A word to the anti-Trump protesters and their media enablers

By Peter Wolfgang ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 07, 2025

On Wednesday, March 19th over 2,500 Connecticut pro-lifers gathered at the state Capitol in Hartford to call for an end to abortion in our state. My organization, Family Institute of Connecticut, was one of the co-hosts and I was one of the speakers. As far as mainstream media goes, this year’s Connecticut March for Life was covered by News Channel 8, the Hartford Courant, and pretty much no one else.

On Saturday April 5th the “Hands Off” rallies—protesting President Trump and Elon Musk—were held at multiple locations across the country. Pretty much every local mainstream media outlet covered the ones here in Connecticut.

The CT March for Life not being covered by two outlets in particular, Hearst Media and CT Mirror, was a big deal. Hearst owns ten of Connecticut’s fifteen daily newspapers. CT Mirror’s articles are frequently used as a local wire service—like the Associated Press—when newspapers can’t send a reporter to an event. So, the absence of these two outlets (and the AP, for that matter) amounted to a news blackout of the CT March for Life.

But again, the anti-Trumpers this past weekend did not have that problem. Here is CT Mirror describing the Connecticut contingent:

Each protester seemed to bring their own special grievance or collection of overlapping grievances with the president, ranging from his gutting of USAID and abandonment of international relief to his hostility aimed at transgender athletes and service members.

Only the Hartford Courant allowed the CT GOP and the Connecticut Catholic Conference to respond. Neither CT Mirror nor Hearst’s online site, CTInsider, bothered to quote anyone on the other side. Apparently, that’s not a thing in journalism anymore.

This is a pattern Connecticut’s Catholics and Evangelicals have seen from both Hearst and CT Mirror all this year, as we fight multiple battles at the state capitol against abortion and transgenderism. The reporting from these two outlets reads like press releases from transgender activists and an opposing point of view is usually left out of the story altogether. In the case of Hearst, the reporting is usually by a person who identifies as “they.” In the case of the Mirror’s reporting, we are frequently reminded of this:

The Connecticut Mirror is subsidized by an organization with family ties to the world’s only transgender billionaire [Jennifer Pritzker] who, through their foundation, donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote pride month in the U.S. and to increase emphasis in media on trans/queer individuals.

Our crowd at the CT March for Life were young, vibrant, and not paid to be there. The anti-Trump rallies, even in media reports friendly to them, came across a bit differently. Here again is the Mirror:

Dr. Neal Testerman, a 95-year-old retired pathologist from Hartford Hospital, looked up at Chapdelaine from a wheelchair, a colorful crocheted blanket on his lap. He held a sign: “Born in 1929. I vote.” He was accompanied by his 74-year-old daughter, Sherrell, a retired public health nurse.

“Chapdelaine, a musician, composer and record producer with a side gig as a leader of Indivisible, said the events were a therapeutic outcry, a rallying point for future organization and political mobilization ahead of the municipal and midterm elections, and a jab at the congressional Republicans standing with the president.

“All across the country people are stepping up and sending a clear message,” he said. “The hope is that this is ultimately going to drive Republicans across this country to finally step up and grow a spine, and to make a decision to push back on what we’re seeing against the president.”

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, too, pleaded with Republicans to turn on Trump:

“We need Republicans,” Tong said. “We need Republicans here in Hartford and across the state of Connecticut. To my Republican friends…Stand up to this president and fight for Connecticut.”

It’s an interesting point made by AG Tong and Mr. Chapdelaine. Faithful Catholics, of course, will never side with the anti-Trumpers when it comes to the killing of the unborn and the madness of gender ideology. But what about the rest? Reasonable people can and do disagree about various other Trump policies, those that are within the realm of prudential judgment. And yet there is no second wave of NeverTrumpers joining the crowd that jumped ship years ago. Why?

I will hazard a guess, especially for those of us who are Catholic. For starters, two words: Joe Biden. That is why 2025 is not 2017. Those four years happened. That was not a fever dream. We all lived through that. We all experienced it. Whatever assumption of good faith might have been extended to your arguments against this or that Trump policy, there is going to be a heck of a lot less of it this time around.

When protesters complain about various Trump appointees, how can our memories not turn to Rachel Levine, Biden’s HHS assistant secretary who thought he was a woman, or Sam Brinton, Biden’s “non-binary” nuclear waste official who was arrested for stealing luggage at the airport? When we are told Trump is the authoritarian one, how can we not recall Biden’s FBI sending a SWAT team to raid the home of pro-lifer Mark Houck in the early morning hours, the elderly pro-lifers persecuted by Biden’s DOJ and given disproportionate jail sentences, the parents objecting to porn at board of education meetings being disparaged by the Biden Administration as “domestic terrorists,” the Biden FBI’s “Richmond Memo” calling for surveillance of Latin Mass Catholics, the Biden FBI slow-walking the investigation of attacks on Catholic churches and pregnancy centers, the claim that Biden himself was “sharp as a tack,” and on and on?

But also how “the experts” lied to us about the origins of Covid. And the benefits of DEI. How they told us we could not have a funeral for our loved ones during the pandemic but we could attend a BLM rally. How they lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop and perpetuated the Russia Collusion Hoax.

Those last two were media scandals. As I have outlined above, the media is not doing any better since then. They are only getting worse.

Some free advice for anti-Trumpers who say they want to reach across the aisle. Start by looking in the mirror and asking yourself, “What’s so wrong with me that I drove them to Trump?”

Peter Wolfgang is president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, a Hartford-based advocacy organization whose mission is to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society. His work has appeared in The Hartford Courant, the Waterbury Republican-American, Crisis Magazine, Columbia Magazine, the National Catholic Register, CatholicVote, Catholic World Report, the Stream and Ethika Politika. He lives in Waterbury, Conn., with his wife and their seven children. The views expressed on Catholic Culture are solely his own. See full bio.

Show 3 Comments? (Hidden)Hide Comments

• Posted by: royfwilliams37401 - Apr. 13, 2025 12:43 PM ET USA

  So true! The main steeam media rarely if ever provides a contrasting view. As I think it was Ben Franklin who said, Telling only half the truth can be the same thing as lying

• Posted by: philtech2465 - Apr. 09, 2025 12:44 PM ET USA

  Rather than focusing on hardcore never-Trumpers, a better question is "why didn't the Nikki Haley primary voters, many of whom voted after Trump cinched the nomination, not vote for Harris in 2024?" The answer is simple: Kamala Harris, like Biden before her, gave those voters nothing to vote for, except being "not Trump". That was not enough. Harris turned down multiple opportunities to "reach across the aisle." Harris, not the rank and file never Trumpers, drove Nikki Haley voters away.

• Posted by: ewaughok - Apr. 07, 2025 5:50 PM ET USA

  Thank you, Mr. Wolf King for an insightful post. But, what you’re asking from these Democrats and never-Trumpers is something that is very difficult for those on the left: self-awareness! The Doctor Who is mentioned with his nurse, daughter, provides an example that intelligence is not sufficient for self awareness. To know oneself, is not an act of intelligence, but of wisdom. Since they lack this virtue, when they look in the mirror and ask the question, they can answer only: **Nothing**.