‘Fighting Oligarchy Tour’: Bernie Sanders seeks to galvanize resistance to Trump
83-year-old socialist is drawing large crowds at rallies, and even put in a surprise appearance at Saturday’s Coachella music festival, trying to raise the US left from its apathy
LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) — Bernie Sanders is emerging as one of the most vocal opponents to US President Donald Trump, with the 83-year-old senator from Vermont drawing tens of thousands of people to his “fighting oligarchy” rallies around the country.
Supporters packed the Gloria Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles on Saturday as guests including politicians, union representatives and musical acts took to the stage before speeches by Sanders and Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
“There are some 36,000 of you, the largest rally that we have ever had,” Sanders told the cheering crowd.
“Your presence here today is making Donald Trump and Elon Musk very nervous.”
The self-described socialist, an independent who has never been a member of the Democratic Party, has been attracting crowds over the past two months on his nationwide “fighting oligarchy” tour.
His progressive, leftist rhetoric has resonated with people opposed to Trump’s policies and with those disappointed in established Democrats’ lack of political resistance to Trump.
Folk rock legend Neil Young led the LA crowd on Saturday in chanting “Take America Back!” while he played the electric guitar.
Feminist singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers dubbed the event “Berniechella,” a nod to the massive Coachella music festival taking place in the Californian desert, where Sanders would make a surprise appearance later in the day.
Alex Powell, a 28-year-old art teacher in the audience, said Americans “need hope.”
“I’m really disappointed by the Democrats’ response, I want more action on their part, more outrage,” she told AFP.
‘Traumatized’
“Donald Trump’s new term is distressing, it’s really scary,” Powell said, describing how some of her middle school pupils were “traumatized” after one of their parents was deported from the United States under Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign.
Sanders addressed a litany of grievances, including Trump’s massive cuts to government funding and threats to healthcare and research.
Mentions of Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and X, drew boos from the crowd.
The billionaire has been tasked by Trump with dramatically reducing government spending, and is for many Sanders supporters a symbol of the corrupting influence of wealth in politics.
Sanders was “right the whole time,” 27-year-old Vera Loh told AFP. “The collusion of money and politics has had terrible effects.”
Loh, a housekeeper, said she was stunned by the apathy of many Democrat leaders since Trump’s defeat in November of his Democratic rival, then-US Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The party put too much focus on minorities,” Loh said.
“If people don’t see it as a class war, then we just get lost with the identity politics.”
She told AFP she wanted politicians to remember “we want higher pay, we want housing, we want to be able to afford things.”
‘Authoritarian society’
Speaking at the rally on Saturday, Sanders said “we are living in a moment where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of our country.”
Trump is moving the United States “rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society,” he said.
Sanders hopes to encourage new independents to run for office without the Democrat label, at a time when the party is at an all-time low in the polls.
While he has has no ambitions to run for US president in 2028, Sanders has taken rising progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez under his wing.
“No matter your race, religion, gender, identity or status, no matter if you disagree with me on some things… I hope you see that this movement is not about partisan labels or purity tests, but it’s about class solidarity,” the 35-year-old congresswoman told the crowd on Saturday.
35,000 and growing in Los Angeles as @aoc takes the stage! pic.twitter.com/3QWSCQfMW9
— Team AOC (@TeamAOC) April 12, 2025
“She would make a good presidential candidate,” Lesley Henderson, a former Republican supporter, told AFP.
Depressed by the news since January, the 52-year-old nursing assistant was attending the first political rally of her life with her husband.
“I just hope it’s not too late,” she said, alarmed by Trump’s talk about ruling an unconstitutional third term.
“If no one’s standing up and saying anything now, what makes us think that there might even be midterms, or a next presidential election?”
‘Berniechella’
Highlighting his rockstar appeal, Sanders later made a surprise appearance at the Coachella music festival, becoming one of the gathering’s top cameos so far, drawing a massive crowd.
Screaming fans sprinted over, camera phones in hand, to capture the politician’s unannounced speech that followed a blockbuster set from superstar Charli XCX at a neighboring stage.
“I’m not gonna be long but this country faces some very difficult challenges and the future of what happens to America depends on your generation. You can turn away and ignore what goes on but you do it at your own peril. We need you to stand up to fight for justice,” Sanders said to raucous cheers at the major California desert double weekend that marks the unofficial start of music festival season.
Speaking under a full moon at Coachella, Sanders urged crowds to stand up against billionaires, health insurance companies, and Trump’s administration.
“Now we’ve got a president of the United States,” Sanders began, before the crowd’s boos quickly drowned out Trump’s name.
“I agree,” Sanders continued. “He thinks that climate change is a hoax. He is dangerously wrong, and you and I are going to have to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and tell them to stop destroying this planet.”
Sanders gave his speech in introducing pop singer Clairo to the stage, whom he thanked for using her platform to support women’s rights and for speaking out to end the war in Gaza.
“You can turn away and you can ignore what goes on but if you do that, you do it at your own peril. We need you to stand up, to fight for justice. To fight for economic justice, social justice, and racial justice,” Sanders told the rapt crowd.
The message hit: “I love Bernie Sanders!” screamed one festival-goer as he concluded his speech.
Samara Guillory, 21, was among the music fans who sprinted to the stage where Sanders spoke.
“It meant so much that Senator Sanders came to our level,” Guillory told AFP. “We’re the new generation, we’re the future of America.”
“Coming here, talking to us, spreading awareness — I think this was exactly the move, honestly.”
The Times of Israel Community.