The #Resistance (also known as the Resistance) is an American liberal and left-wing political movement that protests the first and second presidencies of Donald Trump. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The #Resistance (also known as the Resistance) is an American liberal and left-wing political movement that protests the first and second presidencies of Donald Trump. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Commencing on an unknown date shortly after the presidential election in November 2016, it initially included Democrats on Twitter and Facebook before expanding to include independents and Republicans who opposed Trump on various social networking services. [6] Members have been described as prolific in their use of Twitter, especially the #Resist hashtag and, early on, #TheResistance. [5] [7] These have been among the most consistent hashtags that have been used in the anti-Trump movement on social media. [8]
Generally, the #Resistance symbolizes solidarity against Donald Trump. Its hashtags have also been used alongside other policy-specific hashtags, targeting marginalized groups such as minorities and women. Though its height of popularity occurred during the days following Trump's first inauguration, it resurfaced during times of political controversy and animosity. [9] For instance, there was a notable spike in usage throughout the week of Trump's response to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. [9] Moreover, in the three days following the announcement of the initial Muslim ban in late January, #Resist appeared in over 2.5 million tweets. [10] Several prominent celebrities have used the hashtag to show opposition to Trump, including Shailene Woodley, Zendaya, Sia, Rosie O'Donnell, Cher, Olivia Wilde, and Sophia Bush. [10] The movement also resurged during and after Trump's successful campaign in the 2024 presidential election. [5]
Consumer activism is a process by which activists seek to influence the way in which goods or services are produced or delivered. Kozinets and Handelman define it as any social movement that uses society's drive for consumption to the detriment of business interests. For Eleftheria Lekakis, author of Consumer Activism: Promotional Culture and Resistance, it includes a variety of consumer practices that range from boycotting and ‘buycotting’ to alternative economic practices, lobbying businesses or governments, practising minimal or mindful consumption, or addressing the complicity of advertising in climate change. Consumer activism includes both activism on behalf of consumers for consumer protection and activism by consumers themselves. Consumerism is made up of the behaviors, institutions, and ideologies created from the interaction between people and the materials and services they consume. Consumer activism has several aims:
A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash symbol, #. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as X or Tumblr as a form of user-generated tagging that enables cross-referencing of content by topic or theme. For example, a search within Instagram for the hashtag #bluesky returns all posts that have been tagged with that term. After the initial hash symbol, a hashtag may include letters, numerals or other punctuation.
Black Twitter is an internet community largely consisting of the Black diaspora of users in the United States and other nations on Twitter, focused on issues of interest to the black community. Feminista Jones described it in Salon as "a collective of active, primarily African-American Twitter users who have created a virtual community proving adept at bringing about a wide range of sociopolitical changes." A similar Black Twitter community arose in South Africa in the early 2010s.
Hashtag activism refers to the use of social media hashtags for Internet activism. The hashtag has become one of the many ways that social media contributes to civic engagement and social movements. The use of the hashtag on social media provides users with an opportunity to share information and opinions about social issues in a way that others (followers) can interact and engage as part of a larger conversation with the potential to create change. The hashtag itself consists of a word or phrase that is connected to a social or political issue, and fosters a place where discourse can occur. Social media provides an important platform for historically marginalized populations. Through the use of hashtags these groups are able to communicate, mobilize, and advocate for issues less visible to the mainstream.
"Make America Great Again" is an American political slogan and political movement most recently popularized by Donald Trump during his successful presidential campaigns in 2016 and in 2024. "MAGA" is also used to refer to Trump's political base, or to an individual or group of individuals from within that base. The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants in the arts, entertainment and politics, being used by both supporters and opponents of Trump's presidency. Originally used by Ronald Reagan as a campaign slogan in his 1980 presidential campaign, it has since been described as a loaded phrase. Multiple scholars, journalists, and commentators have called the slogan racist, regarding it as dog-whistle politics and coded language.
The alt-right is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity and establishing a presence in other countries during the mid-2010s, and has been declining since 2017. The term is ill-defined and has been used in different ways by academics, journalists, media commentators, and alt-right members themselves.
Trumpism is a political movement in the United States that comprises the political ideologies associated with Donald Trump and his political base. It incorporates ideologies such as right-wing populism, right-wing antiglobalism, national conservatism and neo-nationalism, and features significant illiberal and authoritarian beliefs. Trumpists and Trumpians are terms that refer to individuals exhibiting its characteristics. There is significant academic debate over the prevalence of neo-fascist elements of Trumpism.
