Vigil organizers displayed poster boards on Sproul Plaza featuring poetry and photos of the school and those killed in the strike. Casey Scaduto | Staff
Campus student groups organized a candlelight vigil with more than 100 attendees on Sproul Plaza on Tuesday evening to honor those killed during the Feb. 28 missile strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran.
U.S. military investigators found the United States were likely responsible for the attack that killed about 168 people, including 110 students.
“The difficulty in having a candlelight vigil is that you hope that it will stop,” said ethnic studies lecturer Hatem Bazian. “But unfortunately, as we’re seeing the development around the world, it doesn’t look like there is any stopping anytime soon.”
Vigil organizers displayed poster boards featuring poetry and photos of the school and those killed in the strike. A projector played a video of Josephine Guilbeau, a former U.S. Army counterterrorism officer, in which she alleged the U.S. strike constituted a war crime. Following Guilbeau’s speech, the projector also played home videos of the children who were killed.
A member of UC Berkeley’s Ahlul Bayt Student Association, who requested anonymity because of fear of retribution, said it took about two weeks to organize the event.
“I’m a graduating senior right now, and seeing these backpacks with red blood on them or these innocent faces, I can’t help but think that I’m so privileged to be able to experience my education at a university,” the member said.
Maryam Farahmand-Asil, UC Berkeley alumna and assistant professor at Northeastern University, first approached Ahlul Bayt Student Association and other student groups to organize the event.
Farahmand-Asil had been planning the event for more than a month with the intention to raise campus awareness of the missile strike.
“About 168 students were killed on a strike in just one day, during school time — they didn’t know that the war happened,” Farahand-Asil said. “We want to raise awareness to all the students … So when they see what’s happened, they just search and they see how they can help.”
Another student group that helped organize the event was the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
A member of SJP, who requested anonymity because of fear of retribution, highlighted Sproul as a “great and accessible space” to hold the vigil.
Fateme D. Montazeri, a scholar at campus’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said she connected with the event on a personal level.
“I have long followed violence in the Middle East, but this one reached me differently,” Montazeri said. “Was it because the children of Minab spoke my mother tongue? … For the first time, I could not maintain the distance between what I knew and what I felt.”
Has Trump’s rhetoric inspired acts of violence? ABC News’ Kyra Phillips examines dozens of cases invoking President Donald Trump in connection with violence, threats and alleged assaults.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from acts of violence in communities across America, dismissing critics who point to his rhetoric as a potential source of inspiration or comfort for anyone acting on even long-held beliefs of bigotry and hate.
“I think my rhetoric brings people together,” he said last year, four days after a 21-year-old allegedly posted an anti-immigrant screed online and then allegedly opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 and injuring dozens of others.
But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 54 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
After a Latino gas station attendant in Gainesville, Florida, was suddenly punched in the head by a white man, the victim could be heard on surveillance camera recounting the attacker’s own words: “He said, ‘This is for Trump.'” Charges were filed but the victim stopped pursuing them.
When police questioned a Washington state man about his threats to kill a local Syrian-born man, the suspect told police he wanted the victim to “get out of my country,” adding, “That’s why I like Trump.”
Reviewing police reports and court records, ABC News found that in at least 12 cases perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically assaulting innocent victims. In another 18 cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others. And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant’s violent or threatening behavior.
When three Kansas men were on trial for plotting to bomb a largely-Muslim apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas, one of their lawyers told the jury that the men “were concerned about what now-President Trump had to say about the concept of Islamic terrorism.” Another lawyer insisted Trump had become “the voice of a lost and ignored white, working-class set of voters,” and Trump’s rhetoric meant someone “who would often be at a 7 during a normal day, might ‘go to 11.'”
Thirteen cases identified by ABC News involved violent or threatening acts perpetrated in defiance of Trump, with many of them targeting Trump’s allies in Congress. But the vast majority of the cases – 41 of the 54 – reflect someone echoing presidential rhetoric, not protesting it.
ABC News could not find a single criminal case filed in federal or state court where an act of violence or threat was made in the name of President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush.
The 54 cases identified by ABC News are remarkable in that a link to the president is captured in court documents and police statements, under the penalty of perjury or contempt. These links are not speculative – they are documented in official records. And in the majority of cases identified by ABC News, it was perpetrators themselves who invoked the president in connection with their case, not anyone else.
Shoppers exit after a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3, 2019.Reuters
The perpetrators and suspects identified in the 54 cases are mostly white men – as young as teenagers and as old as 75 – while the victims largely represent an array of minority groups – African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims and gay men.
Federal law enforcement authorities have privately told ABC News they worry that – although Trump has offered public denunciations of violence – his statements have been inconsistent and Trump’s style could inspire violence-prone individuals to take action against minorities or others they perceive to be against the president’s agenda.
“Any public figure could have the effect of inspiring people,” FBI Director Chris Wray told a Senate panel last year. “But remember that the people who commit hate fueled violence are not logical, rational people.”
While asserting that “fake” media coverage is exacerbating divisions in the country, Trump has noted that “a fan” of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders opened fire on Republican lawmakers playing baseball in a Washington suburb two years ago. “Nobody puts … ‘Bernie Sanders’ in the headline with the maniac,” Trump said last year.
And, last year, Trump similarly insisted that the man who fatally shot nine people in Dayton, Ohio, three days earlier “supported” Sanders and other liberal causes.
But there’s no indication either of those shooters mentioned Sanders while launching their attacks, and no charges were ever filed because they were both fatally shot during their assaults.
In addition, a president inhabits a unique position in America, with access to a special bully pulpit. On Twitter, Trump currently has 80.7 million followers – nearly seven times the number of Sanders followers.
In identifying the 54 Trump-related cases, ABC News excluded incidents of vandalism. ABC News also excluded many cases of violence – from attacks on anti-Trump protesters at Trump rallies to certain assaults on people wearing “Make America Great Again” hats – that did not establish explicit ties to Trump in court records or police reports. Similarly, being a documented Trump supporter who committed an assault, even at a Trump-related location, would not be enough to be included if official records did not document a specific connection to Trump.
ABC News found several cases where pro-Trump defendants were charged with targeting minorities, or where speculation online suggested the defendants were motivated by Trump, but in those cases ABC News found no police records, court proceedings or other direct evidence presenting a definitive link to the president.
In many cases of assault or threat, charges are never filed, perpetrators are never identified or the incident is never even reported to authorities. And most criminal acts committed by Trump supporters or his detractors have nothing to do with the president. But in 54 cases, court records and police reports indicated some sort of link.
Nevertheless, Trump has said he deserves “no blame” for what he called the “hatred” seemingly coursing through parts of the country. And he told reporters that he’s “committed to doing everything” in his power to not let political violence “take root in America.”
The White House did not respond to a request seeking comment for this report.
Here are the 54 cases identified by ABC News:
An undated police photo of Steven Leader.Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office
Aug. 19, 2015: In Boston, after he and his brother beat a sleeping homeless man of Mexican descent with a metal pole, Steven Leader, 30, told police “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported.” The victim, however, was not in the United States illegally. The brothers, who are white, ultimately pleaded guilty to several assault-related charges and were each sentenced to at least two years in prison.
