Photo credit: QCT Roy Dabner

Here is a live report from Molly Regan on the Not My President’s Day protest:

We received great media coverage from two local tv stations at our ‘Resist Fascism” rally on Monday February 17th at 4PM.

On Wednesday February 19 we were on the front page,above the fold! The article was extensive and we were quoted very well. Very happy with the coverage.

There were over 100 people there even though all the media ever say is dozens. They never take time to count. It was 4 degrees F. Some people came after 5. The crowd didnt disperse until 530.

There was one annoying person of the opposition at the rally location. Some engaged him, but I always chose to ignore them. Am very big believer in ostracizing those types, because if you turn your back on them, and act like they don’t matter, they get pissed off and leave me alone.

Here is the story from the Quad City Times

Dozens of people braved frigid February temperatures on Monday to protest actions taken by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk during Trump’s first month in office.

Organized by Rock Island resident Randy Flowers, the protest on Monday — Presidents Day — was called the “Not My President’s Day Rally” and was held in front of the federal building in downtown Davenport.

Bundled up in winter gear on the sidewalk of East 4th Street in single digit temps, people sang, chanted, and held up signs critical of Trump and Musk. One pro-Trump protester held up his own sign and argued with protesters.

The group protested the flood of executive actions by the Trump administration and Musk, the world’s richest man who has become heavily involved in the administration, on immigration; diversity, equity, and inclusion policies; LGBTQ-related orders; and dismantling parts of the federal government.

“This administration has stalled our national development,” Flowers said. “And taken our civil rights back sixty years. Our history has now become our future.”

Trump’s administration has deployed an approach described as flooding the zone, issuing flurries of executive orders in an effort to overwhelm opponents. They include orders that the courts have paused, such as an order to end birthright citizenship, an order to pause federal grants, and steps to dismantle U.S. Agency on International Development. Other actions, such as mass buyout offers of federal employees and firings have proceeded.

Flowers formed a group called The Liberty and Justice Movement, he said, to locally resist the Trump administration and the policies laid out in Project 2025.

John Menard, of Davenport, came out to protest, he said, because his stance is “all about equality.”

He said he was particularly troubled by news Monday morning of firings of hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees weeks after a deadly Washington D.C. plane crash.

“There’s too much going on in the government too fast, and not well thought out,” Menard said, of the reason he came out to protest. “Changes are being made, then reneging on the change. It just hasn’t been well thought out.”

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