THE reckless policies unveiled by United States President Mr. Donald Trump for America as well as the rest of the world are slowly coming back to bite him. There were murmurs of unrest brewing among the common masses of America over Mr. Trump’s decisions and now with the second edition of the ‘No Kings’ protests across the cities a major trouble is clearly brewing for the maverick US President. Latest rallies of protesters for ‘No Kings’ demonstration were marked by the massive presence of common people in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, Billings and Montana. It is a signal of a mass movement against the Trump administration which is increasingly dealing with its own people in a nasty and arrogant manner.

 

The ‘No Kings’ demonstrations had taken place in June too but this time the scale of the protests and intensity of the people make it a moment to watch for by America and the entire world. The crowds were made of children, grandmothers, students, retirees, lawyers, military veterans, government employees and housewives too. Waving ‘No more Trump’ banners, the protesters marched across cities even as the administration tried to label them as “domestic terrorists”. Their defiant mood sends a message to the White House that the common man in America is now viewing the President as a monarch out to unleash his whims without caring for its consequences. Though economic backlash of the high tariffs imposed by the US on many countries was not in focus of the protesters, they showed total disgust for immigration raids, deployment of troops in cities during silent demonstrations, cut in medical aid, government layoffs and rollback of vaccine requirements.

 

The Trump administration has touched the raw nerve of the Americans and its repercussions are coming out through these demonstrations. Analysts see this as a societal pushback against Mr. Trump’s autocratic functioning and rise of right-wing belligerence under the MAGA (Make America Great Again) banner. The MAGA has led to many harsh decisions, including stopping overseas talent and cutting medical benefits. There is clearly a general deterioration in government functioning and the common people are not ready to take it lying down. What is totally shocking is the government response to the massive protests. Mr. Trump’s political team was busy mocking the protesters by releasing AI-generated videos of the President wearing a crown. The White House went a step ahead in boorishness when its spokeswoman Ms. Abigail Jackson squatted away the protests by saying “Who cares?”. With such crude ways of handling a mass movement, the issue is bound to spread into a country-wide social fire soon. It would be a tragedy if Mr. Trump uses his dictatorial policies to silence the protesters.

 

The protest organisers are already presuming a major crackdown as they term the current posturing of the executive confronting the US Congress and courts as a slide towards authoritarianism. Suppressing the protests, instead of analysing the core problems by having a healthy dialogue with the demonstrators, would be a major blunder for the Trump administration. Its all-out effort to please the MAGA supporters might earn the government a few brownie points but the social situation would be then turned into a tinderbox waiting to explode. The Trump administration has, perhaps, been lulled into the belief that the mass mobilisation is a passing phase like the first ‘No Kings’ protests of June. With this sentiment, the President would only be stretching the wearing patience of the domestic crowd. Their anger can soon turn into a societal volcano when the US starts feeling the pinch of its tariff decision. The plot is unravelling in America.