Allentown (United States) (AFP) – Every Monday, dozens of residents line a street in this industrial city in the eastern state of Pennsylvania to silently protest against US President Donald Trump. Yvette Kuhns, 58, has brought along a large plastic bin filled with dozens of cardboard signs that she shares with fellow protesters — people she calls “my family.” The signs read: “Stop Trump Data Centers,” “Bring down energy prices,” and “Cuts kill.”
The group — mostly middle-aged retirees — has been gathering every week on this street since Trump returned to power in early 2025, near the unassuming offices of Ryan Mackenzie, a Republican member of Congress who narrowly won election representing the Allentown area in 2024. They hope Mackenzie will be swept out of office in a Democratic wave in the November 3 midterm elections that many see as a referendum on Trump, whose national approval ratings have fallen into the mid-30s.
The roughly 40 people who turned out on a recent sunny October day stood on either side of the road while holding up their messages for passing motorists for about an hour, and then headed home. “I’m here with pretty much a different sign every week,” said Lynn Long, 72. “I want them to see these messages, and that maybe the ones who have supported him will say, ‘Why are they here every week? Maybe I should be paying more attention,'” she said. Long said she lives in a “very, very conservative area,” surrounded by farmers. “I don’t really know if they have changed their minds. I hope so, but I sort of doubt it.”
— ‘The energy to keep going’ — Her friend Kim Maniscalco said she has tried talking politics with her Republican friends and relatives, but gave up. “They’re not listening,” she said. “They’re very proud.” Some passing drivers honked in support and gave the protesters a thumbs-up, but others gave them the middle finger. “I love it when they give me the finger. I just laugh right at him, which of course is the last thing they want,” said Tim Gruber, 68. Nearby, a gas station sells gasoline at $4.39 a gallon, much higher than before the war against Iran launched by Trump in late February, which has choked energy supplies and driven up prices.
Long said she finds it troubling that Trump supporters seem concerned about his policies now that family budgets are being squeezed, but previously “didn’t really care about what his policies were doing to other people.” She decried the “horrible” way that armed federal agents have treated people under Trump’s immigration crackdown. “I say shame on you for not caring about other human beings,” Long said.
Daniel Nickisher said he keeps an eye out in case a vehicle tries to run them down. “Sometimes I don’t recognize my country,” the retired psychologist said quietly. But Nickisher said he believes the political winds are shifting and that the Trump label has become a liability for Republicans. The best evidence, in his view, is that his cousins, big Trump fans, have not put up any partisan signs on their property ahead of this election.
Now 80, Nickisher revealed a silver lining of Trump’s rise to power: He met fellow protester Maniscalco at the weekly roadside demonstrations, and the two have been dating for 14 months now. “He brought us together — it’s the only good thing he’s done!” Nickisher joked. Maniscalco chimed in: “When we come here, surrounded by these lovely people who want the same things we do, it really gives us the energy to keep going.”
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