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Soon after President Donald Trump took his oath of office across town at the U.S. Capitol, Johng Delacruz, 31, a local Filipino-American nurse, set out from another corner of the nation’s capital, on Meridian Hill off 16th Street NW, joining a cacophony of drums, chants, signs and conversations that left little ambiguity about the ideology bent of the gathering.
A man hoisted a pre-made sign, “SOCIALISM BEATS FACISM!” Beneath the message, the name of the organization that paid for the sign’s production: Democratic Socialists of America.
WOKE ARMY RETREATS IN DC PROTEST, PIVOTS TO ‘FIGHT BACK’ FOR GAZA
A pre-made neon green placard read: “WORKERS RIGHTS & PEOPLES NEEDS. NOT WAR & GENOCIDE,” stamped with “Peoples Power Assembly,”
Another slogan, “FIGHT TRUMP’S AGENDA,” bore the smaller-print attribution to Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
A pre-printed banner carried by a group of demonstrators read: “WORKERS SHOULD HAVE POWER, NOT BILLIONAIRES!” Below it, the Party for Socialism and Liberation took credit.
“I’m proud to identify as a socialist supporting socialist movements,” Delacruz told me without hesitation. “I believe that is the future of humanity and the right side of history. Well, ‘left’ if you will,” he added with a laugh.
But you wouldn’t know that from the media coverage of this so-called professional “resistance” to Trump, with the Guardian reporting only that “anti-Trump protests sweep the globe on inauguration day.” Voice of America merely describing the demonstrators as “anti-Trump protesters” and NBC News writing that “progressive groups” held marches around the country – not a word about the self-described socialist dreams for many of the groups.
Nearby, three activists bundled in winter clothes carried a banner in the blue and red colors of Puerto Rico’s flag, also waving overhead. It bore the name, Diaspora Pa’lante Collective, advocating for Puerto Rico’s independence—and a socialist government to lead it.
A man and a woman dressed in black masks dramatically pushed a faux guillotine, emblazoned with the ominous message: “COME GET SUM.”
These weren’t fringe gatherings of hobbyists. Among them was Medea Benjamin, the rich co-founder of Code Pink, marching with a cardboard heart-shaped sign painted hot pink.
“The media doesn’t give a full and honest reportage of movements like this,” Delacruz told me. “It holds a purpose to uphold the status quo of the capitalist system, if you will. If we believe socialism to be the antithesis to capitalism, then of course, it’s not going to cover it. I think at best it’ll say anti-Trump protesters from various grassroots movements, if that. But I highly doubt they will go with the particular calls and demands that we have.”
Understanding these demands is crucial. The groups here weren’t just protesting Trump—they were advancing socialism, Marxism and communism. Many of these organizations also have a pro-Russia stance, rooted in a propaganda tradition the Soviet Union pioneered: agitprop. Short for “agitation and propaganda,” agitprop combines political messaging with provocative action to influence and mobilize. I call protests like this “agitprop actions.”
The journalists I spoke to at the rally admitted they rarely identify the groups behind the protests. “Audiences don’t really understand socialism,” one reporter told me. “They tune out when they hear the word.” It’s easier to reduce the activists to concepts their readers can grasp.
On the eve of the protest, I stayed up until 3 a.m., researching the ideologies of the 205 groups involved nationwide in the January 20 protests, as part of reporting for the Pearl Project, a nonprofit investigative reporting project that I cofounded. My analysis: 27 were Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, or Islamist; 63 self-identified as socialist; and 115 fell into what I term “adjacent” categories.
The protest industry is a complex and often opaque network of organizations, funding streams and ideological agendas that work together to orchestrate demonstrations, shape public narratives and influence political outcomes, like an effective “agitprop” operation. Understanding this ecosystem is critical because it reveals the motivations, alliances, and strategies behind what often appears to be spontaneous grassroots activism.
Far from being isolated events, protests are frequently coordinated efforts involving global actors, local chapters, and significant financial backing. Through the Pearl Project, I aim to investigate and expose the mechanisms of this industry—identifying the players, tracing their funding and analyzing their impact. By shedding light on how protests are organized and sustained, positioning themselves now as the “resistance” to the Trump administration, I hope to provide transparency and equip the public with a deeper understanding of the forces shaping political discourse and activism.
Walking through Meridian Hill Park revealed these agendas more clearly. The groups’ slogans championed socialism and anti-imperialism in countries like the Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, Cuba—and here in the U.S. Their endorsers didn’t hide their intentions.
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The groups’ 205 “endorsers” nationwide don’t hide their agendas. Based in Salt Lake City, “Mormons with Hope for a Better World” says it is “committed to anti-racism, intersectional feminism, Trans and Queer liberation, disability justice, individual bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, socialism, anti-imperialism, and decolonization.” Leaders of Qiao Collective, a media outlet say they seek to “be a bridge between the U.S. left and China’s rich Marxist, anti-imperialist political work and thought.” The “Project for a Revolutionary Marxist International” has its agenda in its name.
As the march turned from 16th Street NW onto Massachusetts Avenue NW, Lacy MacAuley, 46, became a focal point for cameras. Wearing a disco outfit for a nearby “dance-off protest,” she donned a mask over her sunglasses that read: “TRUMP IS SO NOT THE VIBE.”
“I am an anarchist,” she said with a smile. “I self-identify as one. That means I question and oppose hierarchies and the rule of people over others.” While MacAuley criticized socialism as often becoming “too centralized,” she added, “It’s thinking in the right direction.”
By the end of the day, the protest wound down at Dupont Circle. The scent of marijuana lingered in the air as demonstrators dispersed. One marcher shoved his sign into a trash can, its message peeking out: “WE FIGHT BACK NETWORK.”
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