The US Senator has joined the AOC, denounced Trump’s “corrupted and disastrous tariff scheme” as a trick to enrich his business peers.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Los Angeles cities to attend a rally organized by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Sens. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez against the growing influence of billionaires and corporates in politics under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Sanders took the stage at Gloria Morina Grand Park on Saturday, the latest stop on the ongoing “Oligarchy of the Battle” tour, telling the crowd that Trump is heading the country towards a “society of authoritarian society.”
“Mr. Trump, we’re not going there!” he said he painted applause from 36,000 people who reportedly attended an event featuring a lineup of politicians and musicians, including Neil Young and Joan Baez.
“We live in the moment when a few billionaires dominate our country’s economic and political lives,” Sanders told supporters that their presence at the event “has been very tense” for Trump and his tech billionaire Ally Elon Musk.
Ocasio-Cortez, commonly known as the AOC, clashes with Trump’s “corrupted and disastrous tariff scheme” and says it’s about market manipulation rather than boosting domestic manufacturing.
“It was about hurting retirees and everyday people. [stock] Selling, so Trump could subtly enrich his friends to buy [in] The whole morning before dipping it back,” she told the fired crowd.
AOC: Donald Trump is a criminal. The offender pleaded guilty to 34 felony fraud charges. Of course, he’s lying and manipulating the stock market. He’s making himself. The council member who deals with him and him is not me, not me, not pic.twitter.com/pk2oxzqyuo.
– ACYN (@Acyn) April 12, 2025
Reporting from Larry, Al Jazeera’s Robreynolds said the tour was “part of growth in resistance” against the Trump administration and its policies, particularly its attempt to roll back the social safety net and provide tax cuts to wealthy Americans.
He noted that the tour will also contact voters in Idaho, Utah and Montana, the states Trump won in the November presidential election, in hopes that the tour will connect with people experiencing “buyer regrets.”
The progressive, left-wing rhetoric at the event resonated with those opposed to Trump’s policies and those disappointed by the established Democrats’ lack of political resistance to the Republican president.
“We all have to stand up together, fight, push it back and let something else happen because this can’t last,” David Rasmussen, who attended Saturday’s event, told Al Jazeera.
