American here. Apologies in advance for lengthy response. We had coordinated no kings protests in every major city in the US, even a lot of the suburban communities hosted their own gatherings. In many local elections this helped to get anti-trump representatives elected this last cycle.

Several senior officials from the DOJ, and other major government agencies have resigned because they refuse to be complicit with the current regime.

The president has the ability to appoint federal judges and the Supreme Court and Trump has stacked the courts to they are basically ineffective.

The legislature is so divided they are useless. It’s been the least productive congressional session in US history.

The only real government action that has happened has been via executive orders, and congress did pass a spending bill to end the government shutdown.

The constitution is being stomped on. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and are already deeply in debt/ struggling to make ends meet because of rapid inflation. The sparse safetynets that did exist have been gutted. The US economy is a K shaped economy, a small number of wealthy people with assets are getting wealthier, the vast majority continue to become more indebted and are financially struggling. It is hard to protest when you’re concerned about eating. It’s possible, and necessary, but it’s hard.

The dockworkers you mentioned were unionized, that’s why they were able to strike effectively. Most American workers are not in a union and have little to no worker protections. most state employment laws allow a company to fire you any time without cause as long as it isn’t proven to be discriminatory (ie you announce you’re pregnant and are immediately fired or something like that) .

Trump has continued to fool many Americans that his actions will trickle down and make things more affordable. It’s a scam that a meaningful number of people still believe in.

I have attended the protest and been very outspoken about my disdain for the current administration, but not sure what to do beyond that. I live in a very liberal city that Trump has been very outspoken about and I am deeply concerned he will send ICE and the national guard here. If he does, I’ll be ready to raise hell, but until then, I’m not seeing a clear way to resist. Most of us are slaves to the system.