Protests Rise and Courts Fight Back as Hegseth Pentagon Continues to Crack - Resistance Brief for 24 April 2025
Information, insight, and inspiration for resisting tyranny in America
Welcome!
Welcome to The Resistance Sentinel, a publication dedicated to documenting and amplifying the movement to defend democracy against authoritarian rule. As cracks spread across the regime’s facade, the resistance is rising from every corner—courtrooms, corporations, and city streets. This week, we see the financial toll of collaboration with authoritarianism, the legal system pushing back, and elite voices like Al Gore breaking long-held silences. From Tesla’s tumble to town halls erupting in defiance, the momentum is shifting. And as activists across the globe link arms against tyranny, the message is clear: the resistance is growing, and it's working. Join us in turning awareness into action as we work together toward a more just and democratic future. But first…
Daily Inspiration
In testimony before the E.U. Parliament about Russian disinformation campaigns, Dr. Nina Jankowicz urged the body to “stand firm against another autocracy: The United States of America." Dr. Jankowicz is an expert on disinformation campaigns and online manipulation and has been the target of harassment and threats from the far-right as a result. Her courage to continue speaking out and warning of the dangers we face should be an inspiration to us all.
Resistance Today
Civil Society & Publics
As Trump-aligned CEOs cave to regime pressure or overextend themselves in government roles, their companies are suffering major consumer backlash and brand erosion, particularly among pro-democracy consumers. Tesla’s collapse in profit and market share reflects public revulsion at Elon Musk’s role in dismantling federal institutions, while Target’s foot traffic plunge shows the economic costs of abandoning racial justice under pressure. These developments illustrate the growing financial price of alignment—or perceived alignment—with authoritarian policies and values, providing leverage for nonviolent resistance through consumer pressure and public accountability campaigns.
Key Developments
Tesla profits dropped 71% year-over-year, with Elon Musk blaming protests and defending his continued involvement in Trump’s DOGE program. (NPR)
Tesla’s EU sales plunged 45% in Q1 2025, even as overall electric vehicle registrations rose in the region. (Investopedia)
Musk vowed to press for tariff reductions but admitted Tesla's brand damage was impacting demand. (New York Times)
Target foot traffic declined for the 11th straight week following its rollback of DEI policies, drawing sustained criticism and boycott threats. (Retail Brew)
Al Gore’s fiery condemnation of the Trump regime’s authoritarian tactics—drawing explicit parallels to the rise of Nazi Germany—marks a significant moment in elite resistance rhetoric, breaking longstanding taboos against the historical comparison and affirming the gravity of the threat to democracy. His remarks, echoed by other top Democrats, reinforces the urgency for mobilization and public truth-telling.
Key Developments
Al Gore warned of the Trump regime’s “conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power” and emphasized the regime’s attacks on liberty as unprecedented and likening it to tactics of the Third Reich. (Politico, NBC News)
The legal profession is emerging as a new battleground in civil resistance, as grassroots campaigns and defamation lawsuits push back against Trump’s attempts to co-opt or punish law firms. The targeting of Perkins Coie and compliance deals made by major firms have provoked internal dissent and public condemnation, while Army pilot Jo Ellis’s defamation suit represents a rising wave of legal activism against weaponized disinformation. These developments highlight the law as both a contested terrain and a powerful tool for democratic pushback.
Key Developments
The group Demand Justice launched a national campaign against major law firms that struck deals with Trump’s administration to avoid retaliation. (NBC News)
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell criticized the DOJ’s justifications for executive orders targeting noncompliant firms as “a temper tantrum.” (NBC News)
Transgender Army pilot Jo Ellis filed a defamation suit after being falsely accused online of causing a deadly midair crash in a politically motivated smear campaign. (Military.com)
Anger and confrontation erupted this week at a Republican town hall as Representative Byron Donalds faced backlash over his defense of Elon Musk’s DOGE and attacks on diversity policies, signaling mounting public resistance to authoritarian economic and social reforms. This strong response reveals how public fora can serve as flashpoints for civic dissent and narrative disruption, undermining the regime’s legitimacy and spotlighting the potential of strategic confrontation. In the tradition of successful nonviolent resistance, these town halls expose regime actors to ridicule and backlash, reducing the perceived invincibility of the authoritarian project and sowing divisions among pillars of support.
Key Developments
Representative Byron Donalds was met with boos and public outrage after deflecting a question about DOGE’s oversight and comparing Musk’s agency purges to Obama-era reforms. (New Republic)
Donalds defended Trump’s dismantling of DEI policies, sparking a walkout and verbal clashes with pro-Palestinian constituents. (Independent)
Nearly half the audience left before the town hall ended, with many escorted out by deputies, underscoring the growing grassroots rejection of regime narratives. (Independent)
Environmental protests intensified on Earth Day, with coordinated actions targeting Tesla and billionaire influence over Trump’s climate and economic policies—but the use of vandalism as a tactic risks undermining the legitimacy and strategic discipline of the resistance. While the movement gained greater visibility through mass demonstrations and global solidarity events, the spray-painting of Tesla dealerships by Extinction Rebellion activists could alienate potential allies or trigger harsher repression. As research on civil resistance emphasizes, nonviolent discipline is critical to maintaining broad-based participation and minimizing backlash. Acts of symbolic destruction—even if non-permanent—divert attention from the core injustices and provide regime media with an excuse to delegitimize the broader movement.
