Opinion by Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. 

If the Trump regime can dictate what the universities of America teach or research or publish, or what students can learn or say, no university is safe.

Not even the truth is safe.

If the Trump regime can revoke student visas because students exercise their freedom of speech on a university campus, freedom of speech is not secure for any of us.

If the Trump regime can abduct a permanent resident of the United States and send him to a torture prison in El Salvador, without any criminal charges, no American is safe.

What do we do about this?

We stand up to it. We resist it. We denounce it. We boldly and fearlessly reject it —regardless of the cost, regardless of the threats.

As columnist David Brooks writes in his column yesterday (I’m hardly in the habit of quoting David Brooks):

It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.

But what does a national civic uprising look like?

It may look like a general strike — a strike in which tens of millions of Americans refuse to work, refuse to buy, refuse to engage in anything other than a mass demonstration against the regime.

And not just one general strike, but a repeating general strike — a strike whose numbers continue to grow and whose outrage, resistance, and solidarity continue to spread across the land.

I urge all of you to start preparing now for such a series of general strikes. I will inform you of what I learn about who is doing what. (One possible place to begin is here.)

In the meantime: This evening, Friday, April 18, bells will be sounded in Boston’s Old North Church (the one-if-by-land church where lanterns signaled Paul Revere to warn the Minutemen of the approaching troops) and in churches across the country, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the American Revolution. I urge you to have your place of worship join in the ringing. (More information can be found here.)

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 19, protests are being organized around the country by 50501. See here.

My friends, what the Trump regime has unleashed on America is intolerable. It is time — beyond time — for a national civic uprising. We must take action.

Should you be interested, here’s what I said yesterday at a rally on Berkeley’s famed Sproul Plaza, the site of the beginning of the Free Speech Movement, a little over 60 years ago.

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This is not going to happen in the near term because a majority of Americans today support Trump.

Having launched a historic global trade war that set the stock market on rollercoaster week, Trump’s approval ratings were bound to change. His presidential approval rating remained steady over the first two months and even reached his all time highest rating in either of his terms.

However, his third month in office is showing that the American public’s opinion has soured amid the onslaught of tariffs and trade wars and the mounting fears of a possible recession.

According to the HarrisX polls, Trump’s approval rating has dropped since he took office, but still above water with an overall job approval rating of 48% versus 46% that disapprove. 

Amid last week’s tariff turmoil, the Quinnipiac University Poll shows 72% of voters think tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy in the short-term while only 53% think the tariffs will hurt in the long-run and 41% think it will help the economy in the long-run.

According to Rasmussen Reports daily polling, Trump has enjoyed over a steady job approval rating over over 50% on any given day since his inauguration — until April 3 — the day after the sweeping tariff announcement. His rating has since slipped lower every day to a current 47% approval and 51% disapproval.