About

#Resist or The Resistance refers to the ongoing campaign to protest President Donald Trump administration through online activism, protests, and boycotts.

Origin

References to The Resistance and the hashtag #Resist began appearing immediately following Trump's victory in the 2016 Presidential Election. Moments after the The New York Times began predicting Trump's victory, Twitter users began using the hashtag #Resist on November 8th, 2016.

One of the first viral pieces of criticism came by way of The New Yorker's David Remnick, whose piece "An American Tragedy"^[1] went viral on November 9th.

Spread

Later that day, journalist and host Keith Olberman posted the first episode of "The Resistance," a daily news commentary web series, which at the time went by the title "The Closer." In a tweet promoting the November 9th episode entitled "The Terrorist Have Won," he wrote "Let the resistance begin." The post received more than 300 retweets and 620 likes.^[2]

As the day continued, numerous protests started in cities around the United States.^[4] The New York Times reported protests in Dallas, Oakland, Boston, Chicago and other cities, with thousands of people taking to the streets for days following the election.

On November 14th, the Facebook group "The Resistance to Donald J. Trump" launched. As of May 2017, the group has 49,100 likes and 49,600 followers.^[6]

The day after Trump's inauguration, on January 21st, 2017, a worldwide protest, the 2017 Women's March, was held in cities around the world with the main march taking place in Washington, D.C., where as many as 500,000 people joined. There were at least 650 marches in the United States, and the Washington Post called it largest demonstration in history.^[5] Throughout the March, participants used #Resist to communicate and share pictures and information with other protestors.

Days after the Women's March, on January 25th, Greenpeace activists hung a 70ft banner that read "RESIST" on a 300ft-high crane outside of the White House.^[7]

On January 26th, the subreddit /r/esist launched, giving Redditors a place for organizing and discussing the resistance against the Trump White House.^[3] Within three months, the subreddit had amassed more than 79,700 subscribers.

On January 30th, the website Meetup, an online tool for political organizing and activism, announced on Facebook that two major protests of Trump's Muslim Ban sprung up in just 48 hours. The following week, the website announced that they had suspended their normal operations to set up 1,000 #Resist Meetup Groups. Within two months, the general #Resist Meetup page has more than 136,000 members that have created more than 1,000 meetups.^[8][9][10]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References