'Rage Against the Regime' protests planned against Trump. Why on JD Vance's birthday?
Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather nationwide on Saturday, Aug. 2 to ‒ as organizers have dubbed it ‒ 'Rage Against the Regime' of President Donald Trump.
Organizers say the demonstrations, the latest in a series of peaceful summertime protests in hundreds of locations across the country, are meant to mobilize masses of people against the administration's actions.
They are particularly concerned about aggressive immigration enforcement, dismantling of government programs and agencies from Medicaid to the National Weather Service, and attacks on democratic institutions, according to a news release. They also want to draw attention to the Trump administration's refusal to release more information about deceased child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
The name of this day of protest is both a play on the name of the American rock band Rage Against the Machine, and an expression of public frustration.
'People don't know what to do with their rage,' Hunter Dunn, a national spokesperson for the 50501 protest group, which is organizing the rally, told USA TODAY. 'Let's give them something productive.'
In June, people demonstrated in 2,100 locations as part of the 'No Kings' protests, scheduled to coincide with both President Donald Trump's 79th birthday and the military parade honoring the Army's 250th anniversary. They argued that the president was taking too much power for himself, directly contradicting the nation's original purpose, declaring independence from the King of England.
On July 17, protesters took to the streets in 1,600 cities and towns for 'Good Trouble' demonstrations honoring the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a Democrat and former civil rights activist, who argued that people should get into "good trouble" by peacefully protesting social ills.
Saturday is also Vice President JD Vance's 41st birthday, though Dunn said most organizers hadn't considered Vance in setting the date on the first Saturday of August.
The White House referred questions about the protests to Vance's office. A spokesperson for Vance didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
The band Rage Against the Machine, which played from 1991 until disbanding in 2024, was known for its leftist politics, including anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian messages. USA TODAY reached out to the band for comment but did not get an immediate reply.
In Kansas, 50501 event coordinator Scott McFarland said he had never heard of the band. He sees the protest he's organizing for outside the state Capitol in Topeka, as both an outlet for people to express their anger and to show them they aren't alone in what he called an autocratic society seeking to divide Americans.
A Massachusetts protest is billed as a 'festival of nonviolent resistance." At Cambridge Common, near Harvard University, the festival includes music, ice cream and art, and also calls for action, including mutual aid to help immigrant rights and learning about boycotting, a a news release said.
'It starts at a very local and personal level, and then becomes a collective thing,' Samantha McGarry, a local volunteer, said. 'Over time, the hope is that it kind of weakens the pillars that are upholding an authoritarian regime using nonviolent measures.'
Dunn, of 50501, said there are upwards of 400 "Rage Against the Regime" demonstrations planned ‒ far fewer than the 1,500 "Good Trouble" protests.
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