As former President Trump's motorcade rolled through Beverly Hills, Newport Beach and San Francisco last week, groups of fans wearing MAGA hats and waving flags lined the elegant coastal streets and highways and cheered.
Yet when Vice President Kamala Harris, who grew up among community activists in Berkeley, addressed a fundraiser in San Francisco that same week, a crowd of more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters chanted, “Shame on you! ”
The unequal treatment, at least through street protests, has been building for months, amid a spring dominated by protests on college campuses. But the snapshot of love for Trump and anger against Harris and President Biden has become more striking as protests move toward the campaign trail, especially in deep blue California, where a large majority of voters agree with Harris. and Biden that Trump represents a threat to democracy.
Activists and political leaders in California and across the country point to a variety of reasons for protesting Biden, their potential ally, rather than Trump, whom they see as a would-be dictator.
Biden is shouldering the burden of his mandate that he did not face four years ago, facing a tough approach from some left-wing activists who believe they can still push him further to the left. And although some protesters do not favor either candidate, most have rejected Trump, whom they consider irredeemable.
Support for the president in California remains high: Biden has a 20-point lead over Trump in the state, according to the polling site FiveThirtyEight. But Democrats nationally worry that the optics of the anti-Biden protests could hurt the president, with many polls showing him tied or losing to Trump.
“What worries us all, of course, is that when the time comes for politics, can people accept that while the political decisions in the Middle East may not have been exactly the right ones on Biden's part, it is still the best political option?” said Faiz Shakir, senior political adviser to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a progressive independent. “And the jury is still out on that.”
Of course, protests do not equal votes. But anti-Trump The fervor in California has been a powerful and persistent force on the left since 2016, sparking clashes with counterprotesters that became violent sometimes, attracting police presence, massive crowds and headlines. Anti-Trump sentiment spilled over into Trump's presidency and the 2020 election, even amid pandemic-era social distancing rules, helping fuel a coalition that defeated him.
“Donald Trump is being rejected by large sectors of his own party… They are rejecting his failed leadership, his divisive rhetoric and his threats of political violence against protesters or anyone who dares to disagree with the dictator Trump,” he said Biden campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika. in a statement to The Times. “Meanwhile, President Biden is able to bring people together even when they don't always agree.”
Some activists say privately that the violence at those events has deterred some activists from taking to the streets. And while many left-wing protesters say they fear Trump returning to power, many do not see themselves aligned with the Democratic Party. Their main goal is to change policy, not elect a president.
Still, many say a Trump presidency could put all of their goals at extreme risk, starting with the right to protest.
The Biden administration's stance on the war between Israel and Hamas, which is fueling much of the anger among activists, is much closer to that of protesters than that of Trump, who backed Israeli control of disputed lands. and urged Israel to “do the job.” in Gaza.
“At some point, this comes up. I don't think the protesters are saying, 'We're protesting Biden because we love Trump.' You know what Trump is,” said the Rev. William Barber II, one of the country’s leading civil rights and anti-poverty activists who directs the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale University.
When Trump arrived in Newport Beach on June 8, Orange County Democrats were too busy getting out the vote for down races to worry about the top of the ticket, said Ada Briceño, county party chairwoman. Volunteers knocked on doors, promoted Dave Min for Congress and attended an ice cream social for Tammy Kim's mayoral campaign in Irvine.
Susan Hildreth, president of the Rossmoor Democrats in the Bay Area, said her volunteers have also stayed busy writing postcards and knocking on doors for Central Valley congressional candidates like Rudy Salas. Her group is primarily made up of people over 55 who are less inclined to participate in protests, she said.
“We are fervently anti-Trump,” Hildreth, 72, said. The lack of Trump critics taking to the streets “may have more to do with the general age of this group than anything else. That doesn't mean we don't care!
Still, California Democrats had not completely neglected Trump. A pair of antagonists pushed their way through the Newport Beach MAGA crowd along the caravan, shouting “Happy Pride!” and causing some boos. A banner reading “Orange County Votes Biden/Harris 2024” hung behind a plane.
In San Francisco, an inflatable Trump-like chicken, adorned with black and white prison stripes, was transported across the bay on a boat labeled “Alcatraz Prison Transport.”
Armand Domalewski, a 34-year-old data analyst, gathered a group of about 50 people to stand in front of a San Francisco street in front of hordes of Trump supporters, who he said occasionally crossed to mock his side.
“There's just a strange asymmetry between the parties,” Domalewski said, noting that both Democrats and Republicans have been protesting Democrats. That reality “makes it really difficult, because both sides are protesting against us.”
Although he has attended many protests, last week was the first time Domalewski coordinated one himself, because no one else did, he said. Trump supporters were evidently more organized. Vocal too. Some, anticipating Trump's birthday, sang “Happy Birthday.” (He turned 78 on Friday.)
Even in 2020, Biden was never a movement candidate like Sanders or Trump, who held big, inspirational rallies and raised small donations from die-hard fans; Biden also did some campaigning virtually to protect against COVID-19. And unlike Trump, who routinely uses violent language and shocking images at his rallies, Biden has campaigned as a calming unifier.
“We haven't seen a Joe Biden fighting,” Shakir said.
Although Biden has governed as a progressive, “he is not a populist by nature that gives you the kind of emotional satisfaction of a cause, a movement and a mission,” Shakir said. His argument is competence and good judgment, he added, which doesn't work as well in a stadium.
Trump has been the galvanizing force in politics for both his supporters and detractors. One of the largest protests against him occurred in 2017, the day after his inauguration, when thousands of women gathered in Washington and across the country to denounce him and advocate for gender equality.
But the political group that formed in the wake of that protest, the Women's March, has so far only endorsed candidates in local and state elections and is reconsidering its approach to taking on Trump. Street protests may not be the best strategy.
Trump “promised to be a dictator from day one, so we know he wouldn't take the protests seriously. He would not take global human rights concerns seriously,” said Tamika Middleton, the group's CEO.
But the Women's March can maintain its focus on reproductive rights and women's equality to avoid giving Trump a platform, pointing out that he has raised money and gained attention in adverse situations, including his 34 felony convictions.
Trump “kind of revels in the kind of attention that a face-to-face women's march generates,” she said.
Biden will return to California for a swanky fundraising event in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, featuring Hollywood elites such as George Clooney and Julia Roberts, as well as former President Obama.
The Jewish Voice for Peace has already announced that it will greet his arrival with a protest.
Bierman reported from Washington and Pinho from Los Angeles.
