People are showing up in droves at town halls around the country to express their outrage over all the damage that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their DOGE cronies are wreaking. Unfortunately, they’re not getting much in the way of answers from their elected officials. That’s why we’ve decided to host our own Expert Town Hall – “How to Beat the Broligarchs” – on Monday, April 7th, beginning at 9:00 AM ET.
Over the last month, congressional Republicans have been accosted by large crowds of angry constituents at town hall events. People have voiced their disapproval over several actions taken by the Trump administration, but their current and planned cuts to federal programs and services like Social Security, Veterans Affairs, Medicare, and Medicaid have been a particular sticking point.
The scenes unfolding at these events are nothing short of astonishing. People have shouted endlessly, officials have been booed and insulted, protestors have been ejected, and some events have even been shut down entirely by the police. It’s reminiscent of the advent of the Tea Party movement back in 2010 – but add in the ability to go “viral” on social media, and it’s no longer just a local town hall, but an event people across the country are witnessing, too. (We here at Patriotic Millionaires particularly enjoyed a viral moment from this weekend, where one town hall broke out in a “Tax the rich!” chant.)
Unable to accept that Americans may be genuinely upset with his policies, President Trump has insisted that the angry town hall participants are merely Democratic activists and “paid agitators.” This idea has also been peddled by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who encouraged his caucus to avoid the events entirely. But make no mistake: Trump and Johnson are lying. The people showing up to these town halls are real Americans from across the political spectrum, who have real grievances and are experiencing firsthand the devastating fallout from Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce. Working-class voters may have delivered Trump his victory in November, but these town hall events prove that they’re not going to give him a free pass, and they’re going to hold him to account.
Some Republicans have followed Johnson’s advice and ducked out on their town halls, denying constituents opportunities to meet with their elected officials. However, that hasn’t stopped people from hosting them anyway. To underscore the extent of their fury, local activists have held “empty chair” town halls in red states and districts, where angry voters gather together to vent their frustrations at congressional Republicans whose photos are affixed to literal empty chairs. One “empty chair” event was conducted at a church in Little Rock, Arkansas, where a standing-room only crowd lambasted Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman who instead attended a $7,000-a-plate fundraiser eight blocks away. Another was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Senator Jim Banks sent doughnuts in his stead, which constituents viewed as an insulting reference to Marie Antoinette’s infamous “Let them eat cake” line. Organizers have also gotten creative themselves: In Cambridge, Maryland, they put Representative Andy Harris’ (MD-01) face on a giant milk carton with a “MISSING” ad.
For their part, Democrats thought that they’d have an easier time with their own town halls by slamming Trump and Republicans. They even organized “People’s Town Halls” by sending big names like Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Representative Ro Khanna (CA-17) to conduct town halls in Republican districts, effectively filling the “empty chairs” that Republicans are leaving. But despite their efforts, voters haven’t gone easy on them either. Constituents have expressed outrage over Senate Democrats caving to Republicans over the recent passage of their disastrous government funding bill, proving that they couldn’t be tricked after all by Democrats’ bait-and-switch plan. They have also hounded Democrats more broadly for failing to have an organized, cohesive, and vigorous strategy as the opposition party to Trump and Republicans.
Some Democrats, however, have made inroads in getting through to voters. In late February, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders began hosting a series of rallies across the country as part of a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to galvanize the public to stand up to Trump, Musk, and the billionaire class. The events have amassed huge crowds: last Friday in Denver, Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) drew a crowd of over 34,000. Their message has resonated with people, especially as they haven’t shied away from recognizing the failures of Democrats to counter Trump and protect the interests of working people.
We have been so inspired by these events that we decided to host our own Expert Town Hall – “How to Beat the Broligarchs” – on Monday, April 7th from 9 AM to 12 PM ET. The Town Hall will bring together thought leaders, journalists, advocates, and policymakers to discuss how America has descended into an oligarchy and, more importantly, what we can all do to fight back. Speakers and guests will explore how unchecked wealth has captured our political and judicial systems and the need to hold to account the “broligarchs” who are pulling the strings of the government to advance their interests.
We have an exciting line-up of speakers. They include Nabil Ahmed (Director of Racial and Economic Justice at Oxfam); Ruth Ben-Ghiat (Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University); Rutger Bregman (Historian and Author); Abigail Disney (Patriotic Millionaire and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and philanthropist); Jesse Eisenger (Senior Reporter and Editor at ProPublica); Brooke Harrington (Professor of Economic Sociology at Dartmouth College); Dennis Kelleher (Co-founder, President, and CEO of Better Markets); Stephanie Kelton (Economist and Professor at Stony Brook University); Donald Sherman (Executive Director and Chief Counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington); Damon Silvers (Director of Policy and Special Council for AFL-CIO); and Michael Waldman (President of the Brennan Center for Justice).
You can tune into the livestream of the Expert Town Hall HERE on Monday, April 7th, from 9 AM to 12 PM ET.
We’ll have more to say about the event next week. Until then, we hope that you will mark your calendars to join us on April 7th. Rest assured, there will be no “empty chairs” and we won’t shy away from telling you the truth about America’s oligarchy problem and what can be done to fix it.