Key Developments
Extinction Rebellion activists vandalized Tesla showrooms with anti-Musk graffiti during Earth Day actions, leading to multiple arrests. (euronews, amNY)
Demonstrators linked Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to environmental deregulation and plutocratic influence on climate policy. (amNY)
Broader Earth Day mobilizations, including legal challenges and direct action campaigns, emphasized the existential stakes of climate collapse under Trump. (Common Dreams)
Activist leaders called for mass resistance, with youth groups and NGOs warning that Trump is escalating efforts to revoke nonprofit status for environmental organizations. (Common Dreams)
Thousands marched in NYC and other cities under slogans like “Protect Migrants, Protect the Planet” and “All Out for Earth Day,” linking ecological justice to anti-authoritarian resistance. (Common Dreams)
Bureaucratic & Executive
The Trump regime’s defiance of court orders and reliance on fabricated intelligence to justify mass deportations signals a dangerous consolidation of authoritarian power—but also reveals critical cracks in the regime’s support from the national security and intelligence services. The near-unanimous rejection by U.S. intelligence agencies of Trump’s narrative about a Venezuelan-directed invasion undermines the regime’s propaganda and exposes internal dissent within a vital pillar of authoritarian rule. This is important for civil resistance, as successful nonviolent movements often hinge on eroding loyalty within security institutions. When members of these pillars publicly or institutionally resist regime narratives, it weakens the regime’s ability to justify repression and can catalyze broader defections and legitimacy crises.
Key Developments
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Venezuela is not directing Tren de Aragua, contradicting Trump’s claims and revealing internal resistance within the security apparatus. (Washington Post)
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and DNI Tulsi Gabbard both acknowledged that intelligence agencies do not assess Venezuela as coordinating hostile actions against the U.S. (Washington Post)
Despite a federal judge’s direct order, the regime deported over 130 Venezuelans, prompting contempt proceedings that could pit the judiciary and parts of the bureaucracy against the executive. (Washington Post)
Legal & Judicial
A federal judiciary-led pushback against Trump’s mass deportation campaign has emerged as a significant instance of institutional resistance, especially from a pillar of support crucial to authoritarian rule: the legal system. Two separate rulings by a Trump-appointed judge found that the deportation of Venezuelan asylum seekers violated a legally binding settlement agreement, ordering their return to the U.S. This moment matters for the resistance because it demonstrates the potential for resistance within the judiciary to constrain executive overreach, reinforces the importance of law as a tool for accountability, and suggests fractures within the very institutions the regime relies on to enforce authoritarian directives.
Key Developments
A Trump-appointed judge ruled that deporting a Venezuelan asylum seeker to El Salvador violated a 2024 class action settlement, ordering his return to the U.S. to complete the asylum process. (NBC News)
The judge rejected administration claims that class members forfeited protection due to "enemy alien" status under Trump’s AEA order, calling the deportation a clear breach of contract. (ABC News)
The court explicitly directed the Trump administration to make a good faith request to El Salvador to return the deportee, and barred future removals of other class members pending USCIS adjudication. (NBC News)
A federal court's last-minute injunction blocking the Trump regime's ban on military-provided gender-affirming care represents a crucial victory for the resistance—and a reminder that the judiciary remains a vital pillar of democratic defense. The ruling, issued just hours before the ban was to take effect, prevents immediate harm to transgender service members and underscores the potential of legal institutions to delay authoritarian policy. Resistance to such discriminatory orders draws strength from visible, institutional checks on executive overreach, buying time for continued organizing, litigation, and public mobilization. While the injunction is temporary, it demonstrates that civil resistance strategies, especially legal advocacy, can produce tangible results.
Key Developments
A federal judge halted the Trump administration’s ban on military-provided gender-affirming care just before it was set to take effect, citing constitutional concerns. (Politico)
The order protects transgender troops from immediate loss of care while legal challenges proceed, representing a significant if temporary roadblock to Trump’s broader anti-LGBTQ agenda. (Politico)
Civil rights groups welcomed the decision as a critical safeguard for trans service members and an affirmation of the role of courts in checking authoritarian power. (Politico)
State & Local Governments
A fractured but growing state and local resistance is pushing back against Trump’s authoritarian rule, as governors, attorneys general, and law enforcement officials challenge his legal overreach and narrative control—even as California’s Gavin Newsom wavers and weakens the movement’s needed unity. This matters profoundly because successful civil resistance depends on undermining the regime’s control over all pillars of power—including local government and security institutions. When governors like Pritzker and Healey take bold, coordinated action while law enforcement contradicts regime propaganda, it weakens the regime's monopoly on legitimacy and law, exposing cracks that resistance can widen. At the same time, Newsom’s equivocation and flirtation with far-right figures risks splintering the coalition and dulling the moral clarity that unites effective movements.
