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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Trump plays golf in Scotland as protesters rally against his visit
President Donald Trump played golf Saturday at his course on Scotland's coast while protesters around the country took to the streets to decry his visit and accuse United Kingdom leaders of pandering to the American. Trump and his son Eric played with the US ambassador to Britain, Warren Stephens, near Turnberry, a historic course that the Trump family's company took over in 2014. Security was tight, and protesters kept at a distance wand unseen by the group during Trump's round. He was dressed in black, with a white USA cap, and was spotted driving a golf cart. The president appeared to play an opening nine holes, stop for lunch, then head out for nine more. By the middle of the afternoon, plainclothes security officials began leaving, suggesting Trump was done for the day. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the cobblestone and tree-lined street in front of the US Consulate about 160 kilometres away in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital. Speakers told the crowd that Trump was not welcome and criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for striking a recent trade deal to avoid stiff US tariffs on goods imported from the UK. Protests were planned in other cities as environmental activists, opponents of Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza and pro-Ukraine groups loosely formed a Stop Trump Coalition. Anita Bhadani, an organiser, said the protests were kind of like a carnival of resistance. June Osbourne, 52, a photographer and photo historian from Edinburgh wore a red cloak and white hood, recalling The Handmaid's Tale. Osbourne held up picture of Trump with Resist stamped over his face. I think there are far too many countries that are feeling the pressure of Trump and that they feel that they have to accept him and we should not accept him here, Osbourne said. The dual-US-British citizen said the Republican president was the worst thing that has happened to the world, the US, in decades. Trump's late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland and the president has suggested he feels at home in the country. But the protesters did their best to change that. I don't think I could just stand by and not do anything, said Amy White, 15, of Edinburgh, who attended with her parents. She held a cardboard sign that said We don't negotiate with fascists. She said so many people here loathe him. We're not divided. We're not divided by religion, or race or political allegiance, we're just here together because we hate him. Other demonstrators held signs of pictures with Trump and Jeffrey Epstein as the fervour over files in the case has increasingly frustrated the president. In the view of Mark Gorman, 63, of Edinburgh, the vast majority of Scots have this sort of feeling about Trump that, even though he has Scottish roots, he's a disgrace. Gorman, who works in advertising, said he came out because I have deep disdain for Donald Trump and everything that he stands for. Saturday's protests were not nearly as large as the throngs that demonstrated across Scotland when Trump played at Turnberry during his first term in 2018. But, as bagpipes played, people chanted Trump Out! and raised dozens of homemade signs that said things like No red carpet for dictators, We don't want you here and Stop Trump. Migrants welcome. One dog had a sign that said No treats for tyrants. Some on the far right took to social media to call for gatherings supporting Trump in places such as Glasgow. Trump also plans to talk trade with Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. But golf is a major focus. The family will also visit another Trump course near Aberdeen in northeastern Scotland, before returning to Washington on Tuesday. The Trumps will cut the ribbon and play a new, second course in that area, which officially opens to the public next month. Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who is also set to meet with Trump during the visit, announced that public money will go to staging the 2025 Nexo Championship, previously known previously as the Scottish Championship, at Trump's first course near Aberdeen next month. The Scottish Government recognises the importance and benefits of golf and golf events, including boosting tourism and our economy, Swinney said. At a protest Saturday in Aberdeen, Scottish Parliament member Maggie Chapman told the crowd of hundreds: We stand in solidarity, not only against Trump but against everything he and his politics stand for. The president has long lobbied for Turnberry to host the British Open, which it has not done since he took over ownership. In a social media post Saturday, Trump quoted the retired golfer Gary Player as saying Turnberry was among the Top Five Greatest Golf Courses he had played in as a professional. The president, in the post, misspelled the city where his golf course is located.
