A staggering 36,000 people protested Donald Trump’s administration in Los Angeles Saturday, at the largest rally to date of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Fighting Oligarchy” tour
In fiery remarks, the New Yorker laid into the president, accusing him of “manipulating the markets” for his billionaire friends with his “tariff shuffle” this week, in which Trump pulled a dramatic U-turn on the implementation of his trade war against U.S. commercial partners and allies.
Taking to the stage at Gloria Molina Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles, Sanders noted that the crowd went back half a mile, before saying that Musk had said most of the people attending these rallies were paid organizers. He asked the crowd: “Anybody here get paid to come today?”
The question was met with a resounding: “No!”
Sanders said that Trump was often “very envious of sizes” and claimed that only two or three thousand people show up to his rallies and that, speaking in the third person, Bernie “can’t compete with Trump.”
“He lied,” said the senator. “I invite him to come to LA, tell the people here why you think it’s a great idea to cut Medicaid and nutrition and healthcare so you can give tax breaks to billionaires.”
Continuing, Sanders said: “Our good friend Elon Musk sent out a tweet and in essence, he said, you know, Bernie Sanders has been talking about the growth of oligarchy year after year after year.”
“Well, Elon, you’re damn right. That’s what I’ve been talking about. The difference is I’m no longer talking about how we’re moving to oligarchy. I’m talking about how we are living today in an oligarchic form of society.”
He added: “Let me tell you something about the oligarchs. They’re very, very religious people. But their religion isn’t based on doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Their religion is based on greed — greed, and more greed.”
Ocasio-Cortez called the current moment “terrifying,” saying: “We are watching our neighbors, students, and friends being fired, targeted, and disappeared.”
After decrying that activists are being detained without charge for exercising their First Amendment rights — specifically highlighting the cases of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk — the New York progressive Democrat railed against stock trading by elected representatives in Congress, before turning specifically to this week’s market turbulence and Trump’s tariffs.
“Let’s be clear: the White House’s tariff shuffle had nothing to do with manufacturing, despite what they claimed. It was about manipulating the markets. It was about hurting retirees and everyday people in the sell-off — so Trump could quietly enrich his friends, who he tipped off to ‘buy the dip’ before reversing it all in the morning,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“Donald Trump is a criminal — convicted on 34 felony counts of fraud. He is lying, and he is manipulating the stock market too. At his best, he enriches himself, the billionaires who back him, and the members of Congress who trade with him. Not you. Not me. Not the people.”
“Oligarchy or Democracy,” she said. “But, we cannot have both.”
Concluding his remarks, Senator Sanders said: “When Trump looks out at this crowd… they pay attention to this stuff, Elon Musk does. You are scaring the hell out of them. Because they know what we know: They are the 1 percent and we are the 99 percent.”
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were joined by fellow Democrat representatives Reps. Ro Khanna, Jimmy Gomez, Pramila Jayapal, and Maxwell Frost, among other elected officials. There were also performances by Neil Young, Maggie Rogers, and Joan Baez.
On a spin through the western states, the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour next travels to Salt Lake City, Utah; Nampa, Idaho; Bakersfield, California; Folsom, California; and Missoula, Montana.
