CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

The Growth of Grassroots Resistance Movements Within the United States

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

One of the key factors in understanding Donald Trump’s foreign policy is not to view the United States as a homogeneous bloc standing united behind its president. Throughout his first term (2017–2021) and his second term, which began in January 2025, Trump has faced internal resistance on a considerable scale. This resistance has taken many forms: mass mobilisations, trade union action, election campaigns, international solidarity movements, civil disobedience and the emergence of left-wing candidates in certain major cities.

These struggles have at times succeeded in curbing, altering or delegitimising certain policies of Trump’s. They have also revealed the existence, within American society itself, of a deep-seated conflict between an authoritarian, nationalist and reactionary agenda, and democratic, egalitarian and internationalist aspirations.

Women’s mobilisations for the right to abortion

As soon as Trump arrived at the White House in January 2017, millions of women took to the streets as part of the Women’s March, organised the day after his inauguration. This movement was one of the largest mobilisations in US history. It expressed rejection of Trump’s sexism, his misogynistic remarks and his desire to undermine reproductive rights.

The Women’s March in January 2017 remains one of the largest demonstrations in US history, with an estimated turnout of between three and five million people. It immediately demonstrated that Trump’s election had sparked mass opposition, particularly amongst women, minorities and progressive movements.

The issue of abortion took centre stage when the Supreme Court – bolstered by Trump’s appointments of conservative justices – overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling in June 2022, during Joe Biden’s term of office. This ruling had guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion since 1973. This decision sparked a wave of protests across the country and contributed to a strong electoral mobilisation in favour of candidates supporting the right to abortion.

In response to the overturning of the Roe v. Wade ruling in June 2022 by the Supreme Court, which was influenced by Trump and his camp, the American electorate was called upon to vote directly on abortion in sixteen states between 2022 and 2024. In thirteen of these, the side in favour of maintaining or extending the right to abortion won the vote, including in several conservative states such as Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Ohio, Missouri and Arizona. These results show that the desire to criminalise abortion does not enjoy uniform majority support amongst the American electorate and that it provokes significant popular resistance, including in Republican strongholds.

As such, the defence of women’s rights has become one of the main focal points of opposition to Trump and Trumpism.

Environmental and scientific protests

The March for Science, held in April 2017, was a direct response to Trump’s climate scepticism and his attacks on federal scientific agencies. Around one million people took part in demonstrations in more than six hundred towns and cities, denouncing the questioning of scientific data on climate change.

The People’s Climate March, also in 2017, brought together around 200,000 people in Washington and several hundred thousand across the country. It protested against the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and policies favouring the fossil fuel industry.

Protests against gun violence

Following the Parkland shooting in Florida in February 2018, the March for Our Lives movement mobilised between........

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