President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Sunday, April 19, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

There is a growing protest movement across the country in response to the draconian and blatantly illegal lockdown orders being flung about by various governors and mayors who seem to have forgotten a) how they got in office and b) that there is a Constitution. At RedState, we’ve covered the protests in Michigan (colleagues Betsy Vaughn and T. LaDuke have covered them, see here and here for examples but visit their author page for more) and in California (RedState’s deputy managing editor Jen van Laar has covered this story). These are not isolated.

WATCH: Cars and trucks flood the streets in Denver to protest state orders. pic.twitter.com/4AIO6IYFai

— The Hill (@thehill) April 20, 2020

2,500 People Gathered in Washington State Capitol to Protest Against Stay at Home https://t.co/hkmIv7aP88#Corona #CoronavirusPandemic pic.twitter.com/Z0SEMkTJiW

— headlinecode (@headlinecode_) April 20, 2020

A day after PA recorded its highest CV death toll, an anti-shutdown protest is planned Monday for the Capitol, organized by a gun-rights activist in Ohio, who with two brothers has been behind similar efforts in other states, as WaPo reported over weekend. https://t.co/4wr0ZCN2Sh

— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) April 20, 2020

Yesterday, at the Coronavirus Task Force briefing, fittingly held on the anniversary of the Minutemen’s stand at the ‘rude bridge’ at Concord and ‘firing the shot heard round the world,’ President Trump was asked about the growing protests and he affirmed that they could be justified. (The video is cued up for your convenience.)

(Transcript courtesy of Rev.com)

Speaker 7: (54:14)
Mr. President, thank you very much. If there were groups of people planning to protest tomorrow against the government shutdown, what would be your advice?

Donald Trump: (54:24)
Against the shutdown?

Speaker 7: (54:26)
Well, that they want the shutdown lifted. Should that be okay?

Donald Trump: (54:28)
[crosstalk 00:54:30]. People feel that way. You’re allowed to protest. I mean, they feel that way. I watched the protest, and they were all six feet apart. I bet it was a very orderly group of people, but some have gone too far. Some governors have gone too far. Some of the things that happened are maybe not so appropriate, and I think in the end it’s not going to matter because we’re starting to open up our states. And I think they’re going to open up very well. We’re going to be watching it. We’re going to be watching it very closely. We’re working with them on testing. We’re working with them on whatever they need. I don’t think they need ventilators anymore. I believe the term the governor used was phenomenal. We’ve done a phenomenal job. That was the only sentence they left out, which is okay, but I appreciate that that’s what Governor Cuomo said. These people have done a phenomenal job. As far as protesters, I see protestors for all sorts of things, and I’m with everybody. I’m with everybody. Please in the back, go ahead. In the back, go ahead. You ready? Yeah.

The question, of course, is a profoundly stupid one and I don’t know who asked it but the accent was the same as that of the people who couldn’t quite grasp the right to assembly back in 1775 either. The fact that President Trump acknowledged that some governors have gone full-metal fascist and that protest was a lawful and appropriate response was both courageous and appropriate. Right now, our economy is being trashed and lives are being ruined by a panicked response to a will-o-the-wisp problem. The strategy we are taking guarantees that we will have to go through this again in November/December because we are not taking any of the steps necessary to build the herd immunity necessary to protect the most vulnerable amongst us.

Beyond the medical sideshow, what we are seeing is a very real assault upon Constitutional liberties being carried out by liberal governors, like those in CA and VA and MI (and, at the request of Reality2020 in the comments, NC), using public health as a smokescreen. As I posted a couple of days ago, this is not about your health, this is about your freedom. The same people weeping crocodile tears over grandma possibly dying are the same people who believe a baby can be killed after delivery should the mother have a change of heart while the baby is in the birth canal. They are the same people who will happily employ death panels to involuntarily euthanize the exact same people they are bleating about protecting right now.

We’ve tried what the ‘experts’ said. We’ve gone along with their stupid models. We’ve stood in line to get into stores. We’ve seen friends and families put out of work and had businesses crushed by stupid and illogical diktats from people who would be more at home in Stalinist Russia than in the United States. We’ve just about had enough and President Trump seems to recognize that and that, my friends, is a very good thing.