Chicago Tribune
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
About 3,000 people participate in No Kings Rally in front of Highland Park City Hall
The 'No Kings' rally held outside of Highland Park City Hall on June 14 gathered 3,000 for a peaceful protest on Saturday, organizers said. Lauren Beth Gash, chair, Lake County Democrats, says momentum and numbers are growing across the country for standing up to President Trump, and the local response in Lake County is no exception. 'Concerned people are fed up and alarmed on a daily, hourly basis, which prompts them to want to participate,' Gash said. According to Gash, numbers have been growing in protests and demonstrations co-sponsored by the Lake County Democrats since February, drawing participants from the 17 townships in Lake and northern Cook Counties. Highland Park's 11 a.m. rally was part of the national day of action, and in Lake County, Illinois, it was one of three anti-Trump demonstrations with others in Gurnee and Buffalo Grove. 'In this country, we don't have kings, so we need to stand in unity, and do all we can do to protect our democracy,' Gash added. The Highland Park 'No Kings' rally was hosted by the Lake County Democrats with co-sponsoring organizations like Indivisible, Resist, Persist & Insist, Warren Township Democrats, Moraine Township Democrats and others also taking part. 'Instead of being a dictator, Trump should be working to do the things he promised during the election – working towards peace in the Middle East, ending the war in Russia, protecting social security, instead of hurting our veterans and tanking our economy,' Gash said. Protesters held signs reading, 'No Thrones, No Crowns, No Kings,' 'Immigrants Built This Country,' 'Save our Democracy,' and 'What's the matter, didn't your mommy ever throw you a Birthday Party?' The Highland Park event featured speakers, including rally co-host and Highland Park resident and climate change activist Anita Goldberg, State Representative Bob Morgan for Highland Park, and Colleen Connell, executive director of ACLU Illinois. 'This is a choice and we will fight for our freedom, showing up is the first step,' Morgan said. Morgan led the crowd in a chant, 'Washington D.C. won't silence our voices, hell no.' Connell addressed the crowd, saying, no man or person is above the law, and without the rule of law, no one is safe, and there can only be chaos in a world where might makes right. 'If we are silenced into submission, we are doomed, and there are more of us than there are of them,' Connell said. Goldberg offered gratitude to Representative Bob Morgan, Mayor Nancy Rotering, and Gov. JB Pritzker for the work they do every day. Mandy Gries of Wheeling participated in Saturday's protest. 'After days that have been so disheartening, today brings hope, to see that others care and that we are not alone, but in this together,' Gries said.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
California beach ‘Resist!' protest pushes ‘kindness' while calling to ‘86 47' in anti-Trump message
Nearly 1,000 people gathered at Main Beach in Santa Cruz, California, on Saturday for a Pride Month protest aimed squarely at President Donald Trump. Participants formed a massive human banner that spelled out "Resist!" in rainbow colors as part of a demonstration organized by Indivisible Santa Cruz County. The 220-foot-wide display, with letters reaching 70 feet high, was designed by longtime left-wing activist Brad Newsham. Organizers described the event as a peaceful act of resistance and a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ Mayor Accused Of Lying After Blaming Christian Rally For Park Violence "It's very important, the more people [who] can show our neighbors, our politicians in the world, that nonviolent resistance is the way to express our dissatisfaction with the way our country's going," said event organizer Becca Moeller to Lookout Santa Cruz. But just above the colorful banner was a very different kind of message: "86 47," a phrase many interpreted as a call to "get rid of" the 47th President of the United States. In slang, "86" typically means to cancel, eliminate, or even destroy. Combined with "47," the number now associated with President Trump's second term, the phrase has raised alarms among critics who say it crossed a this month, former FBI Chief James Comey posted a similar message in the sand, but instead of kelp, they were shells. He has since removed the post after widespread criticism and action by law enforcement. Read On The Fox News App Seattle Mayor Blames Christian Rally For Inspiring Violent 'Anarchists' Who 'Infiltrated' Counter-protest "We don't need a king. We want to go back to the way we were. We want to make America kind again," said protester Beth Basilius to Lookout Santa Cruz. While the event promoted "kindness" and inclusivity, the imagery told a more conflicted story. "They claim they want to make America 'kind' again, but then they spell out '86 47' in the sand. That's not kindness — that's a coded call to eliminate someone they disagree with. It's hypocritical," said