MOBILE, Ala. — Two very different crowds gathered at the University of South Alabama on Friday. As thousands of supporters lined up to see President Donald Trump, a Mitchell Center protest drew roughly 200 demonstrators, most of them students, who marched across campus to voice their opposition to the president and to the university’s decision to host his midterm rally.
The demonstration began around 1:30 p.m., hours before Trump was scheduled to speak at 6 p.m., and the two groups at times stood just yards apart. Both said they came to make sure their voices were part of the conversation surrounding the president’s return to the Port City.
Students Lead the Demonstration
Madison Rolader, a junior and president of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, said she and others organized the protest because they were disgusted that Trump was welcomed to the school. She also condemned University of South Alabama President Jo Bonner.
Rolader said the goal was to show that Trump stands for the “billionaire class” rather than ordinary people.
“We want to show them that we, the people, are tired,” Rolader said. “We’re angry, and we’re not going to have this. We’re upset.”
“We are begging people in Congress to impeach him to do something about the ruins of checks and balance in our government system right now, and they’re not,” she continued. “So it’s our it’s our job as the people to use our voice before it’s too late and use it all together.”
Earlier in the day, Rolader described the protest’s aim in regional terms. “Our goal for this protest is to show the president that he is not liked, even in the Deep South,” she said. “We’re tired of not being able to afford gas, groceries or healthcare, and we want a system that works to support us and not the billionaire agenda.”
Elijah Splitt, 22, a graduate student at the university who said he was a member of the Revolutionary Party for Socialism and Liberation, said many students were frustrated with the administration.
“We have a bunch of students who are very upset, who are very agitated, who are angry that the university administration would allow the Republicans to hold their midterm rally here and to also invite the president of the United States,” Splitt said. He called the event “a last-ditch effort” by Trump to “boost morale amongst Republican voters.”
A March Across Campus
The demonstrators marched across campus chanting slogans including “no Trump, no KKK, no fascists in the USA,” then stopped a few yards from the line of Trump supporters waiting to enter the arena. Protesters called Trump a felon and a “war criminal,” and several people in the line shouted back at the students.
Maura Mandyck, an organizer with Indivisible Mobile, which held its own rally at the university, praised the young people for standing up against the president.
“Those who will gather in the Mitchell Center tonight, the con men, the crooks, the enablers, and the blind followers, they know in their racist old bones that their time is coming to an end,” Mandyck said. “It is our time now. Even more so, it is your time now.”
Longtime Residents Join In
Not all of the demonstrators were students. Jim Burt said he had never seen anything like the current political moment.
“No other election, presidential thing have I ever experienced anything like this. Ever,” Burt said. “We weren’t really into any of the politics until this MAGA movement came about and we just don’t believe in that. We believe in the truth and we’re just not getting that from the White House or anyone in his administration.”
His wife, Erin Burt, said her view of the president was settled. “At this point, there’s nothing he can do to make me say, ‘I’m proud of this person and he’s doing the job he should be doing,’” she said. “He is not doing the job this office is telling him to do, and he’s not doing anything for the people. So, no, there is nothing he can do to make me happy.”
Steve Christensen said he had no quarrel with the people heading inside.
“I have nothing against any of our brothers and sisters going to see this whatsoever, and I’m not out there yelling and screaming at anybody,” Christensen said. “I would like to make it known, though, this is truly insane what we’re experiencing right now in this country. And, we’re being led by people who are not in control of the facts and maybe their own mind.”
Mobile resident Labecca Pardue was blunter. “We don’t want Donald Trump in our city. We don’t want him as our president. We don’t want him in our country at all,” she said.
Frye Gaillard, a former South Alabama faculty member, struck a more measured tone. “I wish he weren’t here, but he has a right to be here,” he said.
Supporters Line Up Early
On the other side of the barricades, the mood was celebratory. The event was free but required an RSVP, and some supporters drove five hours to get in line by 3 a.m. By midmorning, about 200 people had already gathered outside the Mitchell Center, many in red, white and blue and Trump gear, despite a forecast calling for a soggy weekend across southwest Alabama.
Patricia Hamman, a real estate agent from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, wore a blue sash to mark her 59th birthday. She said high interest rates were making it hard to sell houses but that she still supports the president. “I knew my only chance to see President Trump would be today,” she said. “It’s a lifelong dream to see him.”
