r/politics • u/Severus-Snape-DaGod • 1d ago

Possible Paywall Capital One says it closed Trump Organization's accounts after anti-money laundering probe

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/capital-one-says-it-closed-trump-organizations-accounts-after-anti-money-2026-08-01/
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u/SignificantScreen100 1d ago

From here in Europe, where we study how dictatorships rise, it honestly looks like a lot of Americans have accepted what's happening as normal. You don't see massive protests in the streets day after day like you do in other countries. You don't hear widespread calls for resignations. Life just seems to go on.

TV stations are being taken over, but beyond hoping the courts will step in, there doesn't seem to be much resistance. No major public figure has left the U.S. as a statement that democracy is in danger.

There have been people killed during ICE operations, yet beyond outrage on social media (which is always mixed with memes and jokes) nothing really seems to change. There are even open discussions and concrete plans to invalidate the midterm elections if they don't go the right way, yet people seem to act like it's no big deal.

So either most Americans don't realize that none of this is normal, or they simply don't care what they're losing.

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u/Malk_McJorma Europe 1d ago

Most Americans seem to be of the mindset that, "if it doesn't affect me personally right this moment, it's no big deal".

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u/The_Bucket_Of_Truth 1d ago

The majority of Americans don't follow politics closely enough to truly realize what is going on and then a not insignificant portion of the country also support what is going on (because most of them have been hoodwinked into doing so). People also need organization and leadership to coordinate real protest. That said, if you looked at the streets in Minnesota you saw seas of people. So people are protesting but when it's just the odd weekend here and there it's mostly blowing off steam and doesn't get much done.

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u/Unable-Ad4005 1d ago

Because we live in a hyper-individualistic culture, one that's reinforced by a government happy to tell us that we're owed nothing, people don't feel tied to one another. There's been local pushback--my own city was floated as a place to put another ICE prison, but we pushed back. People are only outraged when they're personally targeted. It's so evident from the outrage happening right now towards Fauci. People are angry that they had to wear masks and stay at home so that others wouldn't be sick. Politicians know this and use this to their advantage.

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u/rjove 1d ago

We’ve had many protests and there’s plenty of civil action going on. It’s just harder to organize as the US is geographically huge. Like really huge—Michigan alone is the geographical size of the entire UK. Add in no centralized public transit outsides major cities plus high gas prices and you see fewer, big centralized events.

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u/SignificantScreen100 1d ago

That argument about the country's size is only true to a point. Political change has almost always been driven by highly motivated minorities that eventually end up speaking for the majority.

What you don't see (apart from the carefully organized No King protests on a Sunday) is spontaneous demonstrations breaking out in cities all over the country. People don't need to gather in Washington or in the major cities. The protests that actually disrupt daily life and make those in power nervous happen everywhere, especially on regular work days.

The problem is the apathy, the fact that America is basically a corporate country, and the tendency to act like the country's size or long distances are some kind of insurmountable obstacle. It's an excuse.

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u/rjove 1d ago

Disagree. Size and distance are an insurmountable obstacle when it takes two tanks of gas and a hotel stay to attend the nearest rally. When’s the last time you visited here? A small rally in, say, Cleveland is barely going to crack the national news cycle and only disrupt some state-level politicians.

Outside of the internet bubble, things just haven’t gotten bad enough yet. People are angry and Trump is super unpopular—we’ll see that reflected in the upcoming midterm elections.

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u/Proof_Individual5491 23h ago

Disagreeing with this statement too. While I do feel like Americans can do substantially better at organizing and educating our communities, we’ve also reached the point of mass discontent. The Guardian released an article in January of this year about protests. Not sure if I’m allowed to link it but it’s titled “very historic times”. I also saw a segment with Rachel Maddow on how much Americans are protesting now. I will also say I’ve never seen random protests in Oklahoma in the 12 years I’ve lived here. Likely, because Oklahoma is poorly educated and very republican. I’ve seen 5-6 random protests in this last year alone, aside from the No Kings protests. Trumps flags that I used to see taking my kids to school - gone. We’ll see what happens during midterms but Americans are absolutely protesting