Dec. 5, 2015: After Penn State University student Nicholas Tavella, 19, was charged with “ethnic intimidation” and other crimes for threatening to “put a bullet” in a young Indian man on campus, his attorney argued in court that Tavella was just motivated by “a love of country,” not “hate.” “Donald Trump is running for President of the United States saying that, ‘We’ve got to check people out more closely,'” Tavella’s attorney argued in his defense. Tavella, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation and was sentenced to up to two years in prison.
One of four IEDs recovered by law enforcement at the home of John Roos in April 2016.U.S. Department of Justice
April 28, 2016: When FBI agents arrested 61-year-old John Martin Roos in White City, Oregon, for threatening federal officials, including then-President Barack Obama, they found several pipe bombs and guns in his home. In the three months before his arrest, Roos posted at least 34 messages to Twitter about Trump, repeatedly threatening African Americans, Muslims, Mexican immigrants and the “liberal media,” and in court documents, prosecutors noted that the avowed Trump supporter posted this threatening message to Facebook a month earlier: “The establishment is trying to steal the election from Trump. … Obama is already on a kill list … Your [name] can be there too.” Roos, who is white, has since pleaded guilty to possessing an unregistered explosive device and posting internet threats against federal officials. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison.
June 3, 2016: After 54-year-old Henry Slapnik attacked his African-American neighbors with a knife in Cleveland, he told police “Donald Trump will fix them because they are scared of Donald Trump,” according to police reports. Slapnik, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to “ethnic intimidation” and other charges. It’s unclear what sentence he received.
Aug. 16, 2016: In Olympia, Washington, 32-year-old Daniel Rowe attacked a white woman and a black man with a knife after seeing them kiss on a popular street. When police arrived on the scene, Rowe professed to being “a white supremacist” and said “he planned on heading down to the next Donald Trump rally and stomping out more of the Black Lives Matter group,” according to court documents filed in the case. Rowe, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to charges of assault and malicious harassment, and he was sentenced to more than four years in prison.
Henry Slapnik in an undated police photo.Cleveland Police Department
Sept. 1, 2016: The then-chief of the Bordentown, New Jersey, police department, Frank Nucera, allegedly assaulted an African American teenager who was handcuffed. Federal prosecutors said the attack was part of Nucera’s “intense racial animus,” noting in federal court that “within hours” of the assault, Nucera was secretly recorded saying “Donald Trump is the last hope for white people.” The 60-year-old Nucera, who is white, was indicted by a federal grand jury on three charges, including committing a federal hate crime and lying to the FBI about the alleged assault. He was convicted of lying to the FBI, but a jury deadlocked on the other charges, so Nucera is now awaiting a second trial. He has pleaded not guilty.
September 2016: After 40-year-old Mark Feigin of Los Angeles was arrested for posting anti-Muslim and allegedly threatening statements to a mosque’s Facebook page, his attorney argued in court that the comments were protected by the First Amendment because Feigin was “using similar language and expressing similar views” to “campaign statements from then-candidate Donald Trump.” Noting that his client “supported Donald Trump,” attorney Caleb Mason added that “Mr. Feigin’s comments were directed toward a pressing issue of public concern that was a central theme of the Trump campaign and the 2016 election generally: the Islamic roots of many international and U.S. terrorist acts.” Feigin, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of sending harassing communications electronically. He was sentenced to probation.
Oct. 10, 2016: Police in Albany, New York, arrested 55-year-old Todd Warnken for threatening an African-American woman at a local grocery store “because of her race,” according to a police report. Warnken allegedly told the victim, “Trump is going to win, and if you don’t like it I’m gonna beat your ass you n—-r,” the police report said. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in the case and completed a local “restorative justice program,” allowing the charges against him to be dismissed, according to the district attorney’s office.
Oct. 13, 2016: After the FBI arrested three white Kansas men for plotting to bomb an apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas, where many Somali immigrants lived, one of the men’s attorneys insisted to a federal judge that the plot was “self-defensive” because the three men believed “that if Donald Trump won the election, President Obama would not recognize the validity of those results, that he would declare martial law, and that at that point militias all over the country would have to step in.” Then, after a federal grand jury convicted 47-year-old Patrick Stein and the two other men of conspiracy-related charges, Stein’s attorney argued for a lighter sentence based on “the backdrop” of Stein’s actions: Trump had become “the voice of a lost and ignored white, working-class set of voters” like Stein, and the “climate” at the time could propel someone like Stein to “go to 11,” attorney Jim Pratt said in court. Stein and his two accomplices were each sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.
Nov. 3, 2016: In Tampa, Florida, David Howard threatened to burn down the house next to his “simply because” it was being purchased by a Muslim family, according to the Justice Department. He later said under oath that while he harbored a years-long dislike for Muslims, the circumstances around the home sale were “the match that lit the wick.” He cited Trump’s warnings about immigrants from majority-Muslim countries. “[With] the fact that the president wants these six countries vetted, everybody vetted before they come over, there’s a concern about Muslims,” Howard said. Howard, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation, and the 59-year-old was sentenced to eight months in prison.
A surveillance camera at a store in Gainesville, Fla., captures what police described as an unprovoked attack on a Hispanic man cleaning the store’s parking lot. Nov. 10, 2016.Gainesville Police Department
Nov. 10, 2016: A 23-year-old man from High Springs, Florida, allegedly assaulted an unsuspecting Hispanic man who was cleaning a parking lot outside of a local food store. “[H]e was suddenly struck in the back of the head,” a police report said of the victim. “[The victim] asked the suspect why he hit him, to which the suspect replied, ‘This is for Donald Trump.’ The suspect then grabbed [the victim] by the jacket and proceeded to strike him several more times,” according to the report. Surveillance video of the incident “completely corroborated [the victim’s] account of events,” police said. The suspect was arrested on battery charges, but the case was dropped after the victim decided not to pursue the matter, police said. Efforts by ABC News to reach the victim for further explanation were not successful.
Nov. 12, 2016: In Grand Rapids, Michigan, while attacking a cab driver from East Africa, 23-year-old Jacob Holtzlander shouted racial epithets and repeatedly yelled the word, “Trump,” according to law enforcement records. Holtzlander, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to a charge of ethnic intimidation, and he was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Nov. 16, 2016: Police in San Antonio, Texas, arrested 32-year-old Dusty Paul Lacombe after he and a companion assaulted a black man at a convenience store. According to a police report, Lacombe “stepped out of a vehicle and walked to the [victim] and stated he was a Trump supporter and swung at him several times.” The victim “was punched in the face several times,” the police report said. When police arrived, Lacombe – who “smelled strongly of alcohol” – “stated something about Trump and admitted to fighting with [the victim],” the police report noted. Lacombe was charged with misdemeanor assault and ultimately received “deferred adjudication,” which is akin to probation. Lacombe ultimately pleaded “no contest” to the charge and was granted “deferred adjudication” with a $450 fine.
Jan. 3, 2017: In Chicago, four young African-Americans — sisters Brittany and Tanishia Covington, Jordan Hill and Tesfaye Cooper — tied up a white, mentally disabled man and assaulted him, forcing him to recite the phrases “F–k Donald Trump” and “F–k white people” while they broadcast the attack online. Each of them ultimately pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime and other charges, and three of them were sentenced to several years in prison.
