April 3, 2026, 5:57 p.mApril 3, 2026, 5:57 p.m
Johann Aeschlimann
Is the caudillo lame? The idea running through the newspapers is that the supporters are no longer completely loyal to President Donald Trump, but there are no visible cracks of fatigue in the in-house Trumpist circle. Criticism of the leader is psychiatrized away as a sign of Trump derangement syndrome, and no one ever really believed that the price of gasoline would halve after his enthronement.
What is more important there is unhindered oil production and that the authorities turn a blind eye when the emission filters are removed from the diesel engine. Objections to American aid in the destruction of Gaza are dismissed as anti-Semitism. Anyone who criticizes the long war against Iran is a whiner who doesn’t know how to grit his teeth when things get a little more difficult.
About the author:
A new nuance emerged about the war against Ukraine: Russia should not lose because the main enemy is in China and a weakened Russia is being driven into China’s arms, while a strong Russia is a counterpoint to China…
We weren’t drinking when we had these conversations.
So Camp Trump stands still. The question is whether there is movement on the other side. Two events were observed in New York City over the weekend: on Saturday in Manhattan the No Kings demonstration march from Columbus Circle through Times Square down to 34th Street; on Sunday in the Bronx there was a meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, organized by the Democratic Socialists of America (yup, that exists, and if it continues like this, they will soon be as strong as the German Social Democrats).
No Kings was part of more than 3,000 nationwide protests against Trump’s expansion of presidential power; the Sanders appearance served as a left-wing mobilization for higher taxes on high incomes (Tax the Rich) in the current final phase of budget deliberations in New York State.
No kings
image: johann aeschlimann
Saturday, 2 p.m., corner of Broadway and 57th Street. It smells like reefer, if anything stronger than usual. The temperature is cool but the sun is shining. A mighty procession of people has set in motion, colorfully mixed, old and young, the skin color range in all shades of brown from white to black. A difference from previous No Kings marches, which primarily attracted white people.
A brass band – reminiscent of our old Basel Security Orchestra – intones “John Brown’s Body”, the anthem of the abolitionists in the Civil War. Some unions and political associations march behind broad banners, holding pre-printed slogans in their fists, but the vast majority of marchers are small groups or individuals holding up a forest of homemade posters. No Kings in dozens of variations. Many quotations of the greatest words in the US Constitution, We the People, often with the reference that this year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Lots of references to the hardships of sexual minorities and even more to the hunt against immigrants. The actions of the immigration police ICE – widely publicized deaths on the street, less widely publicized in detention – is by far the most common among the individual political topics: “Keep the immigrants, deport the racists”, “ICE is ISIS”.
Also clearly visible is the protest against the war of aggression against Iran, which did not go exactly as announced, always in connection with the deficits at home: the war billions could be better spent on education or health care. What is striking is that the destruction of Gaza and the low-level war there are barely discussed. A single poster can be made out. Also just a single indication that America has not acted entirely alone in the world so far: “Respect our allies”. There is no sign of violence – only a little visible of the police. A touch of carnival blows through the procession, a lightness.
image: johann aeschlimann
A group in tailcoats and top hats act as “trillionaires” who are quite happy with the way things are going: “One, two, three, four, we don’t care about the war.” A clown with Donald Trump’s hairstyle plays the smug person who ignores the reality around him: “It’s great that you’re here because of me, thank you very much,” he tells everyone standing by. “Make America gay again” is written on its back. Many demonstrators show humor: “I like my ICE crushed.” “Even introverts are here.” “Ikea has smarter cabinets.”
A blackboard mocks Trump’s motto Make America Great Again: “Are we great yet?” The train was a mile long, the newspaper writes – 100,000 people. Up to eight million are said to have roamed the streets across the country.
Tax the Rich, Sunday, 1 p.m., Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, Bronx
image: johann aeschlimann
Poor People New York. Not a place where the Manhattanite wanders voluntarily. The Gulf gas station on the corner has gas at $3.77 a gallon. We are queuing up to enter the auditorium, 2000 seats, progress is slow, the police are taking a close look.
Posters are handed out behind the entrance: red on white “tax the rich” and yellow on black “Hochul stand up to Trump”. Kathy Hochul is the governor of New York State, Democratic Party, but not so inclined to raise taxes, even for the rich upper class. Behind the podium in large lines “Tax the Rich – Fight Oligarchy”. These are the issues of Senator Bernie Sanders, born in 1941.
