Shannon Watts on Standing Up and Fighting Back Against Trump
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From Tucker Carlson to Marjorie Taylor Greene and everybody in between, you have a whole group of pissed off MAGAs who can't believe what Donald Trump is doing on a whole series of issues, but they should believe it because it was pretty obvious what a destructive dictatorial force he is, whether they're pissed about him for warmongering in the Middle East, whether they are pissed at him for targeting their families like the

Latinos for Trump. Donald Trump has taken a wrecking ball to the country. MAGA Republicans are on Medicaid. MAGA Republicans rely on the Affordable Care Act and Medicare. And they're having lots of programs that are ripped from them as well. It's almost like...

They thought this was all one big game, that this was some sort of, I don't know, MAGA cosplay role play thing until it started impacting their lives. And, you know, I'm not fully convinced that a lot of them still get it. But you see people expressing the following online like Rudy Jab. The main reason I voted for Trump is this. I don't want to see any more bloodshed. He's betrayed the vast majority of his voter base.

And then this individual aggregated all of Trump's posts from the past, saying, in order to get elected, Obama will start a war with Iran. Obama will attack Iran in order to get reelected. I predict Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face. Remember that I predicted a long time ago that Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly, not skilled.

We got posts like this from this guy, Philip Anderson, where on October 8th, 2024, he writes, Donald Trump is literally right about everything. On June 15th, 2025, he posts, Donald Trump has completely failed us. You got Donald Trump attacking Tucker Carlson as kooky for Tucker Carlson saying that we shouldn't send American troops to war in Iran. You've got

MAGA influencers like Texas Patriot saying, "F it, if Trump takes us to war, I'm done with this administration. I voted for no wars, cheap gases, no taxes, cheap groceries, making America healthy again." I'm not sure RFK Jr. is your guy for that though.

CBS News did a report this week about how the cuts to FEMA storm prep program are impacting red states and Trump voters the most. It focused particularly on the destruction that could be caused to states like Florida and Louisiana if they're hit by hurricanes based on what Trump is doing. You've got Pennsylvania.

people posting. I mean, there are tens of thousands of more than that post. Kenneth Rinkle, it's sad. I voted for Trump for the term for the third time, thought he'd help with the price of gas, price of groceries, utility. But here in John Cornyn's district, things are higher than when Biden was president. WTF. Wisconsin dairy farmers are suing the Trump administration for discrimination against white farmers. They're saying Trump's discriminating white farmers based

based on his policies. And I just wonder, as I share all those examples with you, how people

so easily kind of lost their agency and allowed this wannabe dictator to impose their will lie about everything. And now they act all surprised and shocked. And don't get me started. I've done so many videos on the Cubans and Latinos and Venezuelans for Trump and all of that. I want to bring in right now, Shannon Watts.

Shannon Watts is out with a new incredible book. The pub date is today. It's called Fired Up. I'm Fired Up. How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age. And, you know, I think about, Shannon, the No Kings protest this weekend also, where there were lots of people who may not have even been voters, people who were on the sidelines, and they showed up. So I want to talk about that. But I also want to talk about people who just kind of go through their life

not expressing themselves and not expressing their opinions on issues and things. And then they find themselves slowly but surely being pulled in a rabbit hole where they can't get out of it. So first off, congrats on the book. Everybody, of course, knows you from Moms Demand Action, the largest group against gun violence, grassroots organization. So talk to us about why you wrote this book and I think how it meets the moment.

Well, you know, you were just explaining and describing someone who was exactly who I was, right, for 41 years. I was not very politically active. And so when the mass shooting happened at Sandy Hook School,

I'm not sure anyone would have looked to me as the leader. I was a stay-at-home mom with five kids. I have severe ADHD. I had a debilitating fear of public speaking. You know, not exactly the person someone would point to and say, oh yeah, that woman over there, she can lead an organization against the most powerful, wealthy, special interest that's ever existed. And yet that's exactly what I ended up doing, right? Because I was able to

And this is what my book is about, mirroring my values, my abilities, and my desires and figure out what do I have to meet this moment? What do I have to offer and to bring to the table? And look,

Given where we are in this country, I think you just laid it out very clearly. No one can afford to stay on the sidelines. No one. And you may not think of yourself as someone who is a gifted activist or someone who is politically motivated, but we all have to be right. Democracy is sort of like a sick child. When your kid is sick in the middle of the night and throwing up and you're exhausted, you don't say, you know, good luck with this. I'll see you in the morning. You hold their hand until they're better.

And I think democracy is the same way. And so what I really wanted to create is a manual for how do you figure out who you are and what you have to bring to the table personally, politically, professionally. And then how do you endure the blowback that you're going to get during that experience?

Probably not like me, you won't receive threats of death and sexual violence, hopefully. But you know, you will have people, when you decide to pursue something you're passionate about, make snarky comments to you, maybe in the pickup line of your kid's school. How do you endure that?

