Kamala Harris Condemns Trump’s Agenda in First Major Post-Office Speech: “Courage Is Contagious”

 San Francisco, May 1, 2025 — In her first major public address since leaving office, former Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a forceful critique of Donald Trump’s return to power, warning that his administration represents a “wholesale abandonment of America’s highest ideals.”

Speaking at the 20th anniversary gala of Emerge America at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Harris used the keynote platform to launch a blistering assessment of the president’s first 100 days in office, accusing him of deliberately sowing division, fear, and authoritarianism.

“This is not random chaos,” Harris told an audience of Democratic leaders, donors, and elected officials. “What we are, in fact, witnessing is a vessel being used for the swift implementation of an agenda that has been decades in the making.”

The event marked a poignant return to the political stage for Harris, whose 2003 campaign for San Francisco district attorney helped inspire the founding of Emerge America, an organization dedicated to training Democratic women to run for office. Since her defeat in last November’s presidential election, Harris has maintained a low profile, splitting her time between Los Angeles and Washington as she considers her political future — including a potential gubernatorial run in California next year or a presidential bid in 2028.

A Strategic Reemergence

Wednesday's address offered Harris the opportunity to reassert herself as a key Democratic voice, just as Trump’s second term has begun to trigger alarm among progressives. With the audience including top Democratic figures such as California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis and former Congresswoman Katie Porter — both contenders in the 2026 governor’s race — Harris emphasized the importance of civic resilience and institutional resistance.

She praised the role of Congress, the judiciary, academia, and grassroots activists in resisting what she described as Trump’s “high-velocity” push toward autocracy. “They are counting on the idea that fear will silence us,” she said. “But they’ve forgotten — courage is contagious.”

A Broader Warning

Harris’s remarks referenced the conservative policy framework Project 2025, which she suggested is being used as a roadmap for reshaping government institutions and eliminating long-standing protections for civil rights and social equity.

She cited Trump’s rollback of diversity and inclusion initiatives, his aggressive federal downsizing, and his “reckless” tariffs as elements of a broader ideological project. “Let us not be fooled into believing this is just chaos,” she said. “This is calculated.”

While Harris largely avoided personal grievances, her comments came one day after her husband, Doug Emhoff, and other former Biden administration officials were dismissed from the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The dismissal followed public tensions between the White House and Emhoff’s law firm, which recently reached a compromise with the administration to avoid an executive order targeting its operations. Emhoff was present at the event, and Harris appeared to allude to the controversy, saying, “We are seeing those that are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats.”

Moments of Resolve and Reflection

Despite the dire tone of much of her address, Harris struck an optimistic note in closing. She referenced a viral video from earlier this month in which a group of elephants at the San Diego Zoo instinctively formed a protective circle around their young during an earthquake. Harris framed the moment as a powerful metaphor for collective resistance.

“The lesson is: don’t scatter,” she said. “Stand together. Protect one another. Lock it in.”

The response from attendees was enthusiastic. “She was on fire,” said John Glass, a longtime Democratic donor. “I thought it was going to be a standard speech — it wasn’t. She sounded like the Kamala we’ve been waiting for.”

Others echoed the sentiment. “It was good to see her reclaim her voice,” said Jennifer Wise, speaking with fellow attendee Carol Horton. “Whether she runs for governor or president again, tonight showed she still has the fire.”

A campaign for California governor in 2026 would offer Harris a high-profile platform to challenge Trump’s agenda from the nation’s most populous and deeply Democratic state. A decision on her next political move is expected by the end of the summer.