Jan. 25, 2017: At JFK International Airport in New York, a female Delta employee, wearing a hijab in accordance with her Muslim faith, was “physically and verbally” attacked by 57-year-old Robin Rhodes of Worcester, Mass., “for no apparent reason,” prosecutors said at the time. When the victim asked Brown what she did to him, he replied: “You did nothing, but … [Expletive] Islam. [Expletive] ISIS. Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you.” Rhodes ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “menacing,” and he was sentenced to probation.
Feb. 19, 2017: After 35-year-old Gerald Wallace called a mosque in Miami Gardens, Florida, and threatened to “shoot all y’all,” he told the FBI and police that he made the call because he “got angry” from a local TV news report about a terrorist act. At a rally in Florida the day before, Trump falsely claimed that Muslim refugees had just launched a terrorist attack in Sweden.
WATCH WALLACE’S INTERVIEW WITH THE FBI AND POLICE:
FBI and police interview suspect in mosque threatsABC News obtained video from an FBI and police interview with George Sloane Wallace on Feb. 27, 2017.
ABCNews.com
Wallace’s attorney, Katie Carmon, later tried to convince a federal judge that the threat to kill worshippers could be “protected speech” due to the “very distinctly political climate” at the time. “There are courts considering President Trump’s travel ban … and the president himself has made some very pointed statements about what he thinks about people of this descent,” Carmon argued in court.
Trump addressing the press at the Hanoi Summit, 2019
The rhetoric of Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, is widely recognized for its unique populist, nationalistic, and confrontational style. It has been the subject of extensive analysis by linguists, political scientists, and communication experts. Known for its direct and unfiltered approach, Trump’s rhetoric emphasizes themes of crisis, division, and loyalty, often casting himself as an outsider fighting against a corrupt political establishment. Central to his communication strategy are emotional appeals that resonate with voter insecurity, promises of restoring past national “greatness”, and the use of simple, repetitive language that amplifies his message to broad audiences.
Trump’s rhetoric often frames complex issues in binary terms, using absolutes such as “always” and “never” to express uncompromising stances. This strategy creates a polarized worldview, encouraging audiences to see political opponents and external threats as existential dangers to the nation. Trump’s rhetoric often uses superlatives to contrast and compare his own ideas and plans to those of others, usually comparing the “Best” to the “Worst”. His rhetorical style is further characterized by a high volume of lies, sometimes leveraging what analysts describe as the “firehose of falsehood” propaganda technique. This approach to information dissemination—marked by sheer volume and speed—can overwhelm fact-checking mechanisms and further entrench his narratives among his supporters.
Throughout his political career, Trump has been noted for using inflammatory language, including violent terms and metaphors, particularly when discussing immigration, crime, and political adversaries. His rhetoric has been linked by some scholars to an increase in political hostility and even violence, as it often features direct or implied threats against perceived enemies. Additionally, his speeches frequently draw on populist themes, casting blame on specific groups or individuals for societal problems, which scholars argue has contributed to an atmosphere of distrust and division within the U.S.
Critics argue that Trump’s communication style borrows from authoritarian playbooks, citing his use of scapegoating, appeals to nationalism, and rhetorical attacks on the media. While supporters view his rhetoric as a refreshing departure from political correctness and establishment politics, detractors contend it erodes democratic norms and fuels divisiveness. This rhetoric remains a defining element of Trump’s influence on American politics, with his third consecutive campaign in 2024 being ultimately successful.
Trump’s rhetoric has its roots in a populist political method that suggests nationalistic answers to political, economic, and social problems.[1] It employs absolutist framings and threat narratives[2] characterized by a rejection of the political establishment.[3] Trump’s rhetoric has been identified as using a three-fold rhetorical strategy, that being “it tells audiences what is wrong with the current state of affairs; it identifies the political agents that are responsible for putting individuals and the country in a state of loss and crisis; and it offers an abstract pathway through which people can restore past greatness by opting for a high-risk outsider candidate”. Through the creation of a crisis narrative, Trump’s rhetoric relies on creating a sense of insecurity among voters that it promises to eradicate for political gain.[4] His absolutist rhetoric emphasizes non-negotiable boundaries and moral outrage at their supposed violation,[5] and heavily favors crowd reaction over veracity, with a large number of falsehoods which Trump presents as facts,[6] which have been described as using the big lie,[7] and firehose of falsehood propaganda technique.[8]
Trump’s scenic construction (introduction of characters and setting stage depicting an issue) uses black and white terms such as “totally”, “absolutely”, “every”, “complete”, and “forever” to describe malevolent forces, or the coming victory. For example, Trump described John Kerry as a “total disaster”, and said that Obamacare would “destroy American health care forever”. Kenneth Burke referred to this type of “all or none” staging as characteristic of “burlesque” rhetoric.[9] He frequently shifts positions and contradicts himself, sometimes in the same day, in a rhetorical tactic described as presenting him plausible deniability through dueling narratives and allowing the American public the ability to pick and chose what they want to believe about his intentions.[10]
By 2024, The New York Times reported that Trump’s speeches had grown “darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past” and that experts described it as increasingly rambling, tangential, and featuring behavioral disinhibition as a possible consequence of advancing age and cognitive decline. It highlighted an average rally length of 82 minutes compared with 45 minutes in 2016, and a 13% increase in use of all-or-nothing terms such as “always” and “never”. It also found 32% more negative words than positive words compared with 21% in 2016, and a 69% increase in swearwords.[11] Trump described his rambling, off-script style of speaking as “the weave” and insisted it was both intentional and oratorical genius.[12]
During his second presidency, Trump’s rhetoric has leaned into likening himself as a higher figure than president. Examples include saying “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law” and comparing himself to a king.[13][14][15] White House social media posted an image depicting Trump with a crown, and Trump and his allies referred to him with monarchical terminology and claims of divine legitimacy.[16]
Analysis
Trump speaking at one of his rallies in Arizona, October 2020
Research has identified Trump’s rhetoric as heavily using vitriol, demeaning language, false equivalency, exclusion,[17] and fearmongering[18][19][20][21] about immigrants, crime, and minorities as essential to his support.[22][23] In a 2016 interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Trump said that, “Real power is — I don’t even want to use the word — fear.”[24] Trump uses rhetoric that political scientists have deemed to be both dehumanizing and connected to physical violence by his followers.[25] Sociologist Arlie Hochschild states that emotional themes in Trump’s rhetoric are fundamental, writing that his “speeches—evoking dominance, bravado, clarity, national pride, and personal uplift—inspire an emotional transformation”, deeply resonating with their “emotional self-interest”.[26][27] One study suggests that the use of spectacular racist rhetoric aided in the significant environmental deregulation that occurred during the first year of the Trump administration. According to the authors, this served political objectives of dehumanizing its targets, eroding democratic norms, and consolidating power by emotionally connecting with and inflaming resentments among the base of followers, but most importantly served to distract media attention from deregulatory policymaking by igniting intense media coverage of the distractions, precisely due to their radically transgressive nature.[28]The New York Times described his vilification of his political opponents and journalists as unlike any modern American president, with him frequently referring to them as “evil”.[29] For instance, in 2025, Trump called Democrats “the party of hate, evil, and Satan“;[30] in 2024 he called Democrats “demonic”,[31] and referred to them at rallies as “so evil”, “dangerous”, “the enemy within”, and that “They’re Marxists and communists and fascists, and they’re sick”.[32]
