Over 100 protesters gathered in Friendship Square in downtown Moscow on Monday, Aug. 1, to protest the Donald Trump administration’s federal cuts, tariff policy, domestic military actions, immigration enforcement and more. The protest was organized by the Indivisible movement in Moscow, who also managed the “Hands Off“, May Day and “No Kings” protests held earlier this year. Between 100 and 150 attendees showed up, with approximately 20 speakers.
Ryan Urie, one of Indivisible’s co-leaders, began the protest with a brief statement about the circumstances that necessitated such an event to be held on Labor Day.
“Dictatorship and authoritarianism: they’re not on the rise, they are here,” Urie said.
Urie also spoke about the rising costs of daily living exacerbated by Trump’s tariff policy, online censoring of facts and the dividing culture war as matters needing change.
Much of the protest was individuals from the crowd speaking to the group about their personal experiences and perspectives on the topics introduced by Urie.
Combat veterans, first generation Americans, schoolteachers, high school and college students, federal employees, women’s rights activists, librarians and retirees were among those who spoke.
Todd Bailey, a teacher at Moscow High School, spoke about the overreach permitted by the president for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter schools among other safe community spaces. He compared these actions to schools’ potential to support disenfranchised children by providing them with food and clothing.
Bailey said that instead, these same children across the country are being deported without parent consent or notification to unknown locations, which is antithetical to everything he stands for as a teacher.
Bailey ended his time in front of the crowd by saying, “No ICE agent will ever approach one or my students with intent of deporting them without me going to jail first.”
Nathan Tucker is an active Idaho Army National Guard member who returned from deployment in Europe this summer. He spoke about the concerns expressed at a personal level by NATO partners abroad and the parallels to the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. Other members at the protest held signs which read: “Against repeating 1939.”
Emily Pearson, a senior at the University of Idaho majoring in elementary education, spent her time discussing the current administration’s lack of action against the frequent school and mass shootings. Pearson raised issues with the proposed policies which seek to place additional weapons in schools as a response measure. She stated that the only way to create change is to vote those who think this way out of office.
“Vote them out” became a popular phrase the following speakers reiterated as a call to action.
Some protesters only made brief remarks, such as a reminder of the comment made by Trump in 2020, in which he called U.S. veterans and prisoners of war “suckers and losers.”
Multiple speakers mentioned the attempted sale of public lands and continued efforts to further extract natural resources from the state of Idaho. Idaho Rep. Russ Fulcher was named as voting twice for the sale of Idaho public lands, to which the crowd responded with the chant, “Vote them out.”
Prior to the start of the event, live music was provided by the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band.
Students from the nearby New Saint Andrews College gathered around the outside of the protest and began singing. These students were quickly met with a wall of attendees who sang, “We shall overcome.” The protest then continued after a brief pause.
Joshua Reisenfeld can be reached at [email protected].