This Is What Authoritarianism Looks Like—and How We Fight Back

U.S. President Donald Trump and his cronies are waging war on the American people. This was on full display last week. Trump deployed the National Guard to aid his mass abduction of undocumented immigrants. A U.S. senator was handcuffed and thrown to the ground for asking the Trump regime a basic question. Meanwhile, as the Atlantic hurricane season kicked off, Trump gutted climate rules and announced his intention to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But, to be honest, this week has made me feel hopeful. It feels like the tides are turning in our direction. In LA, Angelenos refused to let Trump’s raids deter them and mobilized to protect their city. Millions of people turned out on Saturday for the No Kings protests.

And I’m seeing thousands of people get ready to launch Sunrise’s new campaign, End the Oligarchy, Save our Futures. We’re building a mass movement of young people that can disrupt business as usual so that we can end Big Oil and bring down the oligarchy that’s letting Trump hold onto power. We’re launching the campaign Wednesday night—I hope you’ll join me.

If students disrupt business as usual, if workers walk off the job, if government workers don’t cooperate with Trump, the system grinds to a halt.

People are mobilizing because they’re starting to see through Trump’s facade. He claims the popular will while representing billionaires. He claims a mass movement while barely being able to fill the stands of his parade. Trump’s approval rating continues to drop as his draconian policies come into full display. And his chaotic attempts to hold on to power reek of desperation.

You don’t deploy the National Guard if you’re not afraid of what protests might grow into. You don’t shove a senator to the ground for asking a question if you have a good answer to his question. You don’t cancel town halls and shut down debate in Congress on legislation unless you are afraid of people realizing that you’re decimating Medicaid, killing clean energy jobs, and taking food stamps away from millions of people.

The way I see it is, we are living in a turbulent time—a ton is possible, for good or bad. Yes, the oligarchs are in formation, but we, too, are getting in formation. And, there are many more of us than there are of them. There are millions of us who are sick and tired of the status quo, who want good jobs, healthcare, lower rent, a four-day work week, and a stable planet. Critically, this system depends on our cooperation to function. If students disrupt business as usual, if workers walk off the job, if government workers don’t cooperate with Trump, the system grinds to a halt.

Throughout history, that’s how working people across race, religion, and borders have organized to bring down authoritarians and oligarchs and win the world we deserve. That too, must be the playbook of our generation and of our time.

That’s what Sunrise’s new campaign is all about. We’re taking aim at one of the key pillars of Trump’s oligarchy: Big Oil billionaires. Three of the top seven donors in the 2024 election are oil billionaires. Those three donors alone spent $360 million helping Trump and the GOP win.

Big Oil could be Donald Trump’s Achilles' heel. Climate and environment are consistently one of the issues where Trump is least trusted. In authoritarian countries across the world, it’s often issues of corruption and infrastructure failure that are the last straw for millions of people. And this summer, we will be putting Donald Trump’s corruption and failure to govern on full display.

This year, like every year, climate disasters will ravage our country. Heatwaves will be longer and hotter, hurricanes stronger, fires will burn faster, and floods will spread further. And while that happens, Donald Trump will be defunding government services like FEMA that are meant to help people, and protecting his oil billionaire friends. He certainly won’t be willing to tell the truth about the climate crisis, or willing to send money.

We will be there to put his hypocrisy and corruption on full display. And if we’re successful, then this could be our equivalent of the bridge collapse that led Prime Minister Milos Vukevic to resign in Serbia or the corruption scandal that doomed President Yoon Suk Yeol in South Korea. It could be a turning point in public opposition to Trump, laying the groundwork for the type of mass movement we need to kick him and his cronies out of power.

That’s our plan. We’re organizing young people around the country to strike from school and disrupt business as usual. We’re making sure millions of people know what Big Oil and Trump are doing to our communities. We’re demanding politicians stand up to Big Oil and make polluters pay for the costs of climate disasters.

We’re building up to May 1, 2028, when the United Auto Workers and other unions are aligning the expiration of their contracts. It could be the most impactful wave of action from working people in generations, and we intend to make sure millions of students are ready to join workers in demanding an overhaul of our political and economic system so that it finally works for everyday people.

It’s a bold plan, but if we pull it off, it will change the course of history. It’s going to require all of us stepping up. Whether you join us on Wednesday or not, I hope to see you in the streets for the fight ahead.