Mike LeLieur, chair of the Santa Cruz County Republican Party to Fox News Digital. LeLieur said local conservatives face growing hostility from the political left. "We've had vehicles vandalized, tires slashed, and windows broken. I was forced off the road and attacked just for having a Trump sticker. At our State of the Union watch party, we were swarmed by angry protesters. It's been nonstop hostility — and these are the same people who call themselves the 'Party of Peace.'" Just 8.5% of voters in the city of Santa Cruz are registered Republicans, according to the most recent data from the California Secretary of State. Supporters of the protest claimed that "86 47" was a symbolic rejection of Trump's agenda, not a literal threat. But critics say that argument falls flat in a political climate where coded language carries real-world consequences. "In California — and especially in Santa Cruz County — the left is creating a political environment of non-acceptance and persecution," said Daniel Enriquez, a representative of the California Republican Assembly. "It's consistent with the goals of socialist movements throughout history." Jenny Evans, co-leader of Indivisible Santa Cruz County, defended the event. "When a great number of people come out to do something like this, it just is one more thing to show that we're not all saying, 'Fine, fine. We'll go along with whatever you want,'" she said to Lookout Santa Cruz. The event was also part of Santa Cruz's 50th Pride celebration. Participants were instructed to dress in matching rainbow colors, coordinated with fabric laid out across the beach starting at 7 a.m. The protest was peaceful, but critics say calling for kindness while displaying "86 47" sent a message that was anything article source: California beach 'Resist!' protest pushes 'kindness' while calling to '86 47' in anti-Trump message
Fox News
02-06-2025
- General
- Fox News
California beach ‘Resist!' protest pushes ‘kindness' while calling to ‘86 47' in anti-Trump message
Nearly 1,000 people gathered at Main Beach in Santa Cruz, California, on Saturday for a Pride Month protest aimed squarely at President Donald Trump. Participants formed a massive human banner that spelled out "Resist!" in rainbow colors as part of a demonstration organized by Indivisible Santa Cruz County. The 220-foot-wide display, with letters reaching 70 feet high, was designed by longtime left-wing activist Brad Newsham. Organizers described the event as a peaceful act of resistance and a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ MAYOR ACCUSED OF LYING AFTER BLAMING CHRISTIAN RALLY FOR PARK VIOLENCE "It's very important, the more people [who] can show our neighbors, our politicians in the world, that nonviolent resistance is the way to express our dissatisfaction with the way our country's going," said event organizer Becca Moeller to Lookout Santa Cruz. But just above the colorful banner was a very different kind of message: "86 47," a phrase many interpreted as a call to "get rid of" the 47th President of the United States. In slang, "86" typically means to cancel, eliminate, or even destroy. Combined with "47," the number now associated with President Trump's second term, the phrase has raised alarms among critics who say it crossed a this month, former FBI Chief James Comey posted a similar message in the sand, but instead of kelp, they were shells. He has since removed the post after widespread criticism and action by law enforcement. "We don't need a king. We want to go back to the way we were. We want to make America kind again," said protester Beth Basilius to Lookout Santa Cruz. While the event promoted "kindness" and inclusivity, the imagery told a more conflicted story. "They claim they want to make America 'kind' again, but then they spell out '86 47' in the sand. That's not kindness — that's a coded call to eliminate someone they disagree with. It's hypocritical," said Mike LeLieur, chair of the Santa Cruz County Republican Party to Fox News Digital. LeLieur said local conservatives face growing hostility from the political left. "We've had vehicles vandalized, tires slashed, and windows broken. I was forced off the road and attacked just for having a Trump sticker. At our State of the Union watch party, we were swarmed by angry protesters. It's been nonstop hostility — and these are the same people who call themselves the 'Party of Peace.'" Just 8.5% of voters in the city of Santa Cruz are registered Republicans, according to the most recent data from the California Secretary of State. Despite the message written in the sand, some participants insisted the demonstration was rooted in compassion. "We want to go back to the way we were. We want to make America kind again," said protester Beth Basilius to Lookout Santa Cruz. Supporters of the protest claimed that "86 47" was a symbolic rejection of Trump's agenda, not a literal threat. But critics say that argument falls flat in a political climate where coded language carries real-world consequences. "In California — and especially in Santa Cruz County — the left is creating