Earlier this month, the so-called Ides of Trump—organized by two friends from California—sent upwards of one million postcards to U.S. President Donald Trump.
In another two weeks, it’ll be “Round 2: The Taxing of Ryan,” which is aiming to send even more postcards to Paul Ryan, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
In fact, according to organizers Ted Sullivan and Zack Kushner, a new campaign—and a new mail recipient—will be named every month.
“We will not mail to media representatives or people we wish to thank because receiving a million postcards isn’t a gift — it’s a hassle at best. We encourage you to thank people who are supporting the resistance individually and not in a flood,” reads the organizers’ website. “We will not mail to the spouses or children of politicians because they did not run for office, and we are not comfortable assuming spouses and children necessarily agree with their partners or parents. Plus, making someone’s spouse or child uncomfortable is not a productive or civil way to accomplish anything.”
Sullivan and Kushner asked opponents of Trump and his policies to mail postcards to the White House on March 15, which is recognized on the Roman calendar as the Ides of March—the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar.
“Our goal is bring about change. We will ask where we can best apply pressure and act accordingly.”
CALIFORNIA WRITERS
Sullivan and Kushner said the inspiration for their postcard campaigns came from seeing the various protest signs at the Women’s March on Washington this January.
“This is about protesting with humour and sarcasm,” Sullivan told the Huffington Post. “We’re both writers, so we thought it was particularly inspiring, and he said, ‘I wish we could mail them to Trump.'”
The Ides of Trump website previously stated the campaign’s goal was to inform the president “he’s fired!”
And @TheIdesOfTrump is looking forward to a big rally in your mailbox @realDonaldTrump! This is just ONE protest party! #resist pic.twitter.com/rw08yLW9EF
— The Ides of Trump (@TheIdesOfTrump) March 15, 2017
HOW MANY CARDS?
The organizers’ stated aim was to “activate an action group of international, committed, passionate resisters” and “motivate them to flood the White House with postcards.”
“In both goals we were successful beyond our wildest dreams,” reads the website.
‘The Taxing of Ryan’ is slated to take place April 17.
“The White House is under no obligation to release any data to the public concerning mail to the President. Some people have taken photographs of their cards and posted them to social media in a way that we can roughly track — but only roughly, as many people posted photos of tens or hundreds of cards, only some of which they reported accurate counts on.”
“Many others sent us private messages asking to be counted in the final tally as they could not for various reasons share their images or names publically. Speaking frankly, we also were far from having the people power to keep an accurate log, which would have involved creating a database and confirming against duplicate entries across social media channels, etc.”
They estimate anywhere from 97,000 to one million postcards were sent to President Trump on March 15.
TAXING OF RYAN
On April 17, organizers are asking people to mail postcards to the Janesville, Wisc., office of Ryan to express “our vast disappointment in him.”
“Ryan’s craven collapse before the dodgy, dangerous policy initiatives of the new president will not stand. This looming, grinning, morally-bankrupt billboard for Ayn Rand has sold out our country to goons, special interests, and con-artists,” reads the organizers’ website.
The only rule stated by organizers is “no violence, threats of violence, or insinuations of violence.”
“This is about being heard, via postcards, and the only threat we’re making is that we’re going to vote, and donate, and never stop resisting.”