And then how do you use this to find your people? And I'm sure you've talked about this quite a bit, which is community and the importance of having conversations right now. It's not enough to knock doors a month out from an election. We need to be having conversations with our neighbors and within our community between now and the midterm elections and beyond. You know, you take a look at an issue like common sense gun reform, and if you were to poll Americans,

65, 75 percent of people are in support of actually more. Right. And then you look across the board at a lot of these very, you know, the issues that are portrayed as being controversial. They actually have overwhelming support. But what happens is a and this is what happens in dictatorships across the world where you have a small group of.

of zealots are controlling the framing, the dialogue, the discussion. They're shaming people 'cause they're relentless with their attacks and it kind of pushes the 65, 70 or even up to 80% away. And so community is so important. So what do you do? So what's your suggestion? How does someone right now watching this say, I need to get, I wanna do something. How do they start?

Well, the first thing you need to do is figure out who you are, right? What are your abilities? What do you have to bring to the table? The skill set that I had when I started Moms Demand Actions was that I was a communicator. I had been in the corporate world in public relations for years. And so I knew how to build a brand. I knew how to tell a story. But so many other women across the country brought their skills, too, whether they were website developers or bloggers.

organizers or lawyers, all of them mattered and they made a difference. So figure out what your abilities are. And if you don't know what they are, and I have all these exercises in the book to help figure it out, ask someone to tell you.

And if you don't have the skills that you want, you can go acquire those. The other thing is, what are your values? You know, they will change throughout your life. When I started Moms Do In Action, I was a 41-year-old mom of young kids. And so my values were very much about protecting my family and my community. Now that I'm an empty nester, it's more about wisdom and passing on what I know to other people. And then what are your desires? You know, I really wanted to stand up to the most powerful, wealthy, special interests that's ever existed with a badass army of women.

And so that's what I set out to create. But those things are not going to be for everyone. So figure out what is the niche that you want to fill. And again, that's really what my book is all about. But then start to take those steps forward.

You don't have to start an organization. You can join an organization. You can create something in your neighborhood or your community. Use your voice and your vote. There's a political scientist who talks about how you really just need 3.5% of the population to rise up to effect real change. We have that. We saw that at the rallies over the weekend. We know that this is going to matter and make a difference, but we have to keep this momentum going. So what does that look like?

It looks like joining organizations that exist, starting with what you know where you are right now, doesn't have to be perfect. The last thing I will say is what I've seen in activism and probably in life is that people are frustrated by incrementalism. It's kind of a dirty word, especially among young activists. And I get it. I wish the system was set up for overnight wholesale change. It's not. So be patient and understand you're playing a long game. It truly is incrementalism that leads to revolutions.

So finally, what do you say, though, to someone who may be trapped in a situation that they don't like? Not just the person who's not motivated, but someone whose family may be kind of deeply MAGA and they know deep in their heart that that's not who they are. But they think, oh, well, my neighbor's like that or my husband's like that or my parents are like that. And how do I...

gracefully exit that without disrupting the family unit? Or how does someone navigate that? Well, I'm glad you brought that up. So I would say two things. First of all, what you said earlier is absolutely true. There's all these issues that we think are polarizing because, frankly, extremists want us to believe they're polarizing. Something like 70 to 90 percent of all American support backers

background checks on all gun sales, depending on whether there's been a recent shooting tragedy. That's a huge amount of Americans and that many Americans don't agree on much, right? So gun violence prevention is not polarizing. It's that we have these extremist lawmakers and they have a base of extremist voters

who have really held sway over these conversations for decades. And so when we start to use our voices and our votes, you will see change. You know, I would use a state like Virginia as an example. I thought there was no chance in hell that that would become a blue state that would pass over a dozen gun safety laws by 2020. And that's actually exactly what happened. We spent years

laying the foundation to flip all chambers of the General Assembly. We outspent the NRA in their own backyard. We created relationships with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. So by the time that we had a gun sense majority, we could go in and immediately pass all those laws, and they have not been undone by the subsequent Republican governor. So again, incrementalism, it saves the day. And the other thing I would say is,

What I have witnessed over and over again through Moms Demand Action is that when you come to conversations with data and anecdotes, and you're willing to have those tough conversations, you can change hearts and minds, not necessarily of extremists, but of most Americans who live in the middle. You know, my father and his wife, my stepmother, are Trump supporters. I'm pretty sure they voted for Donald Trump both times.

And yet my dad shows up at Moms Demand Action events wearing his Moms Demand Action shirt, not just because he supports me, but because of all the conversations we have have convinced him that this is really part of his agenda too. And so I'm not saying that that's always possible, but I do think it's worth trying. Yeah. You know, it reminds me of when I spoke to

A lot of governors in red states and I go and ask them and I said, well, you know, how is it that you are able to, you know, advocate for LGBTQ rights and a lot of and still win in red states? And I frequently hear from these governors because I'm passionate about it, because I feel these things. And I let people know that I'm passionate about it. And when people see that I really feel this way and I'm fighting for it, they respect that I'm a fighter and I don't hedge anything.

And I don't throw, you know, I don't flip flop when it comes to kind of core values and principles. This is who I am and I'm proud about it. And I thought that was important learning as well. I want everybody to go and check out your book right now, especially, you know, in as these protests continue to grow. I think it's also kind of the perfect timing for Fired Up to be released. The book's called Fired Up, How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age by Shannon Watts. Shannon, thank you so much.

Thank you. Everybody hit subscribe and let's get to 5 million subscribers.

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