a political environment of non-acceptance and persecution," said Daniel Enriquez, a representative of the California Republican Assembly. "It's consistent with the goals of socialist movements throughout history." Jenny Evans, co-leader of Indivisible Santa Cruz County, defended the event. "When a great number of people come out to do something like this, it just is one more thing to show that we're not all saying, 'Fine, fine. We'll go along with whatever you want,'" she said to Lookout Santa Cruz. The event was also part of Santa Cruz's 50th Pride celebration. Participants were instructed to dress in matching rainbow colors, coordinated with fabric laid out across the beach starting at 7 a.m. The protest was peaceful, but critics say calling for kindness while displaying "86 47" sent a message that was anything but. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPIndivisible Santa Cruz County did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
San Francisco Chronicle
21-04-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Two friends started a California secession movement. Now they're fighting each other
Seated in his Fresno home office, Marcus Ruiz Evans, wearing a gray vest over a blue dress shirt and blue-patterned tie, looked into the eye of his laptop camera and attempted to resurrect a political revolt. It was Jan. 31 and Evans, president of CalExit LLC — the corporate front for a radical idea — told his audience why he believed now is the time to cleave California from the United States: President Donald Trump was ascendant, the Resist movement was 'dead' and California could only save itself. 'Nobody thinks that this isn't Trump's America,' Evans told a screen gridded into names and faces. 'So now we're ready to get to work and we can all focus and we're not going to be infighting amongst ourselves, which is what we did last time. That's why this is the best time to CalExit.' Evans has been making a version of this pitch since 2014, when he and other independence-minded Californians came together then split into factions that differed on the speed and totality with which they wanted to push California out of the union. None of their proposals reached the starting line. And the group Evans co-founded, Yes California, imploded over his partner's bizarre — and still unresolved — connections to a Russian foreign influence operation. Evans has spent the past four years rebuilding for this moment, and casting himself as a sort of progressive Pied Piper, ready to lead the most populous state with the biggest economy out of a country increasingly hostile to its politics and people. CalExit's current mission: collect 546,000 signatures by July 22 to qualify an initiative for the November 2026 ballot, one that would create a commission to explore nationhood if 55% of voters endorse the idea. Nonbinding and incremental, Evans nonetheless insisted an initiative victory would send 'shockwaves in the entire world system.' First he has to convince the home crowd. California's Democratic leaders are reluctant to discuss Evans' initiative. Onetime compatriots are either critical of his approach or pursuing side quests that undercut it. And hanging over the entire project is the fundamental question of whether California — or any state — can do what's never been done in the nation's history: leave. Then there is Evans' ex-partner and former best friend, Louis J. Marinelli. Marinelli was the independence effort's mercurial leader until his move to Russia and MAGA pivot poisoned the brand and sparked a war over its future. Now on the East Coast, Marinelli told the Chronicle he plans to 'destroy' the California independence movement once and for all. Somehow, Evans is undaunted. Short, bearded and solid, the full-time state worker and moonlighting revolutionary dismisses counter arguments with the vim of a secular zealot. He says he's assembled a team and a game plan for a new, better independence push — powered by Trump 2.0 hate and progressive despair, and arm in arm with other secession efforts around the globe. More than that, he thinks he's right. 'We are for diversity and protecting people who are under threat. And if we have to secede to do that, then that's what we'll do,' Evans, 48, told the Chronicle. 'That's the view on CalExit. It's not about abandoning people. It's about saving 40 million here.' Cali dreamer, Russian expat Evans came to his big idea through a series of epiphanies. It was the stories his Mexican American mother and aunts told of the racism they experienced growing up in Texas and the opportunities they found in California. It was the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which Evans opposed and Californians swiftly turned against. It was getting hired by the California Department of Transportation and learning he worked for 'a donor state' that sends hundreds of billions of dollars more to the federal government than it receives in return. 'You know, the rest of the country isn't exactly doing what we are here in California,' Evans said, recalling his thinking. 