June 14, 2025: The Day We Sent Word to Donald Trump That He Is Finished.
His goons and henchmen and jesters and fools got the message, too. Don't think they didn't.
It’s the morning after the greatest outpouring of dissent this country has ever seen against a sitting president, and I’m struggling to find words that match my feelings right now.
I laid in bed last night—middle of the night, as usual—and for once I didn’t wake up thinking about how cruel and stupid the man who is the President of the United States so obviously is, or how in hell he got to this place where he holds so much power over the rest of us—my usual thoughts in the middle of the night. Instead, for the first time since January 20, when Donald Trump swore to uphold the laws, to preserve and protect, without putting his hand on a bible or any other sacred vessel, I saw victory for us and defeat for him. And it feels real this time.
I’ve been energized before, only to feel the harsh sting of defeat—and too often it is Trump who brings me down. I hate that. If he were a worthy opponent, I might at least accept that I had no chance to win. But he isn’t. He’s a terrible human being, a stupid man, a man-child with no heart at all, with no real guts, who became the leader of my country, not through any real qualifications or abilities, but through sheer ruthless audacity and the realization—not from his feeble brain alone but from the wealthy and powerful instigators hoping just such a mindless, malleable creature would come along to get them to the threshold of power—that bold, unequivocal hate might just be the ticket to the White House.
He got where he is because half the country—another reason for nightmares—took to him like wasps to vinegar. Trump didn’t train them in his ways; the MAGA crowd trained him in theirs. He was floundering in his early days as a candidate in 2016 until he saw that hate was the key to victory for him. He knew that ‘otherness’ would work; he’d built his popularity on the crazy-like-a-fox insistence that Barack Obama wasn’t a real American. But sheer hatred? That was different. And right up his alley. He was good at hating.
He latched on. And even he must have been surprised at how easy it was to build up hatred toward those millions of people who didn’t fit the MAGA mold. Others with power and money nudged them all along. Little by little, they gained and we lost, and the impact was stunning. How could we lose? We had laws. We had the Constitution. We had morals and ethics and decency.
While we pondered that, they kept on. They removed our safety nets, they took over our media, they fired our brightest and best, they used the most blatant lies to change hearts and minds. They learned from other regimes, both distant and current, how to use propaganda to make what they were doing seem normal, and because it seemed to work so well, they were sure with a little strong-arming we would all eventually go along.
That’s where we are right now.
But the fight hasn’t gone out of us. Not by a long shot. We proved that much at the thousands of NO KING rallies across the country and around the world on June 14—our Flag Day. Our beautiful American flag day. We are Americans, first and always. And this is not a government Americans will ever tolerate.
Did they get the message? Damn right they did. Will they admit it? Never in a million years. Their method is disinformation. What you see right in front of you is not what you see. THIS OVER HERE is what you really see.
That grew old long ago. Nobody in our crowd ever believed it, and we said so. Over and over again. Loud and clear. But without enough clout, without responsible media to back us up, without enough spines in Congress or in the courts to put an end to it, we’ve taken two steps back for every step forward. Until now.
Now we’re here, and it’s up to us, and we’ve proven we can do the job. If marches and rallies are what it takes, bring ‘em on. We can do it again and again and again and again. Every weekend if we need to.
Because we know no good American would ever allow this to happen. The Trump regime has only been in office for a few months and the damage they’ve done is unconscionable. It’s unforgivable. We’ll never back down. We’ll never let them get away with it. They will have to pay for what they’ve done.
And now they know it. Without a doubt, they know it.
Images from across the country, courtesy of Seth Abramson at Proof:
There are no paywalls or closed comments or special gifts but becoming a paying member here at Constant Commoner gives me some oomph and helps to keep it going. You can join the paying ranks (Thank you, paying ranks!) through Substack below, or you can support my work by tipping any amount at any time at Ko-Fi or at Paypal. Thank you.
We have awakened a slumbering force. Let’s finish the task; there’s more to do!
Your summation of the way Trump came to power is as concise and clear as any I’ve read. We have momentum and power does belong to the people, so I too feel so encouraged.