According to civil rights lawyer Burt Neuborne and political theorist William E. Connolly, Trump’s rhetoric employs tropes similar to those used by fascists in Germany[33] to persuade citizens (at first a minority) to give up democracy, by using a barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, personal invective, threats, xenophobia, national-security scares, religious bigotry, white racism, exploitation of economic insecurity, and a never-ending search for scapegoats.[34] Connolly presents a similar list in his book Aspirational Fascism (2017), adding comparisons of the integration of theatrics and crowd participation with rhetoric, involving grandiose bodily gestures, grimaces, hysterical charges, dramatic repetitions of alternate reality falsehoods, and totalistic assertions incorporated into signature phrases that audiences are strongly encouraged to join in chanting.[35] Despite the similarities, Connolly stresses that Trump is no Nazi but “is rather, an aspirational fascist who pursues crowd adulation, hyperaggressive nationalism, white triumphalism, and militarism, pursues a law-and-order regime giving unaccountable power to the police, and is a practitioner of a rhetorical style that regularly creates fake news and smears opponents to mobilize support for the Big Lies he advances”.[33]
It has been suggested that Trump’s Big Lies consist of bullshit rather than of lying as strictly defined.[36][37] According to Harry Frankfurt‘s 2005 book On Bullshit, the liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it, while the bullshitter does not care whether what they say is true or false.[38] By ignoring the facts, bullshit has the power to guide group beliefs in a politically desirable direction and thereby to shape group identities.[36]
Media ethicistKelly McBride has commented that it is a difficult task for journalists to convey this rhetoric in a succinct way, which results in criticisms of “sanewashing“; that is, that journalists are “selectively quoting his speeches to make them sound more coherent than they actually are” and “packaging Trump’s ideas into news stories as if they are sensible suggestions”.[39]
Trumpisms
“Trumpisms” redirects here. For the political movement, see Trumpism.
Trump’s “Make America Great Again!” sign used during his 2016 presidential campaign before Trump selected Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate
Trumpisms or Trump-speak are the mannerisms, rhetoric, and characteristic phrases or statements of Trump.[40][41] They have been described as colorful comments that “only Trump could get away with”.[42][43] By 2016, Politico observed that what used to be called Trump’s gaffes now had the official designation of “Trumpisms”.[44][45] They have become well-known and are the subject of numerous comedic impersonations that imitate Trump’s confident exaggerations and general lack of detail.[46][47] An MIT student built a Twitter bot that used artificial intelligence to parody the President with “remarkably Trump-like statements”.[48] Artificial intelligence has also been used to analyze Trump-speak.[49] Trump’s children have acknowledged his atypical speech patterns, with both Ivanka and Eric Trump stating that they share some of their father’s Trumpisms.[50]
Journalist Emily Greenhouse noted in a 2015 Bloomberg article that Trump may be the most quotable man in politics and highlighted the following example:[51]
I’m the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody’s ever been more successful than me. I’m the most successful person ever to run. Ross Perot isn’t successful like me. Romney—I have a Gucci store that’s worth more than Romney.[52]
Trump has been identified as a key figure in increasing political violence in America both for and against him.[57][25][58] Trump has embraced extremism, conspiracy theories such as Q-Anon, and far-right militia movements to a greater extent than any modern American president.[59][60] Trump has espoused combative and violent rhetoric and promised retribution against his political enemies.[67] Trump’s normalization and revisionist history of the January 6 Capitol attack and grant of clemency to all January 6 rioters including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers was described by counterterrorism researchers as encouraging future political violence,[68][69] and Trump later suggested the two groups may have a place in the political conversation.[70][71]
In 2023, Reuters released a series of reports examining the highest levels of politically motivated violence since the 1970s that started in 2016 when Trump first ran for president, which has seen relatively more violence directed at people instead of property. Reuters notes a few theories for this increase, including the ‘coarsening’ political rhetoric of the Trump era.[72] They also found that the people who murdered others for political reasons since January 6, 2021, have mostly been associated with the extreme right.[73]
Trump’s rhetoric has been described as using Argumentum ad baculum, or an appeal to force and intimidation to coerce behavior.[74] Trump has been noted to use either direct or veiled comments with plausible deniability suggesting the possibility of violence by his supporters.[75][76][77][78][79] He has been described as using stochastic terrorism.[80][81] In Politico, Michael Schaffer wrote, “In the 45th and possibly 47th president, America has a leading political figure of unprecedented rhetorical violence.”[82]
Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign announcement has been criticized for its dehumanizing rhetoric about Mexican immigrants with his comments that, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with [them]. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”[83][84]
On February 1, 2016, in response to an individual throwing two tomatoes at Trump, he told his rally at Cedar Rapids, Iowa that should a similar incident happen, the audience should, “knock the crap out of ’em, would you?”[85][86]
On February 23, 2016, after a heckler was removed from one of his rallies at Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump told the audience that, “I’d like to punch him in the face, I tell you.”[87]
In 2016, stochastic terrorism was an “obscure” academic term according to professor David S. Cohen.[88] During an August 9, 2016, campaign rally, then-candidate Donald Trump remarked, “If [Hillary Clinton] gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know.” These comments were widely condemned as instigating violence, and described by Cohen as “stochastic terrorism”, further popularizing the term.[89][88][90]
In response to the growing threat of ISIS, Trump called for the targeted killing of terrorists’ family members, which drew near-unanimous condemnation.[91][92][93]
On July 28, 2017, while giving a speech to police officers, Trump said “don’t be too nice” when arresting suspects.[94] His remarks were criticized by NYPD commissioner James O’Neill.[95]
On February 5, 2018, Trump implied that Democrats that did not applaud him during his State of the Union address may have committed “treason”.[96] His comment was criticized by Senator Dick Durbin.[97]
In May 2019, during a Trump campaign rally, an audience member suggested shooting illegal migrants crossing the border, to which Trump responded with a joke, saying, “only in the Panhandle you can get away with that”.[98][99][100][101]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Trump routinely used the phrases “China virus” and “Kung flu”, which were scrutinized due to their perceived insensitivity to the rising hate crimes against Asian Americans.[102][103] Trump frequently criticized Antifa and BLM protestors in language that some found concerning.[104][105] Trump also repeatedly criticized election methods (especially mail-in voting) in certain states, which led to election workers being harassed.[106] Assaults and threats against election workers by supporters of Trump increased significantly after the election inspired by his false claims that the election was stolen, which Reuters called “a campaign of intimidation that is stressing the foundation of American democracy”.[107] Reuters explicitly labeled some of the death threats as inspired by Donald Trump.[108] The Justice Department has reviewed over 2000 threats made to election workers, various jurisdictions have brought charges against some of those threatening election workers and 12 states have strengthened laws protecting election workers.[109][110]
