The anti-Trump movement has taken some new turns. As life gets grimmer, some of Donald Trumpʻs critics are getting funnier with protest signs that portray the president and Elon Musk as fools.

Another more serious type of symbolic protest is also emerging: individuals speaking out in places where political criticism is often considered inappropriate.

The resolute critics — acting alone — say they are compelled to denounce Trump and Musk’s sometimes gleeful elimination of American citizensʻ protections, benefits and jobs.

Public and individual outcries are not enough to broaden the coalitions the Democratic Party needs to sweep future elections. Nor are they enough to reform the party to again be perceived as steadfastly fighting corruption and always going to bat for the working class.

But stirring people to wake up to the consequences of Trumpmania serves as an important first step in the Democrats’ fight ahead to halt the president’s excesses.

The Humorous Route

First, the use of humor as a political weapon. I have written before about Trump’s thin-skinned aversion to jokes mocking him. He takes himself very seriously. Who else could say with a straight face during an inaugural speech: “I was saved by God to make America great again.” For real?

Humor is the best way to shake down a bully like Donald Trump, I wrote in a column in 2016. Like many other bullies, he unravels in the face of ridicule.

Trump hasnʻt changed since I wrote that. If anything, he has become more emboldened as he bullies private law firms and elite universities he perceives as his enemies.

Humor and poking fun were rampant at the Hands Off demonstration at the Hawaii State Capitol on Saturday, expressed in handpainted signs — many of them goofy — waved to the beat of thundering drums and clanging cymbals in the afternoon’s picnic-like atmosphere.

Not all the signs were unserious, but plenty mocked Trumpʻs lying and cruelty. Also, Muskʻs lack of compassion for the human cost to thousands of government workers his group fired for no cause.

One of my favorite anti-Musk signs read: “Grab Him by the Tesla-cles.” Another favorite was my friend Lee Coulliard’s sign of a painted lion with a Trump face that read, “The Lying King.”

The Hands Off demonstration was part of a public outcry on the same day in almost every state. A group called Indivisible Hawaii was one of the sponsors here.

Leader Lisa Gibson said about 3,000 people showed up — twice the number that she said came to the groupʻs protest in February.

Critics are joining protests in larger numbers now as Trumpʻs budget cuts hit closer to home, impacting their friends, neighbors and relatives while Congress hovers in the background, too paralyzed to act.

“We cannot be intimidated. We have to stand up for what we believe,” said Gibson.

Getting In ‘Good Trouble’

Others who are standing up to criticize are speaking out on their own without the support of like-minded crowds. They are acting in unexpected ways in places where political protesting is rarely seen. That is what makes their statements so attention-grabbing and stunning.

They are doing what the late Congressman John Lewis encouraged in his famous call to action: “Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”

I saw an individual get in good trouble at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in the Punchbowl Crater on March 28, where he was serving as master of ceremonies at a Vietnam War Veterans Day Ceremony attended by veterans, the mayor and the generals and admirals of the military’s top brass in the Pacific.

Honolulu attorney and Vietnam veteran Tom Stirling finished his duties as emcee. Then he stepped a foot away from the podium, microphone in hand, to blast Musk and Trump for getting ready to fire tens of thousands of Department of Veterans Affairs employees.

Stirling, now a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, said it’s one thing for the government to honor veterans with proclamations and annual memorial services, but another to imperil the delivery of medical and other services they earned and need.

It’s happening as aging veterans live longer and already struggle with VA staffing shortages to get the health care they depend on, he said.

Two elderly Vietnam veterans stood up to shout their support, but many others in the audience appeared surprised, sitting stiff and silent as Stirling went on about the governmentʻs obligation to care for men and women warriors, many of whom have faced mortal danger to serve their country.

Normally, it is considered bad form to make politically partisan statements during ceremonies at a national veterans’ cemetery.

But these are not normal times.

Stirling told me afterward he would have felt worse if he hadnʻt spoken out against what he feels is reprehensible.

The time for sitting back is over. After all, what is happening now could damage the United States for decades.