'I started to know that as a teen boy, and I wasn't happy about it.' In 2012, Evans published ' California's Next Century 2.0.' Influenced by journalists like Paul Starobin and thinkers like University of Southern California professor emeritus Abraham Lowenthal — who alternately mused that California should break up or scale up to recover from the Great Recession — Evans wrote his way to a case for semi-autonomy. Coverage of the book reached like minds and also Marinelli, who saw in it a vehicle for his next reinvention. Raised in upstate New York, Marinelli campaigned for Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards in Iowa in 2004, formed a group opposing gay marriage in 2005, started a conservative student newspaper at the University of Northern Iowa in 2006, moved to Russia, returned to the U.S. and declared his support for civil unions in 2011, all before the age of 30. He was teaching English to international college students in San Diego when he found Evans' 540-page slab of historical comparisons and political conjecture. Marinelli drove to Fresno to lobby its author to turn what was on the page into action. He had personal motives for doing so. Engaged to a Russian woman who had overstayed her visa, Marinelli said he resented Washington's inability to streamline its immigration system. 'From my perspective, it was kind of like, well, the United States is going to screw around with my union, then I'm going to screw around with your union,' Marinelli, 39, said with a chuckle. He and Evans formed the short-lived but prolific Sovereign California. As the group's president, Marinelli submitted seven initiatives to the California Attorney General's Office in 2015 — to create an advisory group to study autonomy, change the governor's title to 'president of California,' fly the state flag over the American one, prohibit out-of-state political donations, turn the Department of Motor Vehicles into an independent immigration agency, tax bottled water and, finally, endorse California's semi-independence from the U.S. All failed to qualify, but helped get the group — and particularly Marinelli, who launched an unsuccessful Assembly bid on a pro-independence platform — their earliest coverage. After discovering that Sovereign California was being confused with the sovereign citizens conspiracy — a muddled belief that Americans adhere to a repressive, counterfeit Constitution — its members decided to copy the Scottish independence movement's two - group structure, which had lost a surprisingly close referendum vote in 2014. Sovereign California rebranded as Yes California, led by Marinelli, and added the California National Party. Theo Slater, an attorney and founding Sovereign California member, was elected the party's first chairperson inside a West Sacramento library conference room. Slater said he began contemplating secession near the end of the Obama administration, thinking the U.S. had reached 'a ceiling of goodness.' He found Evans and Marinelli through Facebook and met them in Los Angeles, where Slater lived at the time. Marinelli, Slater said, 'presented himself as kind of a recovering Republican.' Now practicing law in Sacramento, Slater said he wished he interrogated that identity more closely. 'I see Louis as a traitor,' he said. 'I see Marcus as kind of a tragic figure who believed in someone and was victimized by that person.' The groups fell out over Marinelli's decision to relocate to Russia — but remain Yes California's president. Marinelli has given different reasons for the September 2016 move, telling media outlets at the time that it was to address his wife's visa issues and later writing on his website that it happened in a fit of 'hopelessness' over 'the inevitable coronation of Hillary Clinton.' Marinelli's former compatriots say he was still espousing liberal views at the time. Whatever the reasons, Slater said he remonstrated Marinelli against leading Yes California outside of California and from a U.S. adversary, no less. 'I think the last thing I said to him was, 'F— you,'' Slater said. 'Yeah, he didn't take that advice.' Outside scrutiny intensified after Marinelli attended a Moscow conference promoting separatist efforts in the U.S. and other countries (but not in Russia). The so-called Dialogue of Nations was hosted by a pro-Kremlin think tank run by Aleksandr V. Ionov, who would later take credit for goosing California's secession movement as a way to foster 'turmoil' in the U.S. and who was indicted in 2022 by federal prosecutors. Evans said members of the Texas Nationalist Movement talked up the conference, first held the previous September, as a good way to raise their media profile. The Obama administration hadn't yet revealed Russia's interference in the 2016 election. 'No one cared,' Evans said. 