On May 30, 2020, ABC News published a story that found 54 instances of violence, alleged assaults and threats where Trump was explicitly invoked in court records or other documents, with 41 echoing Trump and 13 in defiance to Trump.[111] On January 9, 2021, Vox published “a comprehensive timeline of Trump encouraging hate groups and political violence”.[112]
Trump’s 2024 campaign has been noted for using increasingly violent rhetoric against his political enemies.[25][113][114][115] Trump has attacked the witnesses, judges, juries, and families of individuals involved in his criminal trials.[116][117][118] As with his previous presidential campaigns,[119][120][121] Trump’s 2024 campaign has regularly espoused anti-immigrant nativist[122]fearmongering,[a] racial stereotypes,[122] and dehumanized immigrants.[132][133][134][25][113][114] Trump’s anti-immigration tone has grown harsher compared to his previous time as president.[135] Several of Trump’s statements and actions have been accused of echoing Nazi rhetoric, far-right ideology, antisemitism, and white supremacy.[136][137] According to The New York Times in 2023, scholars are undecided about whether Trump’s “rhetorical turn into more fascist-sounding territory is just his latest public provocation of the left, an evolution in his beliefs, or the dropping of a veil”. It also reported that some experts concluded that Trump “exhibits traits similar to current strongmen such as Viktor Orbán of Hungary or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey”.[138] Trump’s harsher rhetoric against his political enemies has been described by historians and scholars as populist, authoritarian, fascist,[b] and unlike anything a political candidate has ever said in American history.[139][135] In the 20 rallies since Trump’s debate with Kamala Harris, Politico found his rhetoric, especially around immigrants, getting darker, citing experts who found it strongly echoed authoritarian and Nazi ideology.[147] He suggested former General Mark Milley be executed and accused him of disloyalty.[57]
Trump’s campaign statements were connected to an embrace of right-wing extremism.[59][136][148] He proclaimed that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” and had “bad genes,” which, according to some commentators, strikingly resembled Hitler and white supremacists‘ racial hygiene rhetoric.[114][149][150] On Veterans Day 2023, he called some of his political opponents “vermin,” which also seemed to echo Hitler and Benito Mussolini‘s language.[115][151][152] Trump demonized his political opponents; Democrats were labelled as “evil” and “demonic”,[153][154] and Harris as “the Antichrist“.[155] Trump labelled illegal immigrants as subhuman:[156] “vile animals”,[157] “savages”,[158] “not human”,[156] “not people”,[159] “stone-cold killers”,[130] “monsters”,[130] and “predators”.[158] At rallies, the former President stated that they will “walk in your kitchen, they’ll cut your throat”,[157] and “grab young girls and slice them up right in front of their parents”.[158] On multiple occasions, Trump and Republicans promoted the conspiracy that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were looting and eating people’s pets.[158][160] As a result of their efforts, dozens of bomb threats emerged targeting Springfield schools, hospitals, public buildings, and businesses.[161]
Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. I don’t need international law. I’m not looking to hurt people.
New York Times White House corrspondents wrote that “Mr. Trump’s assessment … was the most blunt acknowledgment yet of his worldview. At its core is the concept that national strength, rather than laws, treaties and conventions, should be the deciding factor as powers collide.”[162]
Fact-checkers from The Washington Post[180] (top, monthly), the Toronto Star,[181] and CNN[182][183] (bottom, weekly) compiled data on “false or misleading claims” (orange) and “false claims” (blue), respectively. The peaks corresponded in late 2018 to the midterm elections, in late 2019 to his impeachment inquiry, and in late 2020 to the presidential election. The Post reported 30,573 false or misleading claims in four years,[180] an average of more than 20.9 per day.
Trump escalated use of “rigged election” and “election interference” statements in advance of the 2024 election compared to the previous two elections—the statements described as part of a “heads I win; tails you cheated” rhetorical strategy.[184]
During and after his term as President of the United States, Trump made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims. The Washington Post‘s fact-checkers documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, an average of about 21 per day.[180][185][186][187] The Toronto Star tallied 5,276 false claims from January 2017 to June 2019, an average of 6.1 per day.[181] Commentators and fact-checkers have described the scale of Trump’s mendacity as “unprecedented” in American politics,[193] and the consistency of falsehoods a distinctive part of his business and political identities.[194] Scholarly analysis of Trump’s tweets found “significant evidence” of an intent to deceive.
By June 2019, after initially resisting, many news organizations began to describe some of his falsehoods as “lies”.[195]The Washington Post said his frequent repetition of claims he knew to be false amounted to a campaign based on disinformation.[196] Trump campaign CEO and presidency chief strategist Steve Bannon said that the press, rather than Democrats, was Trump’s primary adversary and “the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit”.[197][198]
On June 8, 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump on one count of making “false statements and representations”, specifically by hiding subpoenaed classified documents from his own attorney who was trying to find and return them to the government.[199] In August 2023, 21 of Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election were listed in his Washington, D.C. indictment,[200] while 27 were listed in his Georgia indictment.[201]
In what Philip Rucker describes as “an apparent nod” to Trump, former FBI Director James Comey reflects on “the psychology of liars”. Comey recalls being a prosecutor against the Mafia, his time in the Trump administration, and the loyalty pledge he was asked to make but refused:
“The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and above the truth…. [Liars] lose the ability to distinguish between what’s true and what’s not”, Comey writes. “They surround themselves with other liars…. Perks and access are given to those willing to lie and tolerate lies. This creates a culture, which becomes an entire way of life.”[202]
A 2024 New Republic article examined the relationship between lies Trump tells and his approval among voters, suggesting it has a significant impact on his support.[203]
At the beginning of early voting, NPR described Trump as using darker rhetoric including escalating insults, threats and lies.[204]
Incorrectly attributed quotes
Trump’s rhetoric has been repeated and echoed extensively on social media by both Trump supporters and Trump opponents. Due to the limitations of some platforms, such as the 100 character limit on Twitter, now known as X, Trump quotes often lack context. In rare instances, quotes that could credibly be attributed to Trump did not actually originate from Trump himself.[205]
If you haven’t already, take the first step and pledge to take collective action with us on May Day. There are many ways to get involved, from attending an action to fully embracing the call of “no work, no school, no shopping.”
Join a May Day event this Friday. Across the country, people are walking out of school and work to wield our power as workers, consumers, and students. Don’t see an event near you yet or have another idea?Sign up to host your own. You can use this Host Toolkit as a helpful guide.
Some pre-primary shenanigans are afoot, and the culprit appears to be someone linked to state Senator Scott Wiener and/or his campaign, though no one has yet taken responsibility.
A small van emblazoned with the message “Saikat lives in Maryland!” has been seen parked around San Francisco, trolling House candidate Saikat Chakrabarti over a home that he purchased in Maryland in 2018, and declared his primary residence.
And the Chronicle reports today that the van appears to be registered to Conor Johnston, the former aide to Mayor London Breed and longtime local political prankster. Johnston has not taken responsibility for the van, but the stunt makes perfect sense, given Johnston’s longstanding connection to Scott Wiener, who is running against Chakrabarti.
