Dear John,
People snatched off the streets into unmarked vans. A father pulled over and detained on his drive to work. Heavily armed ICE agents in outsized, armored vehicles swooping into workplaces—car washes, meat packing plants, garment factories, Home Depot parking lots. Children torn from their families, put on planes or left in dubious custody situations while their parents sit behind bars.
This is the cruel reality of Trump’s America that so many gathered in the streets and in front of courthouses to protest this week, across the country.
Here in Los Angeles, where the Ms. offices are located, we saw something beautiful emerge from these horrors: people joining together to stand up for their communities, for the rights and dignity of their neighbors and classmates and family members. For women and men they had never met, and who they are unlikely to ever meet. Seeing the people of LA stand side by side, facing down the National Guard, we at Ms. felt proud to be a part of this city. (An important note here: despite what media coverage might have you believe, the protests have involved tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators). We are a city that fights back for what is right.
The Trump administration’s escalation of immigration enforcement activity is just the latest in a string of wildly unpopular policies and actions. Recent Quinnipiac polls indicate that majorities of Americans disapprove of his handling of immigration issues (54 percent disapprove, 43 percent approve) and deportations (56 percent disapprove, 40 percent approve), as well as his handling of the economy, trade, and universities. By every measure, he’s lost the American public.
A majority also disapprove of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (53 percent disapprove, 27 percent approve), and many are expressing concerns over the bill’s potential impacts on Medicaid funding. Nearly half agree that “federal funding for Medicaid should increase,” according to Quinnipiac—and the program’s favorability among members of all parties has increased over the past month as the debate on the bill has raged, according to polling by Navigator. Even among many Independents and non-MAGA Republicans, voting to cut Medicaid was seen as a “dealbreaker” when it came to their support for a candidate.
Despite pushing the line that the bill’s cutbacks in Medicaid funding are only targeting “waste, fraud and abuse,” in reality, the bill will cut off healthcare to millions. A May report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that virtually all the health care-related cuts included in the bill will come from “families that count on Medicaid losing their coverage or benefits”—not eliminating fraud or waste. The CBO also found that the not-so-Beautiful Bill would reduce overall income for low-income households by $1600—while high-income households would get a $12,000 boost, on average.
This weekend, on June 14—Flag Day—Trump is staging a parade. Tanks in the streets. Helicopters overhead. Soldiers marching for the cameras. $45 million of our tax dollars (not to mention the millions in damages to the streets of Washington, D.C.) Not to honor democracy, but to feed his ego.
The contrast couldn’t be greater: between his vision of America—with all its tanks and helicopters and guns—and the vision of people marching and demonstrating for “no more kings” in the streets in Los Angeles and across the country.
I know which vision I believe in—and which group I’ll be marching with. I’d encourage you to join us. You can click here to find a “No Kings Day” march near you.
For equality,
