Anti-Trump ‘Good Trouble Lives On’ protests to take place at 1,600 locations nationwide

The national day of action on July 17 marks five years since Lewis’s death.

“We are facing the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations,” the group’s website states. “Whether you’re outraged by attacks on voting rights, the gutting of essential services, disappearances of our neighbors, or the assault on free speech and our right to protest — this movement is for you.”

The protests will take place in major cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Dallas, Austin, Columbus, and Charlotte. Chicago is the flagship city for Thursday’s mass demonstrations.

The “Good Trouble Lives On” protest organizers were also behind the nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations that took place on June 14, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday and a grand military parade in Washington, D.C. The large coalition of organizers includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Our Revolution, and Public Citizen.

As many as 56,000 people were registered to participate in Thursday’s nationwide protests as of last Friday, organizers said. The anti-Trump “No Kings” protests drew millions of protesters across 2,100 locations.

The latest round of protests is centered on the Trump administration’s mass deportations and immigration enforcement tactics, its supposed erosion of voting rights and free speech, and its recent changes to Medicaid, SNAP, and Social Security benefits.

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The White House is not concerned about the “Good Trouble Lives On” demonstrations, saying it will continue to deliver on Trump’s campaign promises.

“Nearly 80 million Americans gave President Trump a historic mandate to Make America Great Again and he is delivering on that promise in record time,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said.

Trump’s beef with Powell centers almost exclusively on interest rates, but he has also started criticizing the chairman for his management of the $2.5 billion renovation of two Fed buildings in Washington.

“I think it sort of is,” Trump told reporters when asked if the delays in the project are sufficient grounds for firing Powell. “When you spend $2.5 billion on, really, a renovation, I think it’s really disgraceful.”

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought took that one step further Thursday morning, telling reporters that White House officials are looking to personally investigate the project.

“We want to go over there,” Vought said. “We want to see what’s going on. Obviously, the cost overrun is very concerning, and the extent to which we don’t believe that just having the inspector general do a review is something that is going to be enough. So we want to have a sit-down with those that are in charge of the project and get a brief from them and see where we’re at.”

Vought denied that the increased scrutiny of the renovation project is simply a “pretext” for finding a cause to fire Powell that could have a better chance of surviving legal challenges.

“The president’s a builder,” Vought continued. “He has concerns with an overrun of this nature. I mean, it’s not an overrun of a normal building. We’re talking about a building that’s approaching the largest amount of spending that’s ever been done on a building before, and we want to know why. The Fed’s been mismanaged for a number of years. They’re no longer providing a profit that comes back to the Treasury in the form of remittances. And so this is something that there are implications across the board, and we’re going to continue to get our handle on.”

The Federal Reserve’s renovation is estimated to come in roughly $700 million over the original projected budget, proposed during Trump’s first term in office.

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The board claims that the cost increases stem from a number of factors, including increased materials costs and unforeseen circumstances, including “more asbestos than anticipated, toxic contamination in soil, and a higher-than-expected water table.”

The board also says the renovation will remediate serious “safety issues” for Fed workers and will, “over time,” reduce overall costs by helping to consolidate its workforce operations.

“They’ve painted themselves into a corner here,” Urban said when asked why Trump had not called the files a scam on the campaign trail. “The [MAGA] movement was built on distrust of the deep state, distrust of the government, right? ‘They’re holding things back from you. They’re protecting the rich. They’re protecting the rich and powerful. And we get in, we’re going to fix all that.’ And now those folks who are calling for the rich and powerful to be held accountable aren’t holding them accountable. And I think that’s really what’s rubbing the MAGA base the wrong way. And they are not going silently.”

Urban argued that, even if “painful,” the files should be released to reestablish confidence in the Justice Department and federal institutions.

“I understand Alan Dershowitz makes the point that many people on these lists have committed no crime, and they’re going to be painted with a broad brush, but so be it,” he said. “The American public needs to hear and see from Pam Bondi and see what’s in these files.”

Pence, largely unpopular among MAGA Republicans, chimed in on Wednesday, saying in an appearance on CBS News’s The Takeout that the Trump administration should release “all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s investigation and prosecution.”

“It’s important that we protect the names of the victims,” he continued. “They should be excluded from any disclosure, but whether or not the facts justify charges, I think that anyone who participated or was associated with this despicable man ought to be held up to public scrutiny.”

The Republican Party has been riled by rare divisions after the president’s DOJ published a memo concluding that sex trafficker Epstein did, in fact, die by suicide in 2019, and that a federal investigation did not uncover a highly anticipated “client list.” The investigation also concluded that there was no credible evidence that he ever blackmailed anyone.

The conclusion ran directly against speculation widely discussed by Trump’s base for over half a decade, stirring up outrage. Many MAGA commentators, usually undyingly loyal, have taken the unprecedented move of criticizing Trump directly. The president responded by lashing out on social media.

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“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats’ work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” Trump wrote.

“It was a hoax,” Trump later said in the Oval Office. “It’s all been a big hoax. It’s perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try and do the Democrats’ work. The Democrats are good for nothing other than these hoaxes.”