Also, this is a replay of a very similar negative-campaigning effort by Johnston when Daniel Lurie was running against Breed in 2024. As was widely reported that year, Johnston was behind the “Malibu Dan” nickname for Lurie, which was similarly meant to accuse him of carpetbagging and calling out the $15.5 million home Lurie purchased in Malibu’s Point Dume in 2021.
(As a reward for his efforts and his loyalty, Johnston was rumored to be among the potential appointees to the Board of Supervisors to fill Catherine Stefani’s seat, but that instead went to Stephen Sherrill, possibly as a favor to Michael Bloomberg, for whom Sherrill formerly worked and who seems to have been a benefactor of Breed’s.)
The Chronicle notes that Wiener and a super-PAC that is backing him, called Abundant Future, have previously accused Chakrabarti of carpetbagging in his effort to swoop in and run for Nancy Pelosi’s House seat.
Neither Wiener nor the PAC have commented on the provocative van.
As the Chronicle reports, Chakrabarti has denied living outside of San Francisco, and has insisted that he never lived in the Maryland home, which he says he purchased for his parents.
“This city is home. It’s been home for a long time,” Chakrabarti told the paper in an interview. “Like most San Franciscans, I’m not part of the local political establishment. But I’ve also had the opportunity to work in federal politics.”
Those federal policies include the proposed Green New Deal, which Chakrabarti reportedly had a hand in crafting, while working as an aide to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And more damage has likely been done to Chakrabarti’s campaign over the recent kerfuffle caused by AOC declining — twice — to publicly endorse him, when asked by a reporter if she would do so.
Pelosi, also, has held back from endorsing a candidate ahead of the primary, perhaps in deference to the labor unions that are backing the third major candidate in the race, SF Supervisor Connie Chan. But Pelosi made an appearance last week at a Chan fundraiser, so there’s that.
The anti-Saikat van has been seen parked in multiple parts of the city, including Twin Peaks and outside Chakrabarti’s own campaign headquarters, per the Chronicle.
Chakrabarti has reportedly spent $5 million, mostly of his own money, on his campaign, which has included many television and online ads. And that has helped him land a seemingly solid second place in recent polling. The most recent poll that was not sponsored by Chakrabarti himself, from pollster GQR, has Wiener in the lead at 44%, Chakrabarti at 26%, and Chan at 11%.
US Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) speaks during a press conference on March 26, 2026.
(Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
“We need to fight against Trump, but we need to do more than that and fight against the big corporations that are screwing you over,” says the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a message on Wednesday to corporations that are hiking prices on American consumers at the gas pump, the grocery store, the medicine counter, and elsewhere: “We’re going to come after you.”
In an interview with Common Dreams shortly after the CPC unveiled its New Affordability Agenda, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said he believes American voters across the political spectrum are hungry for a concrete policy platform that takes aim at the corporate forces driving price increases across the economy, from the for-profit utility companies raking in huge profits off the backs of struggling families to oil titans reaping massive windfall gains thanks to war-driven oil price surges.
“Look, I smell blood in the water,” Casar said of the current political moment, marked by rising public anger against corporate price gouging that’s fueling the nation’s cost-of-living crisis.
“Let’s take this opportunity to finally build a new consensus within the Democratic Party that we should be uninvited from those lobbyist dinners and instead do what the voters are asking us to do,” added Casar, who is partnering with Rep. Josh Riley (D-NY)—a swing-seat representative and member of the centrist New Democrat Coalition—on a new bill to crack down on utility giants’ price increases.
That’s just one element of the CPC’s new 10-plank agenda, which aims to unify Democrats behind a set of popular policy demands ahead of the 2026 midterms. The agenda includes legislation to challenge the pharmaceutical industry’s monopoly control over medicine production, confront price-fixing schemes by large grocery chains, profiteering by oil giants, and prohibit unlimited election spending by corporate groups and billionaires hell-bent on maintaining the status quo that enriched them.
“I welcome their hatred,” Casar, in a nod to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous line, said of corporations and their allies standing in the way of the affordability platform.
“In my lifetime,” Casar continued, “a populist anti-corporate message has not been the priority of most of the Democratic Party, and this has to be our chance to change it, because the past has failed us. And that’s why we have this new agenda.”
Casar stressed that the 10th and final plank of the New Affordability Agenda—“Getting Big Money Out of Politics”—is critical because “corporations being able to buy politicians and buy elections is a huge driver of what’s made things more expensive.”
The plank calls for passage of Rep. Summer Lee’s Abolish Super PACs Act, which would cap contributions to super PACs at $5,000 per calendar year. Super PACs, an outgrowth of the Supreme Court’s notorious Citizens United decision, can currently raise and spend unlimited sums on political campaigns, giving them massive sway over elections.
Casar said Lee’s bill would effectively render super PACs “useless, and no different from any other PAC.”
“There are going to be a lot of corporate interests who just want Democrats to say the word ‘affordability,’ but not do much about it. And we have to recognize it’s been many of those corporate interests that have gotten us into the problem here in the first place,” Casar told Common Dreams. “We’ve got to have a plan that wins over the voters, because I would rather have the voters than the money.”
“This is our chance to move the party. We can’t wait until we’re in the majority to start taking on these interests.”
The bills that make up the CPC’s agenda stand no realistic chance of passage as long as Republicans control at least one chamber of Congress or the presidency. This is true despite the popularity of the progressive platform among voters across the ideological spectrum—including among those who backed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
New polling by Data for Progress shows that every plank of the New Affordability Agenda won “majority support from at least 3 in 5 voters.” Among Trump voters, the CPC’s proposals to guarantee at least two weeks of paid vacation to all full-time workers and combat price hikes by for-profit utility companies enjoy at least 75% support.
The broad appeal of the policy agenda makes sense, said Casar, given that much of it grew out of “progressives doing town halls in Republican-controlled districts where voters say that they’re already sick and tired of Trump’s lies, but they want to know whether the Democratic Party’s really going to fight for them.”
“We need to fight against Trump, but we need to do more than that and fight against the big corporations that are screwing you over,” said Casar. “Trump voters and progressive voters want to see us crack down on the utility companies that are jacking up your bills. They want to see us crack down on Big Pharma, which is driving up the cost of prescription drugs. And so we’re using this agenda to say that Democrats have to get away from big donors and fancy parties and start doing something to take on the billionaires and corporations who are ripping people off.”
The New Affordability Agenda is already facing some opposition with entrenched elements of the Democratic establishment, such as the corporate-funded centrist think tank Third Way. Jim Kessler, the group’s executive vice president for policy, told The New York Times that “there’s obvious things to do on affordability that they ducked,” such as repealing Trump’s far-reaching tariffs. (Casar responded that “of course progressives have been for getting rid of” Trump’s “reckless” tariffs.)
The Times reported that Kessler also claimed the CPC agenda was missing “more ambitious changes necessary to reduce costs, such as overhauling regulations.”
“I understand that corporate funded think tanks have to try to say something negative here,” Casar replied, “but [Kessler] didn’t sound like he opposed anything in the agenda.”
The criticism from Third Way underscores another obstacle in the way of enacting the New Affordability Agenda, even if Republicans are swept from power: corporate-friendly congressional Democrats.
Asked if the CPC agenda has garnered support from the upper ranks of the Democratic Party, Casar said he is “talking to leadership and rank-and-file members about changing not just our message, but also our priorities as a party.”
