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Resistance Report: Democratic guests at Trump speech a rebuke to his policies

GUESTS WHO MAKE A POINT. The president and members of Congress are picking guests who highlight their policy views for tonight’s presidential address to a joint session of Congress, reports Yahoo News’ Chris Wilson: “The White House announced that six guests would be joining first lady Melania Trump at the address. Half of that group have lost family members in killings by undocumented immigrants.” Meanwhile, “Many Democrats have invited guests who benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the proposed DREAM Act to draw a contrast to the president’s messaging and policies.” And Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), invited Tom Perez, the former labor secretary, who just beat him out for the post of chair of the Democratic National Committee.

THE SUFFRAGETTE COLOR. Democratic women will wear white at the Trump speech tonight, to highlight their disputes with the administration on women’s issues and situate themselves in the history of women’s political activism. White was the color worn by marchers in the women’s suffrage movement.

PRESIDENT BUSH SPEAKS OUT. After staying silent for most of Obama’s tenure in office, former President George W. Bush is speaking up on politics, while sitting for interviews to promote his book of paintings, “Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors.”

“I don’t like the racism and I don’t like the name-calling and I don’t like the people feeling alienated,” Bush told People magazine of the Trump era. “Nobody likes that.”

Bush, it should be remembered, sought to remake the Republican Party under a bigger tent, following the example of Texas, where a substantial fraction of Latinos vote GOP. He also tried in 2005 to enact comprehensive immigration reform, an effort scuttled by the very forces within his own party that are now ascendant after the election of Trump.

TRUMP SUPPORTERS RALLY. The daily anti-Trump protests that have broken out across the United States since Trump took office finally spurred his supporters to respond with rallies of their own, the New York Times reports: “On Monday, conservatives around the country got out the Make America Great Again hats, unfurled American flags and held rallies at state capitols and on courthouse steps, seeking to rekindle the populist fervor that helped vault Mr. Trump to the White House and stick up for a president whose approval ratings have taken a beating during five storm-tossed weeks in office.

“But the modest crowds that showed up for the noontime rallies from New Jersey to Georgia to Colorado offered a reminder of what liberal groups learned eight years ago in the face of Tea Party anger at President Barack Obama: Stoking grass-roots energy is often easier for the outraged resistance than for the party pulling the levers in Washington.”

(Cover thumbnail photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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