cede power to the president. See NYTimes, Republicans Quietly Cede Power to Cancel Trump’s Tariffs, Avoiding a Tough Vote. (Accessible to all.)
House Republicans granted Trump the unreviewable power to declare a national emergency by employing a ludicrous fantasy worthy of a Samuel Beckett absurdist play. House Republicans inserted a provision that declared that the remaining days in the 119th Congress do not count as separate “calendar days,” thereby creating “one day” that is year-and-a-half long. (See further explanation in NYTimes article, above.)
So, to review, Trump's erratic use of the tariff power is destroying trillions of dollars of share value and House Republicans want to insulate Trump's decisions from review.
This brings us to the House's continuing resolution. Read on!
GOP House members pass continuing resolution
House Republicans passed the continuing resolution that cut domestic spending while increasing defense spending. The resolution also effectively permits Musk and Trump to continue cutting existing programs and agencies without congressional authorization or review. And as noted above, the bill grants Trump the unfettered ability to declare national emergencies until the end of the 119th Congress on January 3, 2027.
The headline the NYTimes gets it right, declaring House G.O.P. Passes Bill to Avert a Shutdown, Daring the Senate to Accept It.
Sadly, with just days before Senate Democrats will be called upon to vote on the continuing resolution, they are in disarray. See ABC News, After House votes to avert shutdown, Senate Democrats face 'stark' choice.
Per ABC,
[Senate] Democrats met for two hours Tuesday with no consensus on how they planned to handle the vote on the bill -- and the fissure is palpable.
The dilemma, as expressed by Democrats, is that they believe causing a shutdown will allow Trump and Musk to do further damage to the federal government. As expressed by Senator Angus King,
A shutdown is uncharted territory when you've got an administration that at least in some ways probably would welcome a shutdown because that would give the president almost unlimited power: deciding who is essential who is not unessential, folding up agencies. So that is the dilemma that is being discussed.
The notion that there is a “dilemma” is mere rationalization for lack of courage and political will. Trump and Musk are doing whatever they darn well please without regard to a government shutdown.
For god’s sake, they are shutting down the Department of Education on Wednesday, knowing full-well that doing so is unconstitutional, illegal, and contrary to the wishes a strong majority of Americans. See Axios, Education Department layoffs step toward agency shutdown, Trump official says.
In an effort to be helpful, I offer the following note to Senate Democrats:
Dear Senate Democrats: Trump and Musk are going to continue to dismantle the government with or without a shutdown—so do the right thing! The only hope you have of limiting further damage is by making Republicans come back to the bargaining table. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t—but you will never know unless you use the only legislative tool available to you—the filibuster.
A shutdown will be painful. So is every day that ends in “y.” Democrats need to show some spine—and someone needs to be a leader of the Senate Democratic caucus. Please. Your constituents are looking to you for leadership and conviction.
On the legal front
In addition to successful protests, the news from the legal front continues to be encouraging on many levels.
Perkins Coie files suit
First, I noted yesterday that the elite law firm of Williams & Connolly had stepped in to represent Perkins Coie, which is on Trump's enemies list for its representation of Hillary Clinton (and more). Williams & Connolly filed a complaint on Tuesday—signed by fifteen of its lawyers—seeking the reinstatement of Perkins Coie’s federal security clearances. The complaint is both powerful and inspiring.
The complaint is excerpted (and linked) here: Above the Law, Perkins Coie Drags Trump Administration Clear To Hell In New Lawsuit. Here is a taste of what the complaint has to offer:
The Order is an affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice. Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Administration, whether those views are presented on behalf of paying or pro bono clients.
Perkins Coie brings this case reluctantly. The firm is comprised of lawyers who advocate for clients; its attorneys and employees are not activists or partisans. But Perkins Coie’s ability to represent the interests of its clients—and its ability to operate as a legal-services business at all—are under direct and imminent threat. Perkins Coie cannot allow its clients to be bullied.
The firm is committed to a resolute defense of the rule of law, without regard to party or ideology, and therefore brings this lawsuit to declare the Order unlawful and to enjoin its implementation. [¶¶]
Because the Order in effect adjudicates and punishes alleged misconduct by Perkins Coie, it is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers. Because it does so without notice and an opportunity to be heard, and because it punishes the entire firm for the purported misconduct of a handful of lawyers who are not employees of the firm, it is an unconstitutional violation of procedural due process and of the substantive due process right to practice one’s professional livelihood.
Well done, Williams & Connolly, and kudos to Perkins Coie for having the courage and foresight to stand up for the rule of law rather than capitulating to Trump—as others have done!
