In the wake of Vice President JD Vance’s ski trip to Sugarbush resort this weekend, the Mad River Valley was transformed into a hotbed of protests against the administration of President Donald Trump.
In the largest planned demonstration Saturday morning, Vermonters and visitors stood along a stretch of Main Street by the Mad River Green in Waitsfield toting protest signs and flags that expressed concerns ranging from the state of democracy to climate change to LGBTQ+ rights.
A stream of vehicles sporting similar signage drove by honking and waving, joining in on the morning rally. Protest organizers estimated the turnout in Waitsfield ranged between 1,000 and 3,000 people.
Ginny Sassaman, a protest organizer from the Indivisible Calais group, said many Vermonters are fearful under the Trump and Vance administration’s policies and she feels “democracy is in peril.” However, Sassaman said protesting is a central form of resisting, along with voting and legal actions.
“Some of us are scared about losing Social Security or Medicaid or parks or having measles epidemics or climate change,” Sassaman said. “We the people are the ones who have to do this work, and that means we have to take advantage of every opportunity we’ve got to come together and build our togetherness and raise our voices as loud as we can.”
‘Nobody’s supposed to be above the law’
Tisa Rennau, a protest organizer from North Fayston with the group Indivisible Mad River Valley, said many Vermonters were outraged to learn Vance was coming to the region to recreate and vacation after the Trump’s administration’s widespread federal funding cuts and worker layoffs in recent weeks.
Rennau added that Trump and Vance’s clash in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday morning undermined America’s position on the international stage and motivated more people to show up that day.
“People are angry, especially after what occurred in the White House yesterday where we absolutely humiliated an ally,” Rennau said. “We are no longer the leader of the free world. What has happened? This is not the America we expect to be.”
Many protesters donning the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag lined the streets, and Rennau held a flower bouquet of the same color scheme herself.
Along with other Indivisible groups around the state, Geri Peterson from 50501, a national decentralized protest movement, joined the coalition of organizers to ensure the safety of everyone, given the large expected turnout.
Katayoun Lam, another 50501 organizer, said the Trump administration’s policies regarding LGBTQ+ rights and immigration motivated her to get involved with the Waitsfield protest.
“As a trans person and as a person of color, I’m extremely concerned about the new policies about trans people. I’m concerned about the ICE raids,” Lam said. “I have friends who are trans. I have friends who are immigrants who’ve been reaching out to me and saying we’re scared.”
Among the Waitsfield protesters was former Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, who carried a handmade sign that read “efficiency, sure, but not carnage, hate and lies.” Zuckerman said the current administration’s stated goal of efficiency has negatively affected farmers’ loan programs and people’s health care and food access.
“I think you have many folks who feel despair in Vermont right now, including myself,” Zuckerman said. “They’re not following the rules, and nobody’s supposed to be above the law.”
Dueling flags
In the neighboring town of Warren, a coinciding protest Saturday morning drew a smaller crowd at the Pitcher Inn, where Vance had originally planned to stay until he canceled those plans.
Many protesters wore kaffiyehs and held pro-Palestinian flags and signs with watermelon imagery, often used as a symbol of Palestinian solidarity, at the rally organized by the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, Cooperation Vermont and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Michelle Eddleman McCormick, an activist with the coalition and Cooperation Vermont, said the protest’s goal was to demand the Trump administration stop funding the Israeli government and instead put money toward “schools and health care and infrastructure here in the U.S. instead of bombing and devastating an entire population in Palestine.”
“We came out here today to make sure that a message is being sent loud and clear from Vermont to Vance and the entire administration, that anything short of a fully free and liberated Palestine is a nonstarter,” McCormick said.
The protest dotted with Palestinian flags outside the Pitcher Inn was met with people holding pro-Trump and Vance signs across the street and cars passing by with American and “Make America Great Again” flags.
Gregory Thayer, a recent Republican candidate for lieutenant governor from Rutland City, called the counter-protesting group he helped organize “a positive support rally.”
“We support him and President Trump’s mission and what they’re trying to do for the country,” Thayer said. “We’re really excited about the amount of people here. We have farmers. We have business people, truck drivers and working people. This is working Vermonters.”
Meanwhile on the mountain
Later that morning, two protesters stood outside the Sugarbush resort’s main entrance as a pro-Trump and Vance motorcade circled the Sugarbush parking lot. Heated exchanges of yelling and vulgar language erupted between the two factions.
A handful of protesters also perched by a lift where Vance was rumored to be skiing. Montpelier resident Dan Vidali said he decided to demonstrate at Sugarbush resort because it is important to protest “where the people in power are.”
“Every day, the Trump-Vance administration is putting Vermonters at risk and hurting Vermonters. He’s also hurting everyone in this country, and he’s hurting our allies like Ukraine. He’s hurting people around the world,” Vidali said. “We’re here to say that we reject that in Vermont.”
Besides the sprinkling of protesters on the mountain, the ski resort appeared to operate as normal, and the central lifts and lodges remained open Saturday during Vance’s visit. Sugarbush Resort did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Read the story on VTDigger here: More than a thousand people protest Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Vermont.