Protests against Donald Trump have occurred in the United States and internationally since his entry into the 2016 presidential campaign. Protests have expressed opposition to Trump's campaign rhetoric, his electoral win, his first inauguration, his alleged history of sexual misconduct and various presidential actions, most notably his travel ban in 2017 and aggressive family separation policy in 2018. Some protests have taken the form of walk-outs, business closures, and petitions as well as rallies, demonstrations, and marches. While most protests have been peaceful, actionable conduct such as vandalism and assaults on Trump supporters has occurred. Some protesters have been criminally charged with rioting. The largest organized protest against Trump was the day after his first inauguration; millions protested on January 21, 2017, during the Women's March, with each individual city's protest taken into consideration, makes it the largest single-day protest in the history of the United States.
The Never Trump movement is an ongoing conservative movement that opposes Trumpism and U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. It began as an effort on the part of a group of Republicans and other prominent conservatives to prevent Republican front-runner Trump from obtaining the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination.
Social media played an important role in shaping the course of events surrounding the 2016 United States presidential election. It facilitated greater voter interaction with the political climate; unlike traditional media, social media gave people the ability to create, comment on, and share content related to the election.
The Women's March was a worldwide protest on January 21, 2017, the day after the first inauguration of Donald Trump as the president of the United States. It was prompted by Trump's policy positions and rhetoric, which were and are seen as misogynistic and representative as a threat to the rights of women. It was at the time the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, being surpassed 3 years later by the George Floyd protests. The goal of the annual marches is to advocate legislation and policies regarding human rights and other issues, including women's rights, immigration reform, healthcare reform, disability justice, reproductive rights, the environment, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, freedom of religion, workers' rights and tolerance. According to organizers, the goal was to "send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights".
Indivisible is a progressive movement and organization in the United States initiated in 2016 as a reaction to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. The movement's organizational leadership includes the Indivisible Project, Indivisible Civics, and Indivisible Action. The movement began with the online publication of a handbook written by Congressional staffers with suggestions for peacefully but effectively resisting the move to the right in the executive branch of the United States government under the Trump administration that was widely anticipated and feared by progressives. According to Peter Dreier, the goal of Indivisible is to "save American democracy" and "resume the project of creating a humane America that is more like social democracy than corporate plutocracy."
"Nasty woman" was a phrase used by 2016 US presidential candidate Donald Trump to refer to opponent Hillary Clinton during the third presidential debate. The phrase made worldwide news, became a viral call for some female voters, and has also launched a feminist movement by the same name.
Covfefe is a word, widely presumed to be a typographical error, that Donald Trump used in a viral tweet when he was in his first term as President of the United States. It quickly became an Internet meme.
Donald Trump's use of social media attracted attention worldwide since he joined Twitter in May 2009. Over nearly twelve years, Trump tweeted around 57,000 times, including about 8,000 times during the 2016 election campaign and over 25,000 times during his presidency. The White House said the tweets should be considered official statements. When Twitter banned Trump from the platform in January 2021 during the final days of his term, his handle @realDonaldTrump had over 88.9 million followers. On November 19, 2022, Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, reinstated his account, although Trump had stated he would not use it in favor of his own social media platform, Truth Social. The first tweet since 2021 was made in August 2023 about his mugshot from Fulton County Jail, but the account remained inactive until he tweeted again in August 2024.
Anthime Joseph "Tim" Gionet, more commonly known as Baked Alaska, is an American far-right media personality and neo-Nazi, who gained notoriety through his advocacy on behalf of alt-right and white supremacist ideology. He has also used the alias Tim Treadstone.
James Orien Allsup is an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and former political commentator and podcaster.
Stan Twitter is a community of Twitter users who post opinions on celebrities, music, TV shows, movies, video games, social media, and other topics. It is known for using particular terminology and for incidents of harassment. Discussions in Stan Twitter spaces often revolve around public figures — primarily those in the entertainment industry. Stan Twitter can also be found to support political views.
Mindy Finn is an American digital media expert, political and technology consultant, and entrepreneur. She worked as a digital strategist for the Republican Party, most notably for George W. Bush and Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008, respectively, and became the vice presidential candidate for Evan McMullin's 2016 presidential campaign. She co-founded the organizations Stand Up Republic and Empowered Women, and works to make elections more inclusive.
2017, when a loose coalition of voters, elected officials, and former TV game show contestants joined together with the singular goal of resisting a newly inaugurated president, Donald Trump, whom they viewed as an existential threat to democracy and the republic itself. #TheResistance, as it was known on the website then called Twitter, didn't materialize in time to stop Trump's first election, but it had solidified its place in the culture by the time he took office