First Circuit Court of Appeals panel refuses to lift stay of Trump administration’s “birthright citizenship” executive order
Last month, U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin issued a nationwide preliminary injunction that blocked the implementation of Trump's unconstitutional executive order ending “birthright citizenship” for children born to immigrants not in the US legally. Judge Sorokin refused to grant a stay of his injunction during the appeal of the order.
On Tuesday, a panel of the First Circuit refused Trump's request to lift Sorokin’s injunction pending appeal. See Law & Crime, 'Has not made any developed argument': Trump blocked from enforcing birthright citizenship executive order — for now.
The First Circuit panel wrote a scathing opinion, stating in part:
The Government expressly declines to make any developed argument that it is likely to succeed on appeal in showing that the Executive Order is either constitutional or compliant with [federal law].
Nor does the Government contest that, for more than a century, persons in the two categories that the Executive Order seeks to prevent from being recognized as United States citizens have been so recognized.
The government contends that the plaintiff states do not have standing to assert the claims, but the First Circuit found that the government failed to meet its burden on that question, as well. For now, at least, Trump's executive order regarding birthright citizenship is on hold until there is a disposition by the Supreme Court.
Law firm Munger Tolles & Olson secures victory for National Endowment for Democracy
Earlier this week, I listed law firms that have filed challenges to the Trump administration at a time when many of their competitors have remained silent in the face of Trump's threat to investigate leading law firms. One of the firms I mentioned was Munger Tolles & Olson, a California-based firm that is one of the most respected firms in the nation.
On Tuesday, the government backed down from its efforts to impound funds scheduled for distribution as part of international grants to the National Endowment for Democracy. Munger Tolles brought the suit on behalf of the National Endowment for Democracy.
The suit brought by the NED and Munger Tolles challenged Trump's authority to impound funds that had been appropriated by Congress. The court was scheduled to rule on NED’s challenge this week, potentially setting up a Supreme Court review of the constitutional clash that underlies virtually every aspect of Musk’s unlawful withholding of funds.
The Trump administration avoided the court hearing by agreeing to release two large payments that were being illegally withheld. See the order set forth here: National Endowment for Democracy v. US.
Trump could have refused to release the payments and taken an appeal to assert his rights to impound funds. Why Trump blinked is not clear from the order. However, the settled order represents another victory that should have far-reaching implications for dozens of other suits challenging the impoundment of funds by Trump and Musk.
Congrats to NED and Munger Tolles—both on your victory and for standing up to Trump!
Concluding Thoughts.
That is a good report for the day! Grassroots protests and the courts are helping to hold back the flood—with a promise of long-term success. Democrats are beginning to hold “town halls” in the districts of Republicans who are avoiding their constituents by hiding in expensive steak houses in D.C. The tide has turned and we have most of the momentum. We just need our congressional leaders to step up and we will have a fighting chance to stop the losses and begin the long process of recovery.
Talk to you tomorrow!
No kudos intended for people engaged in violence, vandalism, or harassment of individual Tesla owners.
On a different note, this very positive alt site is operational now: the "CDC Restored" site. Much of the necessary info our citizens require of the CDC has been uploaded again from a mirror site. This is the kind of clever info opposition we need in times of a destructive administrative coup.
https://restoredcdc.org/www.cdc.gov/
Thanks for the encouraging reporting. I was feeling bleak after the House GOP bill passed, especially with the nasty tariff-proofing clause. Jared Golden was the single defector, though I am unclear if Dems had the math to take bill off table. It appears a question of unity.
I feel strongly Senate Dems should filibuster this, because it's one tool for leverage they still have at their disposal. Yes, they'll get a bit dirty, but as Josh Marshall posted this evening, GOP will keep criming under Trump either way, and people won't remember Dem blowback for forcing a GOP shutdown in a few months. Potential upside is much more substantive: obstructing wanton GOP destruction, chaos and cruelty with generational consequences.
There are a couple positive things I noted: a pro-American Ukrainian poster on Substack posted this, apparently after the 30-day ceasefire agreement was achieved between U.S. and Ukraine (intel was restored). It's one moment I was relieved that Rubio was still applying some reason, after Vance and T acted like infantile sociopaths towards our allies:
excerpt from: https://substack.com/@viktorkravchuk/note/c-99795833?r=1meorx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
"To every single person in all 50 United States of America who took to the streets, who stood with Ukraine, who refused to look away: this is for you.
All I can offer is my deepest gratitude. My love. My words. And this record of what you did when the world needed you most."
💙💛