Trump critics in Seattle push back in court — and head for the streets

While protests against President Trump's second administration were initially muted in Seattle and Washington as challenges to his executive orders moved through federal courts, the state is emerging as a hub of activist resistance to the administration.

Last week in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, hundreds of people packed a meeting that Seattle’s Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal dubbed the "Resistance Lab."

“We thought we’d have a couple hundred people, and we had 850 people sign up," she said. "We had to stop people from registering because we didn’t know if we had room."

RELATED: Federal employees in Seattle rally against mass Trump administration layoffs

Jayapal said the purpose of these ongoing sessions will be to strengthen the nonviolent resistance movement. Erica Chenoweth, a professor and director of the Nonviolent Action Lab at Harvard University, told the group Trump’s attacks on judges and universities, and scapegoating of immigrants and transgender people fits the profile of authoritarian leadership. Chenoweth also said that under the second Trump administration, protests have been smaller — but also more numerous and frequent than during Trump’s first term in 2017.

Jayapal cited Seattle’s history of protests — notably against the World Trade Organization a quarter-century ago — and the city’s minimum wage fight, to say that Seattle is a good place to start a movement like this.

“We have been known as a state that’s courageous and willing to step up,” she said. “And a lot of people here have connections all over the country, so this network that we’re building is not just about Washington state — it really is about the rest of the country as well.”

Opposition to Trump’s policies was initially channeled into lawsuits. Federal judges in Seattle — appointed by a variety of Republican and Democratic presidents — have temporarily blocked President Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship, refugee admissions and gender-affirming care for minors.

“One of the reasons we’re seeing so many lawsuits in Seattle is the sense that the judges here are likely to be more receptive to these sorts of claims,” said University of Washington law professor Lisa Manheim.

“We saw the same thing when President Biden was in office — the state of Texas filed dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration, all in the same district in Texas, where they felt the judge would be more receptive to those sorts of challenges,” she added.

Manheim said backers of these lawsuits against the Trump administration have done their homework, and are returning to Seattle’s court which granted them some key victories during his first term.

“And you can see results of this strategy,” she said. “The federal district court in Seattle, for example, issued one of the first orders against President Trump’s policies when he first took office in 2017. And then again it issued the very first order against the president’s policies when he took office this year.”

The Seattle law firm Perkins Coie is not only working on some of these legal challenges but also fighting Trump’s executive order targeting the firm itself — in contrast to a New York-based firm that negotiated a deal with the Trump administration.

RELATED: Legal organizations alarmed over Trump’s targeting of Seattle law firm Perkins Coie

But as federal judges in Seattle seek answers about whether the Trump administration is complying with their orders, local activists are pressing Democratic leaders for more ideas.

A member of the progressive group Indivisible vented her frustration with staff members of Democratic U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell in a meeting last week. Seattle resident Margaret Sheets told the group, “We are literally being taken over by a fascist government day by day! We are in a more screaming constitutional crisis with each passing hour.”

Cantwell’s staff said that the senator is working strenuously to prevent any cuts to Medicaid and social security, oppose Trump’s nominees and tariffs, and keep Elon Musk and DOGE “out of crucial federal agencies.”

Jayapal’s Resistance Lab tried to channel the energy of aspiring protesters, while Jayapal reminded the group of the importance of planning and being strategic. In breakout sessions, groups identified concerns like defending constitutional freedoms, and brainstormed creative ways to draw attention to them.

Sarah Burdell works at a student health center in Seattle. Her group discussed ways to highlight the language the administration has suppressed in government documents, like “diversity” and “climate crisis.”

“Each person will get one word and take a selfie, and then — in hope — we could then put it into a virtual museum and put it out into the world,” Burdell said.

One of the people at the event was former congressional candidate Devin Hermanson (he unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Democrat Rep. Rick Larsen in District 2 in 2024). Hermanson has been helping organize local protests as part of the national Tesla Takedown movement targeting Trump advisor Elon Musk, by trying to drive down the value of the company Musk owns.

RELATED: Swap the logo? Sell the car? Seattle, a Tesla town, grapples with Elon Musk in Trump's orbit

“I believe we really can impact that business,” Hermanson said. “And send a pretty clear message, we’re not going to take this lying down.”

Hermanson said these events are helping build community among progressives after what he called a disturbing silence in the wake of the November election.

“Nobody was even talking,” he said. “And that’s changed now. Now that we’re in the thick of it, everybody’s talking. And strangely enough, everyone else’s anxiety makes me feel better.”

Hermanson said he works closely with police and security to avoid any property damage, and tells fellow protesters to treat Tesla owners with respect. The FBI recently warned of arson and destruction targeting Tesla vehicles. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said three people in other states are charged with throwing Molotov cocktails at Tesla dealerships, vehicles and charging stations.

In a statement Bondi said, “Let this be a warning: If you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.”

The warning comes as protesters are calling for a global day of action at Tesla dealerships this Saturday.

As protesters launch new initiatives and campaigns, there are also communities in Seattle highlighting what they say are echoes of past injustices.

Immigration detentions and deportations by the Trump administration are making headlines. Meanwhile, the group Tsuru for Solidarity held a Day of Remembrance last month in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District to honor the Japanese and Japanese Americans forcibly incarcerated during WWII.

They include the family of Stan Shikuma, who told KUOW’s Seattle Now that this history is why he's now a volunteer observer of Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights out of King County International Airport. Shikuma said the presence of volunteers like him “gives people some sense that somebody out there cares, somebody out there knows —that they’re not just being disappeared.”

Shikuma said he feels hopeful when he sees the work of groups like La Resistencia, made up of “people whose families have faced detention and deportation,” as well as his organization, making clear “a climate of hope and joy is the kind of country we want, rather than a country of fear and anger.”