January 20 marks the completion of President Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House during his second term.
In Swampscott, 2,689 voters — about 29% of those who cast ballots — chose Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the November 5, 2024 election. That total is similar to the 2020 election, when 2,555 residents, or 26.4%, voted for Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Since the election, Swampscott residents and neighboring community members have taken part in weekly protests, as well as larger initiatives such as the No Kings rallies. A new CNN poll, conducted January 9-12, found that 58% of Americans described Trump’s first year of his second term as a “failure.”
“I protest because there’s not a single constitutional right that is safe from being stripped away from the corrupt Trump administration,” said Kate Brown, who joins the weekly Thursday protest in Swampscott. “Trump is an ignorant fool in physical and mental decline, surrounded by dangerous sycophants that together pose a threat to the planet. Dissent is my civic duty.”
A January Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s performance as president. That figure is virtually unchanged from Trump’s approval ratings in March 2025, shortly after he began his second term.
In his first 100 days as president, Trump signed an unusually high number of executive orders, addressing issues like immigration, trade, fentanyl classifications and transgender athletes in sports. Trump also issued pardons, including to nearly all of those who rioted the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The AP-NORC poll, which surveyed 1,203 people, shows that 37% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.
Trump began his second presidency by imposing a federal hiring freeze and ordering reviews of many career civil service positions, actions that led to mass job terminations. He also imposed tariffs on nearly every country, reaching levels not seen since the Great Depression. His One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law July 4, 2025, permanently extending individual tax rates Trump signed into law in 2017 as well as phasing out some clean energy tax credits, raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, cutting funding for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and eliminating personal exemption for tax credits for seniors.
“Their goal was to make the president all powerful. In essence, he would have all the privileges of a dictator,” said Victor Brandalise, who attends the Swampscott protests each week. “The rise of dictators throughout the 20th century was to take control of the judiciary and to create in the mind of the people a bad guy or an enemy. Trump has been implementing that plan. Therefore, I could not just sit in silence. I had to speak out.”
Approval of Trump’s handling of immigration has declined, according to the AP-NORC poll. Just 38% of U.S. adults approve of the president’s “crackdown on illegal immigration.” The survey was conducted January 8-11, which was shortly after the death of Renee Good, who was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
Trump described illegal immigration as an “invasion” into the country, and he drastically escalated immigration enforcement. He expanded domestic use of the military, ordering deployments to several Democratic Party-led cities and threatening additional expansions. Trump revoked the parole status of immigrants who entered the U.S. under the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One app, as well as ended humanitarian parole for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.
Most Americans, 61%, disapprove of Trump’s approach to foreign policy, according to the AP-NORC poll.
Trump’s administration has called for an “America First” foreign policy goal, as the president planned for a Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a televised meeting, and pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been extradited to the U.S. in 2022 and sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking. The administration expanded counterterrorism operations in places in Somalia and Iraq. Most recently, in January, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military raid and charged him in New York for drug trafficking.
In response to Trump’s actions, a local group began protesting every Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. The initiative started just after Inauguration Day to allow people in Swampscott the opportunity to express their opposition to the Trump administration.
“I don’t feel that I can just sit back without doing something to save our democracy but one of the most impactful statements I have heard was from Gavin Newsom on a podcast – in paraphrasing him – he said that he knew he had to fight back when he saw all of us out protesting on No Kings Day,” said Deb Koppes.
Hundreds of protesters gathered along Humphrey Street on June 14 and October 18 for two No Kings rallies. Chants of “hey, hey, ho, ho Donald Trump has got to go” were mixed in with signs of “Stop trying to make hate happen,” “Don’t let democracy go extinct,” and “vote like your rights depend on it.”
Michael Paquette, who organized the events, said there are “many reasons I protest.”
“I can’t sit back and watch what this administration is doing to this country,” Paquette said. “I want to be able to say that I played a role in bringing about change as I strongly believe there will be change, and it’s already happening.”
People, like Jim Martel, Rich Zembruski, and Betty McNeil, continue to protest in Swampscott weekly. They say it’s to save democracy, fight racism, promote the visibility of multiple causes and think about the future.
Kathryn Harper, who started protesting in March, said it’s important for the group to be visible and call legislators.
“I love talking to people at the Swampscott protests, and I like feeling that we are doing something very positive,” Harper said.
At 3 p.m. on Tuesday, January 20, Paquette organized a standout in Swampscott as part of a nationwide event. The group will gather at the monument on Humphrey Street across from King’s Beach.
“I protest because I believe in the fundamental rights afforded to me,” said Tito Lopez. “I will always stand up for what I believe and be on the right side of history.”