Clifton Jay also crossed the state line. “As a small town kid from Hurley, Mississippi, I thought it was pretty cool he’d come down here. I like to think of it as the smaller people, I guess,” he said.
Kay Day said she hoped Trump would energize turnout. “I want to hear him motivate the people of Mobile, Alabama and the other counties to get out and vote,” she said. “He’s got to get them motivated and he’s the guy that can do it. I’m telling you.”
Angie Goudreault said she wanted midterm voters to back the president’s agenda. “We believe in the American first agenda and President Trump, what he’s trying to do and we want the midterm voters to turn out so we can codify the executive orders that he’s made,” she said.
Cindy Miller of Semmes, attending her first Trump rally, said she has been urging friends to vote Republican. “Our country is going to go downhill if we don’t all vote Republican,” she said.
Cyndi Lou Jordan had a message for critics. “He has a lot of supporters in Mobile, Alabama,” she said. “I want to hear what he has to say. And for those who don’t wanna hear, stay home, but don’t criticize the ones of us that want to support him.”
Prices on Supporters’ Minds
Several supporters acknowledged higher costs but said they had not shaken their loyalty. Ty Smith, a South Alabama senior from Illinois, called the rally a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to be close to the president.
“Yeah man, it gets a little tough sometimes, especially being a student. But you know you got to kind of put your head down sometimes and just kind of keep going. I feel like that’s kind of the American way to go about it,” Smith said.
Kay Wilson of Elkmont said she did not blame Trump for gas prices. “I think the high gas prices is a Democrat thing, and I think that once the elections over with, they’re going to bottom out,” she said.
Scott Carpenter, 64, of Citronelle, said record diesel prices were weighing on friends who still back the president. “They love Donald Trump. They just want the diesel price to come down,” he said.
Jones Supporters Gather Elsewhere
Democrats also organized events away from campus. Supporters of Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee for governor, held a rally on Bayou Street in Mobile from 3 to 4 p.m., and Jones held a town hall across the bay in Baldwin County during Trump’s speech. “It’s just hard having him here,” one Jones supporter said of the president.
Security Concerns Before the Visit
Ahead of the rally, the university confirmed that three students had been arrested and charged with making threats against the president in social media posts, according to federal court records. Court records indicate the alleged threats were made separately and were not linked. The students are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
What Comes Next
The dueling scenes outside the Mitchell Center reflected the stakes of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when Alabama voters will choose a new governor, a U.S. senator and members of Congress. Organizers on both sides said the goal now is turning Friday’s energy into votes. Residents who want to take part can check their registration status and polling place through the Alabama Secretary of State’s office before Election Day.
Update: Organized Groups and Socialist Messaging at the Protest
Additional accounts of the demonstration indicate that established activist organizations played a significant role alongside students. Organizers and speakers affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Young Democratic Socialists of America and Indivisible Mobile took part, and groups brought prepared signs, sound equipment, radios and other materials, with several professionally printed signs carrying PSL branding.
Several speakers framed their opposition in broader economic terms. “The problem at its core is not simply Trump or the Republican Party,” said a PSL-affiliated organizer identified as Elijah, who also criticized university administrators. Another speaker told the crowd, “Trump is a symptom of a larger disease. That disease is capitalism, and the only cure to that disease is socialism.”
A speaker affiliated with Indivisible Mobile described Trump as “the monster we have been building for decades,” and said of rally attendees, “They know in their racist old bones that their time is coming to an end. It is our time now.” James Lawrence III, treasurer of USA’s Student Government Association, led the crowd in the chant, “Up up with liberation! Down down with deportation!” A drag performer who goes by Diana Carcrash was among the other speakers.
Signs visible at the protest included “End all police,” “Stop ICE terror now,” “Power to the workers, not the billionaires,” “Full rights for all immigrants,” and messages calling for an end to the U.S. embargo of Cuba and for Trump to keep his “hands off Cuba and Venezuela.” One PSL speaker noted that activists had walked out on campus last semester and said, “We’ll do it again,” while another organizer alleged that roughly $3.8 trillion had been “stolen from the American working class” over the previous two years.