'Would we do it again? Hell no. We didn't know that it was going to be claimed that Russia hacked an election.' Trump's unexpected victory spiked interest in CalExit. Marinelli subverted it. In a December 2016 Bloomberg profile, he described himself as a Bernie Sanders supporter who voted for Trump to hasten a California-U.S. reckoning, and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. He promoted the opening of a California embassy in Russia — specifically inside Ionov's office — to Russia Today. The Chronicle and other outlets reprised his Russia-friendly beliefs and anti-gay past. While Marinelli granted interviews, Evans juggled the fallout. Silicon Valley venture capitalists who flirted with power-funding Yes California's initiative drive backed out. The group hemorrhaged members, some of whom created the California Independence Coalition, which had its own failed initiative drive and internal drama. The California National Party released a statement slamming Marinelli as a Putin admirer and accusing him of impersonating it on social media and in emailed donation requests. The state Fair Political Practices Commission ultimately cleared Yes California of violating campaign finance rules. Evans said two FBI agents braced him outside his home with guns drawn, interviewed him for hours and asked him to be a star witness against Marinelli 'because I was, quote, articulate and well-spoken.' Federal authorities have not directly accused Marinelli or Yes California of breaking any laws. In an unsealed indictment, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Florida charged Ionov and other Russian government operatives with puppeteering unnamed separatist groups in California, Florida and Georgia. The case remains active. Federal prosecutors last year won convictions against Florida and Georgia secessionists who allegedly received his assistance. For his part, Marinelli admits being one of the unnamed co-conspirators referenced in Ionov's indictment. He says he and Ionov were friends and that he accepted a personal loan of a few hundred dollars from him, but said he rebuffed Ionov's offers of 'large sums of money' for flash mobs and murals, and ignored his idea to storm the governor's office during a 2018 rally. When Rachel Maddow covered the spectacle in March 2017, Evans said he fielded a tearful call from his father, a retired U.S. Army captain, 'asking me if I'm a spy.' Evans had submitted an initiative in December 2016 calling for a state constitutional amendment supporting independence, signing it as Yes California's vice president. He withdrew it five months later, state records show. But he didn't turn his back on Marinelli. On Valentine's Day 2018, the two men stood shoulder to shoulder outside the Capitol in Sacramento and called for a national divorce. Their independence referendum, submitted the same day, never reached the ballot. Neither did their 2020 attempt. In May 2021, Marinelli threw his hat into the recall ring as a replacement option for Gov. Gavin Newsom. He ran as a Republican. His answers to a Ballotpedia candidate questionnaire criss-crossed the gamut: He opposed vaccine mandates, abortion and critical race theory, and supported expanded paid maternity leave, legal status for taxpaying undocumented immigrants and legalized sex work. He also ran on a CalExit platform while living in Russia as a kindergarten teacher. 'Legally speaking, I was still a resident of California,' he said. He was one of 39 candidates who didn't make the ballot. When Marinelli applauded the November 2021 acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse using Yes California's social media stationary, Evans fumed. Their partnership — and friendship — was finally over. The hand that bites Russia had become too hot. In June 2019, Marinelli was briefly detained by Moscow police for attending an unsanctioned protest on behalf of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal correspondent imprisoned on fabricated espionage charges. Concerned that his profile was rising in the wrong way, Marinelli decided to leave the country. 'I felt that I was more than just a random American teacher there,' he said. For about 18 months, Marinelli bounced around Eastern Europe and South America with his wife and two children. They finally found an American embassy in Uruguay willing to finalize his wife's visa application, made their way to Mexico and arrived in the U.S. in May 2023. From his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., Marinelli began speaking out — against CalExit. On Christmas Day 2024, eight days after Evans submitted his latest CalExit initiative, Marinelli turned Yes California's home page into a denunciation of the mission and a veiled takedown of Evans — writing that the campaign became more of 'a showcase for personal delusions and ambitions than a serious political effort,' according to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The page has been revised many times, but remains a full-throated disavowal of the California independence effort. Marinelli also sabotaged CalExit's social media campaign, getting multiple bluecheck accounts on X suspended while turning Yes California's Facebook page, with its 34,000 followers (compared to CalExit's 60), into a pro-Trump platform that has jabbed at Evans. It's not the first time Marinelli scorned his own creation. In 2005, when he was 19, Marinelli founded Protect Marriage, a social media campaign opposing gay marriage. In 2009, he parlayed its success into a splashy role with the National Organization for Marriage, one of the largest Christian right groups at the time, literally driving its Summer for Marriage bus tour across the U.S. In April 2011, Marinelli announced ' a change of heart ' and began trashing NOM. Like he's done with CalExit, Marinelli sabotaged NOM's social media presence, forcing the Illinois-based advocacy group to create a new Facebook account while contending with Marinelli's new group, which he called the National Organization for Marriage Equality. Then-executive director Brian S. Brown, who threatened Marinelli with legal action, didn't respond to interview requests. Today, NOM has a smaller profile. And Marinelli, once applauded by the LGBTQ press for his about-face, has taken to trolling transgender people online. 'This is the second time he's done that,' Evans said. 'He builds an organization, turns on it and destroys it. … What kind of person does that?' Jason Wright thinks he knows. The 39-year-old CalExit chairperson was introduced to the movement through Marinelli and used to think he was driven by principle. Wright now thinks Marinelli leapfrogs from one zeitgeist pose to another. 'He wasn't for Trump out the gate. He was for Trump once he knew that that was the winning horse,' Wright said. 'He has a way of sneaking his bet in right before the finish line.' Marinelli is inconsistent when asked about this. Initially, he told the Chronicle he had nothing to do with CalExit. Then he admitted he got it banned on X and trolled Evans on Facebook in an effort to destroy it. He said he turned on Protect Marriage because he changed. He said he turned on CalExit and Evans — whom he called both a weasel and his brother — because they had. 'The cause turned on me, I didn't turn on them,' he said. To overcome Marinelli's antics, CalExit has responded with grab-bag tactics, encouraging supporters to do their own social media campaigns and signature-gathering efforts. There is also an upcoming road tour and a ' Cali Nation ' NFT. Observable metrics aren't encouraging. Two crowdfunding campaigns have together raised $545. Two Bluesky accounts have less than 1,000 followers. In 2017, the last time a statewide secession effort overlapped with a Trump presidency, support for the idea maxed out at about 30%, according to separate surveys by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and Berkeley IGS Poll. While independent pollsters haven't revisited the secession question directly, other surveys show that rising alarm about Trump hasn't yet translated into greater enthusiasm for California. According to a February poll from the Public Policy Institute of California, 74% of likely voters in the state felt the U.S. was headed in the wrong direction, with 51% saying the same thing about California. Democratic leaders aren't making CalExit's case. A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom directed inquiries to a November 2024 Politifact article quashing rumors that Newsom had any interest in secession. Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire said in a statement that this was a moment for California to 'fight for' America, not run from it. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas declined to comment. Secretary of State Shirley Weber, whose office will determine if CalExit's initiative gets enough valid signatures to qualify for the 2026 ballot, took the unusual step of releasing a Jan. 28 statement dousing 'misinformation' that she had organized it. And Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, dismissed the effort as 'a really pointless exercise.' 'I'm sympathetic to the concerns that are animating it,' Huffman added. 'Because we are in this just tragic national discourse where states are rooting against each other because of partisan politics. … This is so destructive and dystopic.' Evans is counting on that. For every snarky view or gut-punch setback, he has an answer. Both same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization started out as long shot campaigns before they became popular crusades, Evans notes, and few predicted the births of nations that followed World War II and the Soviet Union's collapse. He is also pursuing a formal alliance with separatist groups around the world, including ones with divergent politics and competing visions. And he's betting big on CalExit's new CEO, a Los Angeles entrepreneur who introduces himself as Sir Dr. Xavier X. Mitchell. (The honorary doctorate comes from an online seminary college; his knighthood from an exiled prince of a defunct Arab dynasty.) Mitchell, CEO of a Canadian basketball league and co-founder of a digital bank among other ventures, recently announced CalExit's deal with his Congolese mining company to scour for minerals in California. 'I will quit CalExit when the public is aware of all the facts and says, 'We're aware and we don't care.' Right now we're nowhere near there,' Evans said. 'Maybe it's an idea that will never die.'