Key Developments
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker ordered a state boycott of El Salvador to protest the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Trump’s unconstitutional abuse of the Alien Enemies Act. (NBC News)
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a preemptive lawsuit against Trump’s transgender sports ban, asserting state human rights laws and federal constitutional protections. (CBS News)
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey slammed Trump’s attacks on science and universities as damaging to national competitiveness and beneficial to adversaries like China. (MassLive)
Maryland police stated Kilmar Abrego Garcia was never identified as a gang member, and Idaho authorities arrested right-wing paramilitaries for dragging a woman out of a public meeting. (DC News Now, New York Times)
Governor Gavin Newsom publicly distanced himself from the Democratic Party, gave airtime to far-right disinformation agents, and criticized urgent resistance priorities, drawing condemnation from fellow Democrats. (HuffPost)
International Resistance
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is taking a defiant stand against Trump’s propaganda. Her rejection of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s xenophobic ads signals a growing refusal to serve as an extension of Trump’s domestic fear campaign and reflects a strategic shift from cooperation to selective confrontation. This matters for civil resistance movements because it reveals the potential power of international solidarity and the strategic leverage that even economically dependent states can exert when they align sovereignty with popular national sentiment.
Key Developments
Sheinbaum condemned U.S. ads featuring Kristi Noem as “discriminatory” and vowed to pass legislation banning foreign ideological propaganda from Mexican airwaves. (New York Times)
The ads, part of a DHS campaign calling migrants “rapists” and urging self-deportation, sparked backlash as part of Trump’s broader push for mass expulsions. (New York Times)
Although Sheinbaum previously cooperated with Trump on troop deployments and intelligence sharing, she now draws a red line at ideological interference. (New York Times)
Mexico is launching a “Mexico Embraces You” reintegration initiative to support deported migrants, signaling preparation for a wave of forced returns. (New York Times)
Resistance Tomorrow
Vulnerabilities & Exposures
The Trump regime’s decision to install former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense has unleashed a crisis of competence and confidence at the Pentagon, exposing deep vulnerabilities within one of the most critical pillars of authoritarian power: the military. In direct contradiction to his public crusade to restore “warrior ethos,” Hegseth’s priorities have included installing a taxpayer-funded makeup studio in a Pentagon green room for televised Fox appearances, even as he bungles key operational responsibilities. His reckless handling of classified strike plans on insecure messaging platforms—shared not only with aides but also with his wife and lawyer—shows a stunning disregard for operational security and underscores the personalized, media-centric style of governance that weakens institutional integrity and risks national security.
Key Developments
Pete Hegseth converted a Pentagon green room into a personal makeup studio for TV appearances while neglecting his duty to brief the press or engage in formal oversight. (Military Times)
Despite publicly championing military readiness, Hegseth prioritized optics and used the room primarily for appearances on Fox News. (Independent)
Hegseth had the Signal messaging app installed on his office computer, using it to share sensitive operational details about strikes in Yemen, raising serious legal and security concerns. (Washington Post)
Amid chaos and leaks, Hegseth fired multiple aides and faced public condemnation from military insiders and Republican lawmakers, including calls for his removal. (New York Times)
Trump’s refusal to provide federal disaster relief to Arkansas and West Virginia—even when requested by loyal Republican governors—reveals the dangerous unpredictability and cruelty of authoritarian rule, where loyalty offers no protection and governance is transactional. Despite their political allegiance, Governors Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Patrick Morrisey were forced to grovel publicly after Trump’s FEMA denied crucial aid in the wake of devastating storms and flooding. This abandonment shows that authoritarianism corrodes even the regime’s own support base and undermines the fundamental state capacity to respond to disasters, highlighting the urgent need for broad-based, multi-level resistance to restore functioning governance.
Key Developments
FEMA denied West Virginia’s request for disaster aid following deadly floods, prompting Governor Morrisey to thank Trump anyway—a move mocked even by fellow Republicans. (Splinter)
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeatedly appealed to Trump after FEMA denied relief following catastrophic tornadoes, despite her prior attacks on federal government assistance. (Independent)
The Trump regime’s move to dismantle FEMA and offload disaster response onto the states has led to chaos and uncoordinated recovery efforts, even in red states. (Rolling Stone)
Actions This Week
📹 Join Indivisible’s co-founders for a live online discussion on April 24 at 3PM EST to strategize against Trump’s Medicaid cuts and more. This is your chance to plan, organize, and push back during the congressional recess.
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🌳 On April 25th, activists nationwide are organizing Arbor Day actions to resist Trump’s order opening federal forests to logging. Join the call to plant trees, build community, and fight back with nature.
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✊ On April 29th, take part in a historic day of action with nationwide protests across all 50 states to demand the removal of corrupt politicians and reclaim our democracy. This is your chance to stand up and reverse the damage—together, we are the majority.
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