“This is our chance to move the party. We can’t wait until we’re in the majority to start taking on these interests,” said Casar. “We have to organize across the party to get all kinds of Democrats onto these bills. We have to campaign on these ideas and then push to get them on the House floor and passed next year under a Democratic majority.”
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Our boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as “israel”, pointing lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons ordering participants to the front of the boats and to get on their hands and knees.
Boat communications are being jammed and an SOS was issued.
Netanyahu’s war machine has killed tens of thousands of civilians across Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. The company fueling it is a household name — and most people have no idea.
Amazon’s cloud contract with Israel is powering the surveillance systems that build AI kill lists — facilitating deadly airstrikes on hospitals and schools. And when shareholders filed a human rights proposal demanding answers, they rejected it.
Amazon’s board meeting is a few weeks away.
2. Roblox: cut ties with any company linked to Peter Thiel!
Join NorCal ICHRP and Malaya Movement on Thursday, April 30th for three one-hour phone barrage sessions! Sessions will start with an orientation and training for participants. No experience needed!
We are calling for our representatives to take action to demand justice for Lyle Prijoles and Kai Sorem, two Filipino-Americans, who were murdered alongside 17 others by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the Toboso massacre in Negros Occidental. Hour-long sessions will start with a 10-minute orientation for all participants. If you can’t join the sessions, please still call your representatives and check out the Advocacy Toolkit: tinyurl.com/Negros19-Advocacy-Toolkit
On April 19-20, 2026, the US-Backed Armed Forces of the Philippines carried out a 12-hour military operation in Negros Occidental that killed 19 people – including human rights organizers, youth activists, journalists, children, and peasant advocates – and displaced 653 residents. This was an undeniable violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. We demand an independent investigation, access to and return of the victims’ remains to their families, an inquiry into US involvement in this massacre, transparency and accountability from the Philippine government and the AFP for the war crimes they committed.
2. Thursday, 9:00am (?),7 of the GG26 who are facing felony conspiracy and false imprisonment charges are headed to trial
Hall of In-Justice 850 Bryant St. SF
Seven of the GG26 who are facing felony conspiracy and false imprisonment charges are headed to trial this Thursday 4/30 in department 22 at 850 Bryant, SF. Trial will then unfold at 400 McAllister, SF at the Civic Center Courthouse in San Francisco. Trial is expected to last 6-8 weeks. Join our signal announcment thread (link in linktree) to stay up to date!
The solidarity site didn’t provide a time for Thursday.
3. Thursday, 6:15pm – 8:15pm, International Hotel: The Struggle for Housing Justice
St. James Church 4620 California St (between 8th & 9th Ave) SF
btw 8th-9th Avenues – Muni #1 California stops on the block.
Doors open at 6:15pm; Program begins at 6:45pm
As we approach International Workers Day, we’re highlighting the historic fight for the International Hotel (I-Hotel).
Come to the WSTA general meeting to hear directly from I-Hotel activists and learn how their struggle continues today amid modern forms of urban renewal like upzoning and YIMBYism.
In 1977, all residents of the hotel were violently evicted after the building was purchased by a multinational corporation. However the tenants, who were predominantly poor migrant Filipino and Chinese workers, organized and led a powerful fight against the eviction and helped to spark the modern housing rights movement that continues to have a lasting impact today.
The I-Hotel was a single-room occupancy hotel located in what was known as Manilatown in San Francisco.
Explicitly racist “urban renewal” policies targeted predominantly communities of color under the guise of removing “blighted” ares of the city. In reality, these efforts reflected a collusion between government and private financial interests, using state power to create vast profit opportunities at the expense of working people.
Filipino migrant workers were the majority of the hotel’s tenants. Forced to migrate due to US and Japanese imperialist plunder of their homelands, they faced further labor exploitation in the US.
But where there is oppression, there is resistance!
In response, tenants organized for their right to housing, building a broad-based mass movement with community organizations across the city that brought together thousands of activists to confront the police on the day of eviction.
2 PM: Singing Resistance Target Action, 1980 Santa Rosa Ave
4 PM: Santa Rosa May Day, South West Park to Julliard Park
Berkeley:
11 AM: Berkeley May Day March, 2300 Ellsworth Way
There are many more actions happening in the Bay for May Day, this is not an exhaustive list! Learn more about the above events at bayresistance.org/may-day-2026 and other find actions across CA at camayday2026.org/.
Saturday, May 2
5. Saturday, 3:30pm – 5:30pm Working class perspectives-consequences of Iran War on the World, Latin America and in U.S
518 Valencia St. (between 16th & 17th Sts) SF
Wheelchair accessible
Public Transportation: 16th Street BART SF MUNI # 22, 49 & 14
You are invited to our working – class perspective on the war in Iran, and its consequences on the world, Latin America and the working class here at home.
We are living through an important moment, and we need to know what we need to do.
Chevron Corporate Station 5500 Telegraph Ave, (Telegraph at 55th) Oakland
Join a monthly demonstration at the Chevron in North Oakland, 5500 Telegraph in Oakland | FIRST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH, 1-3 PM (RAIN CANCELS)
Signs and chants will be provided. Bring your energy and tambourines!
Israel’s genocide machine couldn’t run without power from Chevron. Israel’s war on Gaza and Occupation of Palestine contributes to the climate catastrophe. Chevron supplies light and energy via its operation and co-ownership of two major Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields in the Mediterranean.
Chevron’s extraction activities are funneling millions of dollars in tax revenues to Israeli government coffers, directly fueling Israel’s system of settler colonialism and violence against all Palestinians. In 2022, those revenues amounted to over $462 million.
BDS is a global nonviolent Palestinian led movement, and we demand that Chevron immediately cut its contracts with genocidal Israel, and end its role in climate devastation globally.
Following in the tradition of the anti-apartheid gas station boycotts of the 60s & 70s, Palestinians and allies are building a global movement to hold Chevron accountable for its crimes through a coordinated boycott of Chevron gas stations and products around the world.
On April 27, the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club Political Action Committee (PAC) voted to rescind its endorsement of Betty Yee, who is no longer running for Governor, and to put forward a new recommendation for Xavier Becerra. The Alice Club membership will consider this recommendation on Tuesday, May 5 at 6:00 PM at DECANT Bottle Shop & Bar, 1168 Folsom Street.
All eligible club members are invited to participate in the vote on the PAC’s recommendation for Governor. Your participation helps shape the direction of our club and the candidates we support.
By Ron Kroichick, Staff Writer Updated April 28, 2026 (SFChronicle.com)
Gift Article
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has not been shy about expressing his views on social issues, including politics, and gun violence. Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
As Steve Kerr’s future as Golden State Warriors head coach twists in doubt, one thing remains abundantly clear: Kerr will continue to speak his mind on political issues, no matter the ramifications.
The latest example came when Kerr sat down last week for an interview with the New Yorker. The story posted Sunday on the magazine’s website, amid lingering uncertainty about whether Kerr will return to the Warriors next season — and suggestions his public candor on politics doesn’t always sit well with others in the organization.
