By Greta Solsaa/VTDigger
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 Trump administration.
In the largest planned demonstration Saturday morning, March 1, 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.
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.” 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 administration’s widespread federal funding cuts and worker layoffs.
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.”
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.”
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. Michelle Eddleman McCormick, an activist with the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation 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.”
Montpelier resident Dan Vidali said, “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,” he said. “We’re here to say that we reject that in Vt.”
A man forced a protester out of the way of a truck with Trump and JD Vance flags after it was momentarily stopped by the protester standing in the way in Waitsfield on March 1.
Signs made their way to the slopes, too.
Kate (left) and Anna Meli (right) held signs at the base of the Sugarbush Ski Resort.