Sanders is the lone socialist in the US Senate, twice a candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and still the man with the clearest political counter to Trumpism in the country. It’s because of him that people are here. Before he speaks, there is an opening act: a representative of the city’s higher education program CUNY (Lehman College with our auditorium is one of them). The Haitian immigrant head of the nurses union who just won a major strike. Representatives from the city and state legislatures, in tightly timed, choreographed performances, the microphone alternately in the hands of one person and the other.
The message is clear: there is a lack of funds for schools, hospitals and retirement homes, and they have to be found where they can be found, from the rich. The same reasoning as attributed to the legendary robber Willie Sutton. When asked why he robbed banks, he is said to have replied “Because that’s where the money is.” Then Sanders takes the stage.
1 year older than the doddering Joe Biden, 5 years older than the eternally swaggering Trump, he cuts a good figure, slim, white shirt, black suit, brown sneakers with white soles, his white hair a little thin. The crowd roars “Bernie, Bernie!” and the first thing Sanders says is: “It’s not Bernie, Bernie, it’s you.” He speaks clearly, freely, complete sentences, understandably. He begins with the context: “More people protested yesterday than ever in the history of the United States. They said no to authoritarianism, no to oligarchy and no to the constant attacks on the working class.” And the surprising election of the socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York “found an echo throughout the world.” It showed what a lot of election workers “knocking on apartment doors” can do against the money of campaign sponsors. “You gave New York hope.”
From a chair in the audience, a heckler shouts something pro-Israel into the hall (Sanders is Jewish, but a critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza).
The speaker continues to speak, the caller continues to shout, a steward enters, then a police officer, the caller does not let up until after a while he stands up and is led out of the room. Meanwhile, Bernie started a little lesson in statistics. Numbers “that you don’t often hear in the media”.
The top 1 percent of the US population is more wealthy than the bottom 93 percent.
Elon Musk owns more than the bottom 53 percent of all households.
His real tax burden is 3.3 percent, Jeff Bezos’s is less than 1 percent, while the average truck driver pays 8.4 percent and the average firefighter pays 8.7 percent.
In addition, some of the largest companies pay no federal income tax at all. Conclusion: “The richest people have never had it better.” And “the working class has been under pressure for years.” He doesn’t like to talk about personal things, says Sanders, but he comes from a simple household, his father is a paint salesman, his mother is a housewife, and they made ends meet with their father’s one salary. “How many working-class families can do that today?” This with an unprecedented increase in productivity in the economy: “What the hell has happened?”
The political surcharge follows: “It is high time that companies and the richest pay their fair share of taxes. Are you ready for this very radical demand?” Huge applause, shouts of “Bernie, Bernie.” Mayor Mamdani deserves support for his program of an additional tax on the incomes of millionaires. 0.7 percent of the population is affected, says Sanders: “99.3 percent will no longer pay a cent.” This is popular, surveys show it, the “radical demand” is being received: “Governor Hochul should listen.”
Sanders ends with a commercial for his own proposal, introduced in the US Senate: a five percent additional tax for the 938 American billionaires, which would finance a long list of left-wing projects, from social housing to “universal” child care, better health care to a guaranteed minimum wage of 60,000 for every American teacher. “Brothers and sisters, let’s move forward – this city has shown us how.”
The event in the Bronx runs in a disciplined manner, with no delays, no frills, no deviations from the theme. Nothing about ICE, nothing about No Kings, none of the obligatory references to discrimination against women or LGBTQI+. One is tempted to ask whether the fretting Euro-Socialists can also produce such clear, simple and catchy messages. But then you notice that Brother Mamdani, also a socialist and supported by Sanders in his election campaign, is not there in the Bronx. Not even because of a usual scheduling conflict or a family ailment, but for a practical, political reason: he didn’t want to create any additional problems for the governor and was keeping a low profile, the mayor explained. In America, too, the socialists are pragmatists.
At the exit, staff ask you to “return the posters if you no longer need them.” I overhear a conversation between two young men.
“No Kings yesterday was a highlight of my year.”
“It is important that so many showed up. The masses must now show their resistance. Stand up and be counted.”
“The silent majority – wasn’t it Nixon who invented this? The Silent Majority against the ’68ers?”
“Today it is the Silent Majority against what Trump’s government is doing.”
“The Republicans were the ones who always preached resistance to the state, freedom. Libertarianism. That’s all gone with the Republicans.”
“With Trump came controls, snooping, ICE, masks everywhere.”
«I don’t understand it. I come from a family of moonshiners. We burn our liquor black.”
This is what a rocket launch looks like from an airplane
Video: watson/hanna dedial