Employees and supporters protest outside the headquarters for United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on Monday, February 3, 2025, after Elon Musk posted on social media that he and President Donald Trump would shut down the agency.
(Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
On this episode of Start Making Sense, Rebecca Solnit talks about understanding our power. Last week, Trump tried to stop payment of all federal grants and assistance. But people rose up in protest, and within a day Trump rescinded the entire effort. How did we do it? What does that tell us about him–and about us? Rebecca’s new blog is “Meditations in an Emergency.”
Also on this episode: Trump’s strategy of flooding the zone with executive actions is intended to paralyze the opposition. But there’s lots of grassroots mobilization underway right now, and one of the biggest organizers of that mobilization is Indivisible. Leah Greenberg explains the group’s strategy and tactics—and this week’s work assignments—to get four Republicans to vote “No” on Trump’s four terrible nominees. Leah is one of the cofounders and co–executive directors of Indivisible.