Kerr did the interview as a favor to his mom, Ann Kerr, he wrote in a text exchange Monday with the Chronicle. The author of the New Yorker piece, Charles Bethea, wrote a profile of Ann Kerr in 2018.
At one point in the interview, after Steve Kerr praised his dad Malcolm’s intelligence, patience and dignity, Bethea observed, “A different kind of leadership than you see nowadays.”
“I think we’re as weak as we’ve ever been as a country, at least in a long time, because our leadership is so misguided,” he said, without mentioning President Donald Trump by name. “There’s a lack of humility, a lack of dignity, a lack of understanding of the world, a lack of embracing other perspectives. The belligerence.”
Malcolm Kerr was a UCLA professor and Middle East scholar who became president of American University of Beirut. He was assassinated outside his office in January 1984 at age 52. Members of what became Hezbollah (a militant group allied with Iran) claimed responsibility for the killing.
Given Steve Kerr’s interest in politics, and his deeply personal connection to the ongoing Middle East conflict, Bethea then asked him about the war in Lebanon and Iran.
“My dad was killed by Iranian proxies 42 years ago,” Kerr said. “I have no regard for the Iranian regime whatsoever. But the answer does not lie in starting a war and killing innocent people.
“Imagine being a parent of one of the 175 girls who died when their school was bombed. Their loss, their suffering. … How are they going to feel about America? Violence begets violence.”
Kerr spoke to the New Yorker on April 20, three days after his team’s season-ending, play-in tournament loss to Phoenix. In his postgame news conference that night, Kerr expressed uncertainty about his coaching future — his contract runs out this summer — and noted all coaching jobs have an “expiration date,” sounding ready to walk away.
Then, last week, two reports suggested Kerr’s penchant for political commentary has ruffled feathers within the Warriors. ESPN’s Marc Spears, appearing on 95.7 The Game, referenced Kerr speaking out on issues involving social justice, racism and gun violence before adding, “I’ve heard maybe he’s being stifled a little bit in that regard. I’ve heard maybe some people are tired of his voice. … If it’s true people want him to be a little more quiet, I’m sure that might not sit too well with him.”
Later in the week, the Athletic’s Nick Friedell cited league and team sources as saying, “Kerr’s desire to speak candidly on social and political issues has at times caused internal frustration.”
Kerr declined the Chronicle’s interview request Monday. A Warriors spokesperson said owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy wouldn’t be available until after Kerr’s situation is resolved.
Later in the New Yorker interview, while reflecting on his blunt criticism of Trump after he was first elected president in 2016 (including calling him a “buffoon”), Kerr acknowledged he needed to soften his tone given his role as the public voice of the Warriors.
“I was so disgusted I didn’t hold back,” he said of his ’16 rant. “I’ve learned I need to be better in terms of representing our organization in a way that I could still let my feelings be known but not get too personal. I’m representing a large group of people.”
Kerr has long railed against gun violence, including a May 2022 news conference hours after the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers. He slammed U.S. senators for not voting on legislation calling for universal background checks.
More recently, in January, Kerr criticized Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials for their role in the killing of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good. Kerr condemned Good’s shooting by an ICE agent, saying, “It’s shameful we can have law enforcement officers who commit murder and seemingly get away with it.”
About two weeks later, the Warriors were in Minneapolis when Alex Pretti, one of thousands of protesters of the government’s immigration policy, was killed by Department of Homeland Security officials. Kerr expressed his sympathy, then eventually waded into the issue of immigration reform.
“We’re really hopeful the protests here and nationwide will lead to a much better solution for immigration,” Kerr said. “It’s not like they’re rooting out violent criminals. They’re taking 5-year-old kindergartners, U.S. citizens, and detaining people. Immigration is a problem that needs to be addressed by Congress, legislatively, not by military force in the streets pulling people from their homes.”
Later that week, Kerr acknowledged he “misspoke,” knew ICE was arresting criminals and apologized for the comment. He repeated his criticism of the government for detaining people who “should not be detained” and the manner in which it was apprehending people.
Among other notable quotes in Kerr’s interview with the New Yorker:
• On the divisiveness in the U.S., which he said was happening before Trump: “He definitely has taken advantage of that to gain and consolidate power, and he’s using it to drive a wedge between all of us. He’s not the only one who’s done that, but he’s the president. He’s got the most power. But calling the president a buffoon, I kind of regret that even though I felt it in my heart.”
• On whether he regrets not speaking out when the NBA reprimanded then-Rockets general manager Daryl Morey for a tweet supporting anti-government protesters in Hong Kong: “Yeah. I was wrong. We had a lot of players on our team (who) were doing business in China. A lot of our players would go there in the offseason and the NBA had this huge relationship with China. … I didn’t handle it well. I was trying to walk the company line and not make the NBA mad.”
• On the oft-discussed possibility he could pursue public office after his coaching career: “I don’t have any desire to go into politics. I love basketball. This is my world. All of my friends and my people are in this world. And whether I keep coaching the Warriors or not, I imagine I’ll be involved in basketball.”
That Kerr agreed to the New Yorker interview — his only public comments since the April 17 news conference in Phoenix — shouldn’t come as a surprise. Ann Kerr always has had an affinity for the magazine.
In October 2024, during a Chronicle interview for a profile of his mom, Steve Kerr feigned anger about Ann (instead of him or one of his brothers) joining his dad for UCLA-USC football games when Steve was a kid. He recalled how she loved the atmosphere of the big college football rivalry — and how she typically brought a copy of the New Yorker with her.
Senior sports enterprise reporter Ron Kroichick has worked at the San Francisco Chronicle since 1995. Kroichick writes about the Warriors during the NBA season, and various other topics — from the 49ers and major-league baseball to college football and basketball — the rest of the year. He’s also the Chronicle’s golf columnist, covering the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and all major championships in Northern California.
Kroichick has earned numerous writing awards, including first-place Sports Feature recognition from the San Francisco Press Club for his 2024 piece on UCLA faculty member Ann Kerr, the mom of Warriors coach Steve Kerr. Kroichick also teamed with Lance Williams to land top-10 honors in Investigative Reporting (from the Associated Press Sports Editors), for their coverage of the 49ers’ contentious relationship with the city of Santa Clara.
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Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
Big news: Our Pride Breakfast speaker lineup is coming together. We’re honored to welcome Xavier Becerra, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, former California Attorney General, and the Democratic nominee for Governor of California, as a keynote speaker at the 29th Annual Alice Pride Breakfast. Throughout his career,... Continue reading →
This Sunday’s Town Hall: Announcing This Week’s Progressive Town Hall: Every Sunday at 4pm ET/1pm PT RSVP HERE Join PDA activists online from across the country to discuss the importance of progressives reclaiming the American story from the MAGA right, an issue of heightened importance as we’re now within one... Continue reading →
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
We protest Heritage Foundation EVERY MONDAY (Join us!!!!) By admin | September 2, 2025 | Uncategorized Cliff Cash Comedy Premiered Jul 26, 2025 Every Monday at The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza Every Friday at Fox News D.C. 400 N. Capitol St. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza We are... Continue reading →
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism Virtual Event · Hosted by No Kings Time Wednesdays 8 – 9:30pm EDT Location Virtual event Join from anywhere About this event Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations,... Continue reading →
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
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