New Orleans      Supposedly, the opposition to Trump and Musk’s wholesale attack on all levels of government, disregarding the needs and well-being of the American people and public servants, is in disarray and divided as pundits observe the Democratic Party.  That may be true, but it seems that protests of different kinds are busting out like weeds breaking through the sidewalk, both high and low.  The courts are hardly a protective safe harbor, but many judges also continue to draw the line against the administration’s extra-legal and unconstitutional attacks.

Examples of protests are easy to find:

• Several employees of the U.S. DOGE Service, the organization overseen by Elon Musk that is tasked with slashing the size of the federal government, were blocked Wednesday afternoon from entering a small U.S. aid agency focused on African economic development. The standoff, which lasted about an hour at the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) headquarters in downtown Washington, is one of the latest acts of resistance from federal employees as DOGE subordinates attempt to access data systems and federal grants.
• So-called Tesla cybertrucks in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans were booed and pelted with beer cans and trash in a protest against Elon Musk, forcing them to leave the parade and run for cover.
• Federal workers and their supporters have been picketing and protesting at agency offices in DC and elsewhere to wide coverage.
• Houston Congressman Al Green, a longtime ally of ACORN and Local 100, and frequent speaker at the union’s leadership conferences in New Orleans and Houston was evicted from Trump’s tirade before Congress for speaking truth to power. Funny how Marjorie Taylor Green can go rouge under Biden and keep her seat, but Al Green gets the hook, isn’t it?
• Looking to see the falling star, polls indicate disapproval of Trump’s position on Ukraine and though tentative support still holds for Trump in these early months of his second term, the numbers are declining.
• A handful of Senators have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Musk is using his position as co-president to threaten advertisers to return to X-Twitter.
• Shutting down DEI isn’t so easy, either. More than 100,000 people, many parishioners at Black churches, are pledging to abstain from shopping at Target, part of a 40-day nationwide boycott of the retail giant more than a month after the company abandoned its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

There are more examples, but you get the point:  temperatures are rising along with prices and inflation, all spelling trouble.  For the Trump team, the courts are also a problem.  Some reports indicate that more than 100 cases have been brought over various issues already.  Some judges are not rolling over.  Even the Supreme Court acted to demand that $2 billion in USAID money be released.  Judges have expressed skepticism over the firing of probationary employees, the dismissal of a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and in some cases halted, at least temporarily, dismissals of federal employees.  A federal judge in Rhode Island has now ordered Trump to release money allocated by Congress to the states.

The administration is silently conceding that there are problems.  The Musk DOGE team has twice had to revise errors in its claim to have saved billions after scrutiny from news sources pointed out false claims, math errors, and previously cancelled contracts.  Although Trump is proposing an executive order to shutter the Department of Education, the administration and the agency director are having to admit that it would require an act of Congress to eliminate the agency and 60 votes that they don’t have in the Senate.

The administration is finding rocks on the runway, rather than the glide path they want.  The fight isn’t widespread yet, but the resistance